The NBA's reigning Most Valuable Player still isn't prepared to join in the guessing about when he'll be ready to play again, although we continue to cling to our prediction here in Dimedom that the famously fast healer will be back in less than the originally forecasted two weeks.

In the interim, Dirk Nowitzki did consent to take a brief pause from his around-the-clock ankle rehab and the Dallas Mavericks' increasingly perilous standing in the Western Conference playoff race to help us with our MVP ballot, seizing an opportunity to change the subject from those gloomy pursuits when we called.

The official ballot, which is due into the league office in exactly 20 days, requires voters to rank their selections from 1-to-5. The following choices reflect Nowitzki's top-5 order entering the season's final 10-ish games, as well as mine.

Weekend Dime ranking: No. 1

Kobe's standout stats: 28.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 5.3 apg, 1.88 spg, 46.0 FG%

Dirk's comment: "He's the best player in the game and he's never won it before. He's had his injuries, his team [has] had injuries and they're still right up there in the West. They just beat us without [Pau] Gasol and [Andrew] Bynum. I think this is his time."

WD assessment: Best Player In The Game status is not enough for us. Ditto for Best Player To Never Win The MVP Award status. Bryant answers to both, but you could just name him MVP on opening night if those were the primary criteria.

The MVP has to have the best overall season to get our vote.

On this scorecard? With about 10 games to go, Kobe qualifies there, too.

As stated in this cyberspace a few weeks back, Bryant is basically doing everything we've been imploring him to do since Shaquille O'Neal left the Lakers. Dock him points, if you wish, for all the drama Bryant created from late May through Halloween, but then you have to recognize his unimpeachable focus, leadership and ferocity from the moment Lakers management told him on the eve of the season opener against Houston that he wasn't going to be traded.

Working in the conference of the century and possibly carrying the league's greatest expectations -- all while drawing more attention from opposing defenses than just about anyone going -- Bryant is playing the best team ball of his life while playing at an MVP level individually. At both ends.

Just last week, L.A. won in Dallas and Utah without Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, amid claims by Bryant's detractors that he wouldn't even be up here in the MVP reckoning if Memphis hadn't dropped Gasol in the Lakers' laps on Feb. 1. Bryant has to get some credit for Bynum's development as well as Pau's fast transition to a new team because his rivals in the MVP race are all getting the same kudos for the impact they have on their teammates. He's simply winning like he hasn't won since Shaq was a Laker, which is what separates this Kobe from the MVP outsider of the past three seasons.

Nowitzki's No. 2: Chris Paul

Weekend Dime ranking: No. 2

CP3's standout stats: 21.6 ppg, 11.4 apg, 3.9 rpg, 2.71 spg, 49.4 FG%, 37.3 3PT%

Dirk's comment: "He's a beast. I don't care how big he is. He's a beast. That high screen-and-roll they run, you can't guard it. They've had an amazing season."

WD Assessment: If Bill Simmons and I agreed on anything during our all-day podcast earlier in the week (see Box 4), it's that Paul has to win this thing if the Hornets finish with the best overall record in the West.

Has to.

Even after all of the above slobbering over Kobe, how can you deny Paul if the Hornets -- New Orleans? -- win the most competitive conference race ever?

Let's face it: Paul has been the season's best point guard in a conference overflowing with great ones. Even if he doesn't become the first player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 10 assists and three steals in one season, he's going to be the league's first 20-point, 10-assist guy since Tim Hardaway in 1992-93. He's also averaging a tidy 4.5 assists to every turnover -- not bad for someone who only has to make the play on every single possession -- and had powered New Orleans to a record of 5-1 in its games against Paul's three main MVP rivals (Lakers, Cavaliers and Celtics) entering Friday night's visit to Boston.

However …

If the Hornets don't win the West and the teams stay pretty close record-wise, I'm sticking with Kobe. Amazing as it is that the Hornets are even in the running for No. 1 in the West, given that they've yet to play a playoff game in the Paul Era, Bryant has the tougher job (at least to me) because of all the double- and triple-teams and junk defenses that he (and LeBron James) has to see, as well as those higher expectations. (No one ever said this job was easy, either.)

Weekend Dime ranking: No. 4

LeBron's standout stats: 30.7 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7.3 apg, 1.83 spg, 48.5 FG%

Nowitzki's comment: "When he puts his head down and goes to the basket, he's so strong that he does whatever he wants. And he's starting to take games over in the fourth quarter. He's the future of this league. He'll win plenty of MVPs. I wouldn't be too worried."

WD assessment: It must be some race if a guy basically averaging 31, 8 and 8 can't finish higher than third. (Or fourth.)

But that's the sort of race this is.

The Cavs have been playing short-handed all season thanks to contract issues early and injuries throughout. The big trade Cleveland swung at the trade-deadline buzzer likewise hasn't even lessened LeBron's load yet, with Ben Wallace hobbling and Wally Szczerbiak struggling to make the midseason transition.

The fact remains, though, that the Cavs are in a much easier conference yet are on pace to fall short of the 50 wins they've recorded in each of the past two seasons. Surely you haven't forgotten the oft-recited stat -- applied to LeBron and Kobe at various points over the past couple years -- which reminds us that Moses Malone stands as the last MVP from a team that failed to win 50 games ... all the way back in 1982-83.

It's true that Cleveland might be on a more impressive track than 46-36 had LeBron not missed five games from Nov. 30 through Dec. 8. But Kobe missing almost no time with a hand injury requiring surgery and thus more severe than LeBron's can't help James' case, even if the Cavs were simply taking advantage of the luxury they had in the easier East to play it safe and give their franchise player some bonus rest.

Team success has always been a major variable with us because the ultimate value in any individual's season is how much winning goes with it. Is it reasonable to expect Cleveland to have a better record in the East than its current mark of 23-19? Even accounting for all the issues mentioned above, I'd say so.

Weekend Dime ranking: No. 3

KG's standout stats: 19.0 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.44 spg, 1.26 bpg, 53.6 FG%

Nowitzki's comment: "I love what KG's doing. He plays the best all-around game."

WD assessment: I applaud KG for repeatedly saying recently that Paul Pierce is the Celtics' MVP.

But I liked it even better when I heard Pierce's response Wednesday, which pretty much echoed everything I've believed and spouted about KG all season.

Said PP: "The whole face of Celtics Nation turned around when the trade happened with this guy. Everybody talks about the MVP, and they talk about numbers, but this guy has changed the whole culture around here and I think that says a lot. The mentality, from a day-to-day aspect, everything is changed from a year ago."

Bingo.

Intensity-wise. Defensively. It all flows from No. 5. All the Celts have to do now is finish 5-6 to record the biggest single-season improvement in NBA history, besting the 36-win jump made by San Antonio in Tim Duncan's first season.

Dare I say they'll get those last five wins. And when they do, I simply won't be able to put Garnett any lower than No. 3.

Putting him that low, frankly, doesn't feel right, either.

Nowitzki's No. 5: Steve Nash

Weekend Dime ranking: Manu Ginobili is our No. 5

Nash's standout stats: 17.5 ppg, 11.2 apg, 3.4 rpg, 51.8 FG%, 48.2 3PT%

Nowitzki's comment: "There's always a case for Nashy."

Weekend Dime assessment: Pierce, Dwight Howard and Tracy McGrady all merit at least a mention here, as does Duncan, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer and/or Deron Williams, Baron Davis and, yes, Nowitzki.

Yet I'd be going with Ginobili if my ballot were due today because he's been the most dangerous and dependable Spur this season.

Think about that.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

Dimes Past: March 22-23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

One more line to boost Chris Paul's MVP campaign: Paul's Hornets awoke Friday morning with sole possession of the No. 1 seed in the West for the 25th time this season.

That's tied for second with Phoenix behind San Antonio, which has been No. 1 on 50 different mornings thus far.

Only six of the West's 15 teams have been alone in the top spot for even one day. They are:

Want more?

Paul's supporters will be pleased to know the most recent math passed on by our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau shows that the Hornets also have the best record in the conference against the rest of the West's top nine teams.

From Jan. 29 through March 15, Manu Ginobili started 21 times for the Spurs in a span of 23 games.

But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sent Ginobili back to the bench before their recent loss at home to Boston and says there will be no more flip-flopping.

Pop has decreed that Ginobili will remain in his sixth-man role for the rest of the season, meaning that Ginobili will finish the season with just 23 starts and thus ensuring that he'll receive the NBA's Sixth Man Award for the first time, probably unanimously.

"That's when we've played our best basketball historically and that's what we're going to stick with," Popovich said of using Ginobili as a reserve.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, joining the chorus of daily reminders about how rough life is in what has to be the most competitive conference race in league history.

If there's an NBA topic on your mind, chances are that Bill Simmons and Marc Stein -- who covered several more in addition to the aforementioned biggies -- got to it in their marathon B.S. Report podcast.

• Listen to the interview