He's the best player on the 2nd best team in the league. He's probably one of the best switchable defenders in the game. And he has incredible handles for his size. He has the best FG % of all the MVP candidates, but that's also because he's the only true big on this list. So that number can be misconstrued off simple dunks and putbacks. I might be wrong though. I wrote about Giannis and realized that AD's combination of size, strength, and ball control allows him to just blow past guys for easy dunks. You can't really hark on a guy for having incredible FG% if he has the ability to do this. It's still a real problem for anyone guarding him. He has the most rebounds of all the candidates, but rebounds isn't that important of a stat anymore since it's such an easily replaceable skill and it's such an easy stat to accumulate. He does have a lot of assist for a big though which is pretty incredible. After Lebron, him and Curry are close at 2nd for the highest TBPM.

One of the best defending wings in the game. And I would say he's the best wing defender on this list since Kawhi isn't here. His 6-8 height makes him perfect to guard any wing in the NLL. Even KD! He's the 3rd best scorer on this list. He's always been known for leading this league in trips to the line, but he has Wall, Giannis, DeRozan, and Westbrook ahead of him this year. He's nearly leading the league in steals with only Draymond ahead. He's getting 10.1 REB a game, but rebounds are a very overrated stat these days. He's getting a  decent 3.9 AST per game. And he's sporting a 10.1 TBPM. 10.1 is nice, but compared to the other MVP candidates, it's just decent. 

He's the 2nd best scorer in the league. He's the ultimate mid-ranger. He's incredibly elusive and just seems to have a nose for ending plays with either a dunk, layup, or a foul call. He doesn't have the most free throws attempted, but he has the most free throws made. He's shooting at a decent clip, but not in the .600 like Lebron, Giannis, AD, and Simmons are doing. He's sporting an incredible 13.4 TBPM. And he's dishing out a decent 4 AST per game.

He's the best player on the best team. He can play any position you want him to play. That means you can slot him against the opponent's shortest player and watch him dominate, or you can slot him against the opponent's slowest player and watch him dominate. Because Lebron can dribble, he can shoot, and he can finish at the rim. He's shooting 41% from three this year, and he's an efficient 61% from the field. And this isn't just off cheesy dunks and putbacks. He's not that bad at defense either. He has the highest TBPM in the league. While we don't have the stats to prove it, most of us know that Lebron plays even better in the 4th quarter. Could he be better? Yes he can. As tough of a matchup as he is at the SG position, I think Pete feels remorse playing him as a PG to stomp on 6-0 shorties. Pete randomly throws threats that he will, but will only do so if he absolutely has to. 

He's putting up 4.8 threes per game. Only 2nd to Lillard. And shooting an efficient 45% from three. Only 2nd to Durant. He hasn't missed a free throw yet this season, shooting 100% from the line. And he's on the upper tier of players in terms of +/- with 14.8 TBPM. And in terms of scoring, he's scoring just about the same as everyone else on this list not named KD and DeRozan with 31.3 PTS per game. Even though his defense sucks in real life, it's pretty damn good in 2K. 

He may not be as good of a wing defender as Jimmy, but he certainly has better defensive stats than Jimmy. He's accumulating 1.8 steals per game and 1.2 blocks per game. His combination of size, strength, and ball handling makes him very hard to stop. Only players like Lebron and Simmons can do this. This is very hard to defend against. You would pretty much have to start a 6-11 center with lateral quickness at the SF position just to stop this. And there's not that many NLL teams that can afford that. Giannis is in a 60% FG range with Lebron, AD, and Simmons. And yes this is off easy dunks and putbacks, but these are easy dunks that only him, Lebron, Simmons, and Zion can pull off because they are such a massive force in the paint. He's in an upper range on assist with Westbrook and Simmons with 5.5 AST per game. And he's in that mid range of +/- with a TBPM of 10.5.

Westbrook has always been one of the best defensive point guards in the game. As much as Westbrook haters say he's not, I think he is when he wants to be. He's on the upper end of scoring on this list with 32.7 PTS per game as well as on the upper end on assists with 5.4 AST per game. He's improved his 3PT shooting this year in the NLL even though he's horrid at them in real life. He's knocking down 2.4 threes per game on a decent 32% shooting. And he's sporting a decent 9.8 TBPM.

KD keeps getting better and better. Celtics have unlocked the secret to playing him 40 minutes a game. And even further, they have unlocked his ability to play SG. I call him 40KD as an SG. 40KD as an SG is averaging 47.8 PTS per game with an 11.0 TBPM, and 40KD as an SG is doing it efficiently in 40/50/90 percentages. 40KD as an SG is unstoppable. You can't guard him unless you play someone 6-8 or taller at the SG position. He has knocked down three giants since he became 40KD as an SG. I think 40KD as an SG might be the best player in the league right now. If he keeps this up, he'll be in a god tier by himself with 10 more points per game than any other candidate.

Dame is leading the league in 3 pointers shooting 5.5 threes a game on 0.40 3PT%. That's even better than Curry! He's the closest thing to Curry in real life and even better in 2K. He's in the upper tier in assist with Lebron, Simmons, and Westbrook with 5.1 AST per game and in a mid tier of +/- with a TBPM of 12.4. He isn't in the upper range of scoring since Demar and KD are putting up ridiculous numbers, but he's in this mid range of 31-33 PT per game scorers that include Jimmy, Westbrook, Lebron, and Giannis with 31.4 PTS per game.

He's shooting efficiently from the field with 62% from the field in the same manner as Giannis, Lebron, and AD are doing except Lebron is the only one of these guys that can actually stretch it to the three. But like Lebron, Simmons is able to kick it out to the open man. He's leading all the MVP candidates in assists with 5.6. I'm not really going to get into rebounds. He's actually killing it on defense with 1.5 STLs and 1.1 BLKs a game. Above all though, you just got to really love this guy for the same reason you love Giannis, Lebron, and AD. These are big guys with ball handling who can force their way into the paint for easy buckets to inflate their FG%. And it's not a bad thing. It's very hard to stop. Because these guys can do this, there's really no need for these guys to be able to shoot. They do just fine without it. But the team still needs to build around it, and it's been pretty evident that Detroit has been trying to do that.