Hart Trophy and NBA MVP Chases Revised

The great game standard.

Welcome to the MVP Chase, where I look for, or chase, the best objective criteria in determining greatness without personal bias.

Today’s Topics: Hart Trophy and NBA MVP Chases

Photo: public domain

HART TROPHY CHASE Update

My last Hart Trophy update didn’t sit well with me or others. I still insist that MVP awards should reward contributions to victories, one game at a time, and not cumulative season or per-game statistics. Nevertheless, it wasn’t right that Connor McDavid wasn’t even in the top five in the Hart Trophy Chase standings. Although not elite, McDavid’s Oilers have a winning record and his league-leading scoring prowess is surely a big reason for that.

I now come at it with another approach: consider the number of victories in which the player had a great game in a win and overtime loss (because the team earns a point in the standings with an OT loss), but also the number of victories and OT losses in which he wasn’t great. If the team is regularly successful without him being great, is he really that valuable?

By a “great game,” the standard I’m using is points plus +/- equaling two or more in a win or OT loss.