What is the NBA MVP Chase?

Quantifying Mikal Bridges

“His value to our team, it’s hard to quantify.” — Monty Williams on Mikal Bridges

Right now, Mikal Bridges is tied with Steph Curry in my NBA MVP Chase.

Should that be?

And what is the MVP Chase, anyway?

It’s a system of determining the strongest candidates for league MVP based on their contributions to victories.

For the NBA MVP Chase, I don’t use traditional statistics or even advanced stats. Instead, I ask three basic questions:

1. Did the player’s team win the game? The answer is in the final score.
2. How much value did the player’s coach place on him? I measure this by minutes played.
3. How much better was the team with this player on the court? I use the +/- statistic to determine this.

If his team wins the game, a player earns an MVP point if the sum of his minutes played (MP) and +/- equals 32 or more.

In the following examples, assume you’re an NBA player and (very important) your team has won the game.

• Play 30 minutes with a +/- of 2? You get an MVP point!
• Play just 15 minutes but your +/- is 17? That totals 32; you get an MVP point.
• Play 40 minutes and your +/- is -8? That’s 32, and you still get an MVP point.