Stephen Curry Is Changing The Perception Of The Finals MVP Award

We’re four games into the NBA Finals, with the best-of-seven series tied at 2-2 and now heading back to San Francisco for Game 5 on Monday, followed by Game 6 in Boston on Thursday.

That means anything can happen, and the series have essentially turned into a best-of-three scenario, which should have both NBA fans, and the league itself, excited.

These next two games will also go a long way in determining the winner of the NBA Finals MVP award, which is almost exclusively handed to a player from the winning team. After four games of this series, however, there’s a legitimate debate as to whether or not that trend should continue for 2022.

The best of the best

While you can make the argument that the Boston Celtics have overall been the better team in the Finals – despite the 2-2 split so far – there should be no questions raised about who has been the best player.

Stephen Curry has been head and shoulders above everyone else over the series’ first four games, averaging 34.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.8 steals. The All-Time leading three-point shooter in league history has hit 49% of his 51 attempts from range this series, sporting a TS of 66.4%, which for any perimeter player is about as elite as it gets.

In Boston’s camp, things are more even. The team remains led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but neither have produced at a level that even remotely comes close to Curry. Tatum has played superbly defense and expanded his game into becoming his team’s best playmaker, averaging 7.8 assists for the series, but has hit just 34.1% from the field. It’s taken him 82 shots to reach his total of 89 points, which for a player of his caliber is severely underwhelming.

Brown has been better in terms of shooting percentages, hitting 44.0% from the field, and a decent 35.5% from the outside, but those percentages are somewhat pedestrian, and certainly entirely incomparable to those of Curry’s. His 22.3-point average in the series, which is the exact same point average as Tatum, just pales in comparison to Curry as well.

What makes Curry’s output even more impressive is that he isn’t receiving a ton of offensive production from his teammates. Klay Thompson, Golden State’s second-leading scorer in the Finals at 17.3 points, is hitting just 35.8% from the field, and an uncharacteristic 34.2% from the outside. Andrew Wiggins, third on the team in scoring at 16.5 points at night, is converting at just 43.3% overall, and at 31.8% from range, further underlining a dip in efficiency from some of the team’s primary scorers.

History leans towards winning

As mentioned before, the Finals MVP award winner almost exclusively plays for the winning team. The only exception was Jerry West in 1969, which was so long ago, it’s reasonable to proclaim the award entirely tied to winning in today’s game.

There have been debates before about players winning the award despite losing the series, with LeBron James being a frequent mention. However, James usually had significant competition from the winning teams, with both Curry and Kevin Durant offering up their own MVP-worthy series.

(In 2015 voters voted in Andre Iguodala Finals MVP over Curry which remains one of the oddest decisions by voters in the history of the league, but make no mistake: Curry was phenomenal, averaging 26 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game.)

The 2022 Finals, one could argue, is the biggest disparity in star production and influence we’ve seen in recent history. Certainly, Curry is worth at least equal consideration as James in previous years, if not more.

His 43-point, 10-rebound performance in Game 4 of this series, on the road against Boston no less, will go down as an all-time game, as Curry in overwhelming fashion had to create his own looks, and single-handedly brought home court advantage back to the Warriors.

The star is currently favored to win the award, but a Boston championship would almost assuredly see either Tatum or Brown raise the trophy, regardless of whether or not they improve their production.

Over the next two-to-three games, percentages can of course even out. Curry could enter a slump, and the Celtics duo could suddenly begin to each average 30+ points. This is the NBA after all.

But if we’re taking stock of the series as of right now, four games deep, there should be no question that Curry not only has been the best player, but also the most valuable.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.