Bigmatch's MVP Race 1.0: The Candidates!



The most coveted award in team sport is no other than the Most Valuable Player. We are already on the middle of the second conference of the season so the time has come to see the top candidates for the plum.

The PBA has built a parameter to know the top candidates for the award. The Best Player of the Conference of each conferences will be official candidates and the top three in the statisical points (SP). Thanks to pba-online.net, we will have an unofficial tally of SP. 

Fajardo is already a shoo-in nominee for the MVP plum after winning the BPC in the Philippine Cup and the current top three, not named Fajardo, in the statistical points will also take part of this ranking. I also included two more guys that I strongly believe will make a strong push for the BPC this conference and next conference and on one of the three spots in SP. 

So, the official candidates will be:
June Mar FajardoGreg SlaughterSean AnthonyJayson CastroCalvin AbuevaTerrence Romeo

So, here is my first ever MVP ranking this season!
#6 Greg Slaughter
Slaughter opened this season the best way possible by delivering 26+ points and 15+ rebounds in their first three games! We never saw another one after that but his current statline is still really good (21.1 points, 13.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 blocks).

The addition of imports has cut some of the opportunities of Greg per game and his numbers this Commissioner's Cup are down to 17.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. To improve his case, he needs to carry his team to a championship and sustain his numbers.
#5 Sean Anthony
A lot of players improved by leaps and bounce this season but nobody saw that a player will deliver 20.4 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists in the Philippine Cup. In short, nobody anticipated that Sean was this good! 

Just like Greg, his numbers this conference are not as good as in the Philippine Cup (13.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists). A biggest factor is addition of their great import, Al Thornton. If Sean wants to make this MVP race more interesting, he will need to give his all and help his team do a Cinderella run to the Finals!
#4 Calvin Abueva
The very first thing that I need to point out about Calvin is no other than his defense! He tops the league in Defensive Rating in the Philippine Cup with 86.9. His incredible defense combined with his contribution on offense makes him a very viable MVP candidate. 

And this conference, his playing time has been on the uptrend and he is taking advantage of it! He just made his scoring career-high of 29 points last Saturday! He played more than 30 minutes in their recent two games and as long as he control his fouls, I expect him to maintain this level of playing time.
#3 Jayson Castro
I think, he is the most underrated superstar in the league right now. Maybe, the fans are just accustomed to what he brings every season but the reality is, The Blur has been improving in the past few years. His 19.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.1 steals speaks a lot of what he can do.

One of his biggest hindrance in claiming the award has surface last week, injury. He is still not cleared to play up to this point and there could be a chance that they will ask him to sacrifice some games to make sure that he will be 100% in the FIBA Qualifying Tournament.
#2 Terrence Romeo
He is wielding a team, together with Stanley Pringle, that doesn't resemble a contender this season. His mighty heroics was the main reason of the surprise Semifinals run of Globalport. He is putting up ridiculous numbers in offense with his 24.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 34.7% 3FG. How about you try this dare. In 10 minutes, try to find a PBA player that averages 24 or more points in a season.

Terrence is even putting better numbers this conference with 25.3 points in 38.3% 3FG and 45.2% FG. Unfortunately, he is currently on the sideline due to an injury and without him, and Pringle, Globalport could fail to reach the playoffs. 
#1 June Mar Fajardo
And at the top, is no other than the Kraken. In one of the most outrageous rampage that I have ever saw in the playoffs, Fajardo produced 36.8 points, 17.5 rebounds and 3.8 blocks in the first four game of their playoff series against Rain or Shine! His current statline is 21.9 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. That is the right appetite for a monster.

Due to an injury and the arrival of their reinforcement, Fajardo's current number aren't impressive enough (11.2points, 6.8 rebounds, 25.8 mins). Even if he will be stack with this number for this conference, he will still have the Governors Cup to push his candidacy.

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