As part of a new series at HoopsHype, we are examining who should win the NBA MVP award based on what we can learn from advanced analytics.
For this survey, each impact metric was included because it was considered among the most trustworthy by NBA executives when asked by HoopsHype during this past offseason.
The metrics pulled included Daily Plus-Minus (DPM), Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), LEBRON (BBall-Index), RAPTOR (FiveThirtyEight), Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM) and Box Plus-Minus (Basketball-Reference). We also added the model of Box Plus-Minus from Backpicks.com as well as the newest impact metric, Daily-Updated Rating of Individual Performance (DRIP).
ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus was not included because the data has not been published yet this season. However, if it’s publicly available by our next update, RPM will also be calculated.
Because each of these metrics is graded on a per-100 possession scale, we adjusted for playing time by multiplying their impact contribution on each metric by the percentage of possible minutes they have played for their team so far this season.
As with the official vote, the top player received 10 points, the second received seven points, the third received five points, the fourth received three points, and the fifth player received one point. If a player finished outside of the Top 5, they didn’t receive any votes from that measurement.
Only players that made the Top 5 on least one of these eight metrics were included in our rankings below. Some of the most notable omissions include DeMar DeRozan, Trae Young, Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns, LaMelo Ball, Luka Doncic, Paul George and Devin Booker.
To see where our staff at HoopsHype feels the MVP race is as of right now, however, click here. To see who should make the All-NBA ballots based on HoopsHype’s Global Rating, click here.