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“Why can’t I be MVP?” That was the question Derrick Rose asked last off-season and even the biggest Chicago Bulls fans chuckled and thought to themselves, “Not yet young fella, give it time.” Rose apparently knew something that we didn’t and at the end of the season, he will most likely become the youngest player to ever win the award. And while he won’t be the fastest player to win the award (Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld both won the award in their rookie year) it is still an amazing feat when you think of all the talent in the NBA this season. And with all of that talent and arguably the best NBA season we’ve had in 10 seasons, there is plenty of debate on who deserves the Most Valuable Player award.

For my MVP pick I go with what most people do, a combination of best player, team success, and how losing that player would effect the team. With those criteria I firmly believe that you can narrow it down to three players in LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Derrick Rose. A very solid case can be made for all three of these players as all three are having spectacular season but in the end, I think Derrick Rose’s value to his team is slightly better.

LeBron probably shouldn’t win the award ever again now that he has joined forces with the widely considered third best player on the planet in Dwyane Wade. I know that statement infuriates the advanced stats guys out there because LeBron puts up such other worldly numbers but if you put Luol Deng (15.45 PER, considered just slightly above average according to that) in his place Miami is still a 50 win team. Replace Derrick Rose with Will Bynum (15.54 PER) and the Bulls would be under .500 most likely this season. The same can be said for Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert (16.12 PER); the Magic would certainly be much closer to the eighth seed then the 4th seed.

The main reason I choose Rose over Howard is that while the Magic are lined up to face a team that has had their number this season in the first round with the Hawks, Rose has carried the Bulls to the first seed in the East and a much better match-up in round one along with avoiding Boston or Miami in a second round bloodbath. Both players are as crucial to their team’s success as any other players in the NBA, I just think this particular season Rose has carried his team higher with less. Orlando has four other players with a PER over 15 to Chicago’s three and two of those guys for Chicago have missed a combined 55 games this year.

But the biggest gripe with Rose? Everyone who watches him goes back to the argument of “What Rose is doing looks amazing, but look at the advanced stats. Mediocre offense and he’s the weak link on defense. The defense even gets better with him off the floor.” Rose’s usage rate shows he is second in the league so most of his energy is expended on the offensive end but to suggest that Rose is horrible defensively is simply not true. Not only has Thibodeau made huge progress with not just Rose but the entire defensive unit, Derrick ranks 9th in defensive win shares. Add that to all of the quotes about how much his defense has improved and it’s very clear that Rose is at least an average defensive player. As for the fact the defense gets better with Rose off of the floor, the fact the Bulls have a great defensive bench going against a teams second unit means that the numbers are going to look that way. The Bulls have two bench players in Taj Gibson and Ronnie Brewer that rank in the top 6 in defensive rating, of course their defense is going to be better.

What about the fact that Rose leads on offense that is just mediocre? I credit that with the fact that Boozer and Noah have missed 55 games combined. I think it would be fair to suggest that if Noah and Boozer had both not missed such significant time the Bulls would score on two more possessions each game. Remember, offensive putbacks (which are where a lot of Noah’s offense comes) aren’t a change of possession. So if you allow for that, the Bulls would go from 105.1 to 109.1 points per 100 possessions or 3rd in the league in offensive efficiency. If you put all of this information together with the fact that Rose is a great leader and also great in the clutch when it matters most, it’s clear that Rose has been the Most Valuable Player this season and is the clear choice for the award.

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By Trey Hill aka finalfinally – Jabberhead, SJ Contributing Author

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