Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry finished 10th in Most Valuable Player award voting, the league announced Tuesday. Steph Curry won his second consecutive MVP award, becoming the league’s first unanimous winner in the process.
Lowry had a heck of a season, and for his efforts, he earned one fourth-place vote and three fifth-place votes. He should probably have finished higher than 10th on merit, but it’s hard to argue that low on the ballot – voters only get five votes, and I personally had him just outside of my hypothetical ballot. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
Kyle Lowry has a legitimate case to make for consideration on ballots as the best player on the league’s fifth-best team. His exclusion here isn’t meant to be derogatory by any means, and I think Lowry has a genuine shot at topping Chris Bosh’s 2006-07 season as the highest a Raptor has ever finished in MVP voting (Bosh finished seventh). The unfortunate reality is that Curry has the award locked up, and the second tier after him is loaded – Leonard has emerged as a No. 1 option while potentially doubling as the league’s best defensive player, the Cavs are a mess without James, still occasionally the best player in the world, the Thunder have a ridiculous two-headed monster, Chris Paul is Chris Paul, and even Draymond Green lurks as a serious candidate.
Lowry has turned in a phenomenal season, one that ranks only behind Carter’s two best years with the Raptors in terms of individual performance with the club, and advanced metrics are in agreement he’s been a top-10 player this year – he’s sixth in Real Plus-Minus based wins, eighth in Win Shares, and ninth in Nylon Calculus’ DRE. I have him sixth on a ballot that only goes five deep, and it was gut-wrenching to put him that low.
Chris Bosh’s 2006-07 season remains the high-water mark for Raptors’ MVP voting seasons, as he came seventh that year.
This continues the Raptors’ 2016 trend of also-ran-ship. Masai Ujiri placed fourth in Executive of the Year voting, Dwane Casey finished fifth in Coach of the Year voting, Lowry received a third-place vote for Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year, and Patrick Patterson received a third-place vote for Sixth Man of the Year.
