re:

Here's a portion of what I wrote about the MVP race at the Fantasy Basketball Cafe:
Let's not forget that in order to be completely objective in an evaluation of who deserves the MVP award, we need to eliminate all previous accomplishments/letdowns attached to that player and ONLY look at his merits and contributions to his particular team in that particular season. You know that MVP voting occurs right after the regular season and a player's performance in the playoffs has absolutely nothing to do with the process, right? Then why are you bringing championships into the mix? It makes no sense.
There is no doubt in my mind that based on his contributions to his team so far THIS season, Chris Paul should win the MVP award. Any valid statistic you look at will tell you this. PER, offensive win shares, defensive win shares, loss shares, etc.
Why does Kobe deserve the MVP award over Paul this season? He is actually contributing less to the Lakers' success this season than he was last season (4 win shares behind pace so far -- 30 WS in 66 games this season, 40 WS in 77 games last season). Is it the Lakers' W/L record? It's pretty apparent why the Lakers are 2nd in the Western Conference right now. How do they suddenly go from playing .625 ball during the first 48 games of the season to .833 ball over the next 18 games? The acquisition of Pau Gasol. If the Lakers don't get Gasol I think it'd be pretty safe to say they'd be hovering around 7th or 8th with 3 or 4 less wins. Would he still deserve it then by your measure? I doubt it, which is the problem. Kobe should be evaluated the same with or without Gasol whether the Lakers are in 1st/2nd or in 7th/8th.

Chris Paul

CP3 = MVP all the way! I'm with you guys on this one.