Total Team Wins/Overall Team Record
Of the last 20 MVP award recipients, 12 of the MVP award winners were members of the team that had the best record in the league during the NBA regular season. This also holds true for 5 of the last 6 award recipients.
A vast majority of the time, team record and wins really matter in deciding the MVP voting, regardless of how good someone played over the course of the year. The best player on the best team in the league seems to always be honored in some way and the MVP award has started to migrate towards this philosophy.
Now, I am not saying that the award recipients on the best teams did not deserve the award, but in some cases, you could have made a legit argument that the award should have gone to someone else that year.
Last season, there was a big debate about whether or not Giannis Antetokounmpo deserved the award over LeBron James and James Harden and even dating back to the 2002-2003 season, there was a big discussion about whether or not Tim Duncan deserved the award over the likes of Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O’Neal.
No matter who wins the MVP award, there are always going to be cases made for someone else, but there is a direct correlation between winning games and winning the award. In fact, Russell Westbrook (2016-17) is the only player over the last 20 seasons to win the award and have his team finish outside of the Top-2 in their conference in the standings.
The last player to win the MVP Award with his team finishing 6th or lower in their respective conference was Moses Malone during the 1981-82 season when he won the award with the Houston Rockets, who finished with a 46-36 record that season. Malone was able to win the award over the likes of Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Robert Parish that season.
If you want to win the MVP award, a great way to do so is to lead your team to having the best record in the conference and the league. Chances are pretty high that you will win the award if you are able to do so and right now, the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and the Utah Jazz are at the top of the league standings.
