This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. This Orlando Magic writer (tries) to justify his for Dwight Howard for MVP. I wish I could quote this entire article, but lets take it piece by piece.

As in the Howard, the wrecking ball of a center in the regular season and not the frustrated, foul-prone one in the first-round of the playoffs. The rest of my MVP ballot read like this: 2. James; 3. Kobe Bryant; 4. Kevin Durant; 5. Dwyane Wade.

So John Denton immediately acknowledges one problem, Howard’s inability to deliver in the playoffs. One of my problems with MVP voting is that it happens before the playoffs, which is when you truly found out who is valuable. Howard has yet to play 30 minutes in a playoff game this year.

While I admit that there is some conflict of interest there with my work as a writer for orlandomagic.com, I just don’t think it’s that egregious to think that Howard – and not James – could actually be the best player in the world.

This part is such lunacy that I don’t even know if I should bother talking about it. I highly doubt you will find any basketball fan outside of Orlando who would even give this argument any thought.

When you look at how the actual voting went – James, Durant, Bryant and then Howard – it’s easy to see that scoring is thought to be the most important category in the NBA. Defense might win championships, but it won’t win you a trophy case full of MVP trophies. Durant, James and Bryant finished first, second and fourth in the league in scoring this season.

I guess I am at least willing to concede that defense makes an impact on championships. Of the last 10 NBA champs, six finished in the top 10 in defensive points allowed, two finished #1. But 5 champs finished in the top 10 in offensive scoring. Only one (the ’99 Lakers) finished in the top 10 in both. So I think it’s safer to say that being one of the best in offense OR defense wins championships.

The NBA’s MVP is quickly becoming the Heisman Trophy of individual awards. In college football, quarterbacks and running backs are basically the only ones up for the award. And in the NBA, if you aren’t a high scoring wing player, you apparently have no shot at winning the top individual honor. Clearly, it’s defense by damned.

Easily the thinnest argument of the article. Your last 10 NBA MVPs: Lebron (twice), Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitski, Steve Nash (twice), Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan (twice) and Allen Iverson. Iverson is the only one on that list to lead the league in scoring. When Garnett won, he lead the league in rebounding. Kobe finished 5th in steals. Nash led the league in assists both years and has NEVER finished in the top 10 in scoring. And the two years Duncan won it, he was in the 5 in both rebounds and blocks both years.

And unlike James, who took six games off down the stretch, Howard played all 82 games for a fifth time in his six-year career. Night-in, night-out he was an anchor for a 59-win Magic team that lost Rashard Lewis to a 10-game suspension early in the season, was without Jameer Nelson because of knee surgery early on and had to endure a horrid January from Vince Carter.

Another rough argument. Yeah, James “took 6 games off” down the stretch because he led his team to the NBA’s best record by a mile. And the argument that Howard does it “night in, and night out” is funny because he averages 5 less minutes per game than James. Basketball Reference has a stat called USG%, that is basically “an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor.” James’ number was 33%, Howard’s was 23%. Essentially meaning that James is involved on 10% more of his team’s offensive plays. So I would say the demand for James is higher every night.

And I know the award is based on this past season alone, but I do think it’s worth noting that it was Howard’s Magic — and not James’ Cavs — who emerged from the Eastern Conference last spring. Not that you’d know that by listening to the talking heads on ABC or TNT.

So if the award is only based on this year AND you went out of your way to point out that we should ignore this year’s playoffs, how can you even make this reference? And I think most people would argue that Hedo Turkoglu was the biggest reason the Magic went far last year. He was their MVP last year during the playoffs.

Dwight Howard is a very good player. Maybe the best defensive player in the league. But Dikembe Mutombo finished in the top 10 in rebounds and blocks 11 times in his career. He only got MVP votes once.

Howard makes his team better, mostly because they are designed for either him to be isolated one on one or when he draws a double team, for him to kick it out and have his team shoot threes. But in the NBA, where there are only 5 guys on the floor, you have to extract a single player and look at what he would do on other teams. No team was taking Mutombo over Jordan because of his defense and down low presence. You are taking the guy who’s hands you put the ball in in the last minute. Not a guy who is foul trouble constantly. Outside of the Orlando Magic, there isn’t a single team that picks Howard over LeBron if they had their choice.

(via Bill Simmons)