Who has most compelling MVP case?

With at least six legitimate candidates, this season's MVP race is one of the best we've ever seen. Because there are so many competing definitions of most valuable player floating around, you could make a solid case for any of the contenders:Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Chris Paul or Anthony Davis.

It all depends which MVP criteria you find most compelling.

Best player on the best team:

Stephen Curry

The Warriors aren't just the best team; they're one of the best regular-season teams ever and only the eighth in NBA history to post a net scoring margin of more than 10.0.

Curry is the undisputed alpha dog of the Golden State juggernaut. He leads the team in real plus-minus (RPM), scoring, assists, steals, 3-pointers, free throws, usage rate, true shooting percentage, free throw percentage, 3-point percentage and playing time. Curry even emerged this season as a sneaky good defender. In this category, there's really no contest: case closed.

Best player per possession:

Stephen Curry

Not only has Curry been the best player on his team, but he has also been the best player in the league on a per-possession basis. He leads the NBA in RPM, which estimates each player's actual impact on his team's net efficiency (points per 100 possessions), adjusting for the effect of all on-court teammates and opponents.

Remarkably, the top of the RPM leaderboard includes every player who has received prominent consideration for MVP this season -- along with late arrival Kawhi Leonard, the reigning NBA Finals MVP who has emerged as perhaps the league's most devastating two-way player following his return from early-season injuries.

We're admittedly a little biased -- as the designers of RPM -- but we believe the ability of RPM to peg every major MVP candidate is a nice indicator of the metric's validity. The metric says Curry has had the greatest per-possession impact of any player in the NBA this season.

Best player in the game:

LeBron James

Let's say the NBA playoffs were run like a pickup game and you could pick any active NBA player for your new roster. Whom would you take first?

In other words, who is the best player in the game?

We're not asking about the best player this season. We're asking: When everyone takes the court, who is expected to have the greatest positive impact?

We've designed another metric -- Predictive RPM -- to provide even better predictions of each player's future performance. This metric draws on three seasons of data to optimize predictive accuracy, as opposed to RPM, which uses only data from the current season.

According to the Predictive RPM leaderboard, LeBron James is still the best player in the NBA, with a greater expected impact than any other player in his upcoming games.

Then why does LeBron trail Curry (and Harden and Leonard) in RPM this season? Simply put, he got off to a rocky start with his new team (and coach) and battled an array of nagging injuries. Our analysis shows, however, that since LeBron returned from his nine-game hiatus in January, he has posted the best overall adjusted plus-minus value in the NBA.

Most wins generated:

James Harden

James Harden has a compelling claim to this season's MVP award: The Beard has generated more wins for his team than anyone else in the league. Even though Curry has had a greater RPM impact (8.87 versus 8.30 points per 100 possessions), Harden has played more than 900 more possessions this season -- the equivalent of more than six entire games.

As a result, he leads Curry and the rest of the league in wins above replacement (WAR), which reflects the combined effects of RPM and total possessions played:

Of course, the Warriors have been so good this season -- frequently jumping out to early, insurmountable leads -- that Curry has had the luxury of sitting out the end of numerous games, thus suppressing both his playing time and his ensuing WAR total. On the other hand, had Curry been forced to shoulder Harden's added playing time, he might have experienced a fatigue-induced (or injury-induced) drop in RPM impact.

Most electrifying player:

Russell Westbrook

We've all seen the highlights, the nightly displays of otherworldly athleticism, the reckless abandon in hurling his body from one end of the court to the other, the four consecutive triple-doubles, the box score lines that read like ridiculous typos. 49-10-16? Seriously?

There has never been a player who has played the way Westbrook has this season. That doesn't necessarily make him the most valuable player, especially given that his defense has been a net negative (according to RPM) and his team might not even make the playoffs, but it does make Westbrook arguably the most entertaining.

Best narrative:

Pick 'em

Yes, the MVP award should go to the most deserving player -- not the one with the most compelling narrative. It's not a storytelling contest.

Yet we find that narrative often seems to play a role. It boosted the candidacies of, for instance, Karl Malone, Steve Nash, Derrick Rose and, arguably, Kevin Durant. The LeBron storyline -- "best player on the planet" -- grew stale, and the narrative of Durant as the charismatic heir apparent was too compelling to resist, despite the fact that James outplayed him, according to some important metrics (RPM and WAR, for instance). Durant still earned it, but it helped that it was also "his turn."

Who has the best narrative this season?

We see it as a toss-up between Harden and Curry. That's fitting, as they're also -- by far -- the league's two most valuable players in terms of the wins they've added to their respective teams (WAR).They are, in essence, equally qualified for the MVP award, and each narrative is compelling as well.

Harden is the indispensable hero, the offensive superstar who shrugged off his reputation for matador defense, put his injury-riddled team on his broad back and carried them to NBA contention. Fear the Beard.

Curry is the baby-faced assassin. He's probably the best shooter the league has ever seen, and his multifaceted offensive game -- including an unprecedented ability to launch off the dribble, from anywhere, any distance, at any time -- has made a mockery of defenses across the league.

Curry might not look like the league's biggest alpha dog, but he's probably your new MVP. He's our pick too.