NBA 2019 MVP race – final results

(Originally posted on Thursday, 11 April 2019)

All the statistical data I used I found on this site:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/

I described my way of calculating the MVP and the MFP values in these posts:
Comparing NBA MVPs
Most frustrated NBA players

According to the data from the whole 2018-2019 season the final NBA 2019 MVP race list is this:

1. James Harden:    2377.5    (team wins: 53)
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo:    2241.1    (team wins: 60)
3. Kevin Durant:    1979.9    (team wins: 57)
4. Stephen Curry:    1819.7    (team wins: 57)
5. Damian Lillard:    1810.6    (team wins: 53)
6. Nikola Jokic:    1808.9    (team wins: 54)
7. Paul George:    1759.2    (team wins: 49)
8. Joel Embiid:    1599.0    (team wins: 51)
9. Russell Westbrook:    1554.4    (team wins: 49)
10. Rudy Gobert:    1517.8    (team wins: 50)
11. Kawhi Leonard:    1517.0    (team wins: 58)
12. Klay Thompson:    1439.3    (team wins: 57)
13. Pascal Siakam:    1433.4    (team wins: 58)
14. LaMarcus Aldridge:    1422.9    (team wins: 48)
15. Khris Middleton:    1412.2    (team wins: 60)
16. Ben Simmons:    1397.5    (team wins: 51)
17. Nikola Vucevic:    1381.3    (team wins: 42)
18. Eric Bledsoe:    1373.7    (team wins: 60)
19. Kyrie Irving:    1361.7    (team wins: 49)
20. Clint Capela:    1288.4    (team wins: 53)
21. DeMar DeRozan:    1280.3    (team wins: 48)
22. Donovan Mitchell:    1276.4    (team wins: 50)
23. Karl-Anthony Towns:    1276.0    (team wins: 36)
24. Kemba Walker:    1265.4    (team wins: 39)
25. Jusuf Nurkic:    1221.2    (team wins: 53)
26. Andre Drummond:    1214.1    (team wins: 41)
27. Brook Lopez:    1214.0    (team wins: 60)
28. Blake Griffin:    1198.4    (team wins: 41)
29. Serge Ibaka:    1183.9    (team wins: 58)
30. Jamal Murray:    1175.5    (team wins: 54)

James Harden is the winner of the race. The final margin is larger than projected 9 days ago because James Harden's team won 53 games instead of projected 52, Giannis Antetokounmpo missed 2 additional games and his team won 60 games instead of projected 61.

Please remember that the values above already take into account the teams' records. James Harden “raw” total values are HUGE. He missed ONLY 4 games and still had awesome per-game averages! James Harden is the ONLY player EVER to have per-game averages of at least 34.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists AND he finished with MUCH better averages than these – he actually had the per-game averages of 36.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.5 assists. This is a record that would be VERY hard to beat.

Please notice also that the “raw” per-game value of James Harden (34.5) is the highest since the individual turnovers were introduced (since 1977). Michael Jordan had 33.9 in the season 1988-89 and 33.4 in the season 1987-88. No other player had more than 33.0 since 1977. James Harden's regular season has been truly historic! (Giannis Antetokounmpo “raw” per-game value is 31.1 – still very high, but clearly weaker than Harden's.)

According to the data from the whole 2018-2019 season the final NBA 2019 MFP list is this:

1. Devin Booker:    1013.9    (team wins: 19)
2. Bradley Beal:    933.1    (team wins: 32)
3. Deandre Ayton:    924.2    (team wins: 19)
4. Karl-Anthony Towns:    850.7    (team wins: 36)
5. Zach LaVine:    815.2    (team wins: 22)
6. Jordan Clarkson:    776.8    (team wins: 19)
7. Anthony Davis:    762.9    (team wins: 33)
8. Trae Young:    759.5    (team wins: 29)
9. Collin Sexton:    721.1    (team wins: 19)
10. Julius Randle:    688.5    (team wins: 33)
11. Kemba Walker:    681.4    (team wins: 39)
12. Luka Doncic:    679.2    (team wins: 33)
13. Mike Conley:    671.4    (team wins: 33)
14. Jrue Holiday:    667.5    (team wins: 33)
15. Cedi Osman:    664.1    (team wins: 19)
16. Larry Nance:    661.8    (team wins: 19)
17. John Collins:    652.7    (team wins: 29)
18. Lauri Markkanen:    632.8    (team wins: 22)
19. LeBron James:    596.9    (team wins: 37)
20. Nikola Vucevic:    592.0    (team wins: 42)
21. Mitchell Robinson:    589.6    (team wins: 17)
22. Noah Vonleh:    583.0    (team wins: 17)
23. Mikal Bridges:    575.9    (team wins: 19)
24. Andre Drummond:    562.6    (team wins: 41)
25. Buddy Hield:    558.4    (team wins: 39)
26. Blake Griffin:    555.4    (team wins: 41)
27. Josh Jackson:    554.0    (team wins: 19)
28. Damyean Dotson:    547.8    (team wins: 17)
29. Emmanuel Mudiay:    547.3    (team wins: 17)
30. Kevin Knox:    544.7    (team wins: 17)

There are 5 players who are in the top-30 both on the MVP list and on the MFP list: Karl-Anthony Towns (23th and 4th), Kemba Walker (24th and 11th), Nikola Vucevic (17th and 20th), Andre Drummond (26th and 24th) and Blake Griffin (28th and 26th).