How do you feel about Andre Iguodala's 2015 NBA Finals MVP award? It's a bit of a basketball litmus test, a way to measure someone's philosophical bend when it comes to awards. I bring this up because, 11 years later, we're watching a very similar story unfold in the Western Conference Finals.
The 2015 Parallel
Stephen Curry was, fairly decisively, the best player on the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors. Statistically, his 2015 NBA Finals series was, at least by his standards, merely decent. He averaged 26 points and six assists. He shot 44-39-89 and averaged just shy of five turnovers per game.
He had one notably poor game, a 5-of-23 shooting night in a Game 2 loss that served as the highlight of Matthew Dellavedova's career. The act of defending Curry was so exhausting that, after Game 3, he had to go to the hospital.
That sums up Curry's impact on the series nicely. He may not have been at his best statistically, but his presence defined the terms under which the series was played. Cleveland had to throw everything it had at him defensively. That opened up the floor for everyone else.
One such beneficiary? Iguodala. Golden State's then-sixth man averaged 16 points on 52% shooting from the field and 40% shooting from the 3. More pertinently, he was the primary defender of LeBron James, who averaged 36 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists in the series, but did so while shooting below 40% from the floor in part because of Iguodala's efforts.
The decision to start Iguodala in Game 4 ultimately swung the series. And combined with the decision to play Draymond Green at center, it has become one of the most famous in-series adjustments in NBA history as the Warriors went on to win in six games.
What Makes a Series MVP?
So, what makes a series MVP? Is it the best overall player? James would win that debate, and he received four votes. Is it the best player on the winning team? Because that would obviously have been Curry, yet he received no votes.
The winner was the player who stood out the most within the context of the specific series. Iguodala got seven votes and the trophy.
Thunder vs Spurs: The Current Matchup
That brings us to this year's Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. The best player in the series has probably been Victor Wembanyama. For the series, the Spurs have won Wembanyama's minutes by 42 points. His defensive impact is immeasurable.
He scored 74 combined points in San Antonio's two wins to this point. Still, he probably isn't a serious candidate for the award unless San Antonio wins the series. James was in the mix in 2015 because he nearly singlehandedly led the shorthanded Cavaliers to a historic upset.
Wembanyama's Spurs are the healthier of the two teams, and, frankly, his Game 5 performance was a relative stinker as the Thunder took a 3-2 lead.
The best player on the Thunder is very clearly Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He's the two-time reigning MVP. He's lifting a Thunder offense that is currently without its second- and third-best shot-creators in Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell.
San Antonio's game plan for much of the series has revolved around slowing Gilgeous-Alexander down, though they've doubled him less as the series has progressed. He's the single player that makes the Thunder go, as Curry was for Golden State in 2015.
But he is not having a great statistical series, at least, again, by his own standard. He's averaging 26.2 points on 39-33-96 shooting. He's made up for his lackluster shooting from the field with nearly 10 assists and 10 free throw attempts per game, but the Thunder haven't even won his minutes, playing San Antonio evenly with him on the floor (at least thus far).
The Case for Alex Caruso
You know whose minutes Oklahoma City is winning? Alex Caruso's. And he put himself firmly in the conversation for Western Conference Finals MVP on the heels of his performance in Game 5 on Tuesday night.