And the NBA MVP Goes to…

It helps to show up and play.

Last week, I explained how NBA MVPs are selected:

1. Divide the number of victories a player played in by the number of total wins by the team, as a percentage (PW/TW x 100).
2. Add the number of actual wins he played in.
3. Add his Player Efficiency Ratio (PER)

For my personal selection for MVP, however, I would modify this a bit and add a fourth factor.

First, I may have over-weighted the first factor. Let’s say Player A played in all 40 of his team’s victories (100%) and Player B played in 38 of his team’s 40 victories (95%). Player B’s PER would have to be 5 points better than Player A’s, if B would be ahead in the MVP rankings. That’s a lot to overcome.

I would cut this in half in half. Instead of PW/TW X100, it would be PW/TW x 50. Player A would get 50 points for playing in all of his team’s wins, Player B would get half of 95%, or 47.5 points.

I would also add a fourth factor, Minutes Per Game (MPG). This is a fair assessment of a player’s value according to his own coaches. It could reflect depth on a team, or lack thereof. For instance, if Team A has a comfortable lead, the coach might rest his best player for the remainder of the game. For Team B, however, the same point margin might not be so comfortable because the coach doesn’t trust his bench players, and the team’s best player stays in the game.