OKC Thunder debate: Paul George early front runner for MVP

For the skeptics who believed his stats were inflated due to Russell Westbrook being out with injuries, George managed to eclipse his early-season numbers with a December to remember.

Four straight losses to begin the season on the heels of a failed experiment last season, left fans and critics thinking “here we go again.” But things changed after that, as George led the Thunder to back-to-back wins to end October and 12 of 15 in November (six of which were without Westbrook), nearly averaging a double-double at 22.7 points and 8.1 rebounds.

If November wasn’t enough to put George in the running, December certainly catapulted him in the conversation. He upped his scoring average to 31.4 points, which put him in the top-10 in scoring, with three 40-point performances. He’s also second only to Harden in scoring for the month and sixth in plus/minus at 8.7.

Furthermore, he scored more fourth-quarter points than anyone in the league this past month with 9.4 points and has been the definition of clutch for the Thunder. Not only has he made shots with the game on the line like he did against Brooklyn, but he’s also made the shots to put games away before they come down to the wire, which in my opinion, is just as clutch as hitting game winners.

And the Thunder has undoubtedly needed him to be in MVP form. It’d be one thing if Oklahoma City was blowing teams away with the entire team playing like a contender, but it has been mostly George keeping the Thunder in games and putting opponents away. Sure, there’s been a lot of help from guys like Steven Adams, Jerami Grant, Hamidou Diallo, etc., but with Westbrook not scoring like he usually does, it has been mostly George.