Devin Booker is once again outside the conversation for NBA MVP.
Booker has had four straight seasons averaging more than 25 points, four rebounds and six assists per game on a Suns team that has steadily improved with each campaign. Yet he has NEVER received an MVP vote.
Never.
While that is likely to change in 2022, Booker is a longshot to win the award, with the 76ers' Joel Embiid and Nuggets' Nikola Jokic considered the top two candidates.
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Isiah Thomas weighed in to say that being the leading scorer on the league's best team "has always been part of the #criteria," but Booker disagreed.
Appreicate that IT but the “#criteria” changes depending on players name https://t.co/Zug1Plc8sq
— Book (@DevinBook) March 22, 2022
The Suns, which are 58-14 as of Tuesday, can clinch the league's best record for the 2021-22 season with a win against the Timberwolves on Wednesday and a Grizzlies' loss to the Nets. With 1,589 points (25.9 per game), Booker will easily finish the season as the team's leading scorer.
Does that mean he will automatically factor into the MVP conversation? The Sporting News dives into the history of the leading scorer on the league's best teams (by total points) to see what it means for Booker.
Best team's leading scorer in MVP voting
More often than not, the top scorer on the team with the NBA's best record finishes at least in the top-five in MVP voting. But it is far from a guarantee.
The NBA MVP has been handed out since the end of the 1955-56 season. Since then, 47 times has the leading scorer on the team (or teams) with the best record finished within the top five in voting. That is only 65.3 percent of the time. Of those 47, 32 were named the MVP.
It's easy to draw a line from being the leading scorer on the league's best team to being the best player that year. Wilt Chamberlain won MVP three times after leading the 76ers in scoring. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the MVP three times in that spot. Michael Jordan also did it three times. Larry Bird did it six times.
Other major names from Julius Irving, Moses Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James and Stephen Curry — among others — have won the league's MVP as the top scorer on the best team.
But it is certainly not always the case. In fact, there were several instances where someone else on the team wound up winning MVP that year.
| Season | Team | Leading Scorer | MVP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956-57 | Celtics | Bill Sharman | Bob Cousy |
| 1957-58 | Celtics | Bill Sharman | Bill Russell |
| 1960-61 | Celtics | Tom Heinsohn | Bill Russell |
| 1961-62 | Celtics | Tom Heinsohn | Bill Russell |
| 1962-63 | Celtics | Sam Jones | Bill Russell |
| 1964-65 | Celtics | Sam Jones | Bill Russell |
| 1968-69 | Bullets | Earl Monroe | Wes Unseld |
| 1972-73 | Celtics | John Havlicek | Dave Cowens |
| 2004-05 | Suns | Amar'e Stoudemire | Steve Nash |
Bill Russell went on a run where it didn't matter how many points his teammates scored: he was going to win MVP. The most recent example was Amar'e Stoudemire leading the Suns in scoring, with Steve Nash winning the first of his two consecutive MVPs.
In the 2011-12 season, the Bulls were tied for the best record with the Spurs at 50-16. That year, Carlos Boozer led the team in scoring with 991 points, while Derrick Rose was second with 852. Rose averaged 21.8 points per game while Boozer averaged just 15, due to the fact Rose only played in 39 games, while Boozer appeared in all 66. LeBron James won MVP, Rose finished 11th and Boozer did not receive a vote.
And could Chris Paul, who leads the league this season in assists per game (10.7) be the latest Suns' teammate to surpass another in MVP voting? Possibly. Paul finished fifth in the 2020-21 MVP voting despite averaging nearly 10 fewer points per game than Booker (though the Suns had only the second-best record last year).
Scoring the most points on the No. 1 team in the NBA does not even guarantee receiving a high total of votes, if any.
Since 2000, three players, Richard Hamilton, Boozer and Donovan Mitchell, did not receive ANY MVP votes the year they led their league-best teams. Sixteen total all-time finished outside the top 10. Even Thomas, who said it has always been part of the criteria for MVP voting, finished 17th in the 1988-89 MVP voting, when the Pistons had the league's best record.
Booker should get votes this year. But if he does, it won't be because he led the Suns in scoring.
