By way of comparison, here’s teammate David Lee’s on/off numbers: the Spurs’ opponents’ offensive rating is 110.5 when he’s on the floor, 107.9 when he’s off. David Lee saves the Spurs 2.6 points per night when he plays. Ergo (*see?), David Lee is a better defensive player than Kawhi Leonard! The numbers say so!

Look, stats have value. But only if they also have context. For example: Leonard plays the most minutes of anyone on the Spurs. That means, in all likelihood, he’s on the floor with both good and bad defenders at any particular point of a game. If he anticipates a teammate is about to get crossed over, leaving a clear path to the basket, and he leaves his man to go help, but another teammate (a subpar defender, say), fails to rotate to Leonard’s man -- who then scores -- who gets the blame for that, statistically?

And at a game’s key moments, you’ll find Leonard on Stephen Curry or LeBron or whoever can do the most damage. Those players, being great, score against even the best defenders on occasion. It stands to reason if Leonard’s on them more often than anyone else on the Spurs, his individual defensive numbers might take a bigger hit than the guy guarding, say, Amir Johnson (not that there’s anything wrong with Amir Johnson).

Some have also argued that opponents have successfully neutralized Leonard defensively this season by simply taking his man out of the play -- leaving him in a corner or on the weakside -- and going four on four against the Spurs’ remaining, and lesser, defenders. But Leonard still gets “blamed” statistically for the resulting success opponents have if he’s on the floor, even though his guy didn’t score and had nothing to do with the play.

And, is it not possible that Leonard may well have slipped some defensively this season -- but only because he’s had to score 26 a night at the other end? These aren’t robots. Dudes will get tired having to carry the load at both ends of the floor -- which, again, only Leonard among the top MVP candidates has had to do every night.

Finally: which team, this morning, is still ranked number one in Defensive Rating this season? That would be the San Antonio Spurs, they of the he’s-not-as-good-defensively-as-you-think-he-is-Kawhi-Leonards.

Put it another way: you ask coach Gregg Popovich if he’d rather try and defend opponents with “The Klaw” on the floor or on the bench.

Didn’t think so, tough guy.

There is one legit case to make against Leonard, it says here: his relatively low assist totals -- 3.6 per game -- compared with the other MVP candidates. It is fair, if you are comparing, and we are, to note that Harden, Westbrook and James all excel at not only scoring, but creating easy, open shots for teammates with their passing. That is something that Leonard does not yet do on an elite level.

The case for LeBron James

Meanwhile, an MVP vote for James is never misplaced. He is, as he’s been the last seven or eight years, the best player in the league, still more capable than anyone of putting his prints all over a game. And at 32, with all the years of wear and tear, as well as the mental responsibilities of leadership on his shoulders, the numbers he’s put up this season are ridiculous: 26.3 points per game, on 54.5 percent shooting from the floor -- a better shooting percentage than Harden, Westbrook, Leonard or Durant -- along with career highs in rebounds (8.6) and assists (8.7).

The rebounds and assists are especially impressive. A lot of league MVPs have averaged more rebounds in their MVP years than James, and some have averaged more assists. But the last player to average as much or more in both categories in an MVP year was Wilt Chamberlain, in 1967-68, when he averaged 23.8 (!) rebounds and 8.6 assists.