<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">K.G.'s early MVP: Garnett said Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is his early pick for the NBA's Most Valuable Player award. Garnett, the league's MVP in 2004, said Yao's long-range shooting touch makes him unique for such a tall player. "But he's also a force," Garnett said. "He'll dunk it. He's aggressive. Right now, Yao's the MVP of the league to me. Him and (Orlando's) Dwight Howard are playing at astonishing levels, and they're carrying their teams." Yao was named the Western Conference's player of the month for November. He averaged 25.7 points and 10.1 rebounds and shot 54.4 percent. Coach Dwane Casey agrees with Garnett. "I think (Yao is) playing at an extremely high level right now, above anybody," Casey said before his team's 90-84 victory. "Their offense feeds through him. He's playing with a tremendous amount of confidence right now. Toughness and confidence. He's playing with the whole package right now." Yao was limited to 14 points on 5-for-19 shooting and eight rebounds Wednesday as the Wolves played good defense, using a mix of Garnett and center Mark Blount.</div> Source
Yao makes a big impact for the Rockets, they have assembled the right players around him this year to do some damage. I don't know if he is my personal MVP choice, just because I haven't seen too much of him play, or players like Tim Duncan, Kobe, Dirk, Lebron, Nash, and Wade. For some reason I don't think Nash should win a 3rd MVP, even if he puts up great stats, just because I don't think he is a 3-time MVP calibre player. Although he did put up 2 great seasons the last two years and made a big impact for the Suns.
Ironically, I would say this is actually Nash's most MVP caliber year numbers wise so far, but there's no extra factor anymore. 04-05, Phoenix was a bad team that became very good. 05-06, Amre went down, some predicted them to get worse, but they still won 50+. This season, with the return of Amare, the expectations were already in the 60 win range, and there isn't really anything to be surprised about. Yao and Dwight are nice so far. Duncan, Lebron and Carmelo are also some other nice options, though Denver would have to have a better record.
I don't the decision for MVP should be based on whether or not they won the MVP the previous season. That being said, my early season faves for MVP are: Yao, Nowitzki, Nash, Carmelo, DHoward, Kobe, LBJ, Duncan Though in terms of guys who are really carrying their teams, I'd say Yao, LBJ, Howard and Carmelo. We'll likely see Kobe make a case later in the season after his knee gets more healthy, but his team was doing pretty good without him for the first couple weeks. It might be a close race this season.
