Rockets' MVP response tweet: good idea or bad idea?

It's Morey's fault that they couldn't beat the Warriors without their best player...at home?

 

"But they were classless first!!" isn't exactly a good look either.

 

It's actually the beast feeding us in return (national attention and relevancy). Keep feeding them Morey

 

Yup, Giannis and the Bucks had nothing to do with that ESPN tweet.

 

It makes us look petty. It was also a bad look that the Rockets and James scheduled a China trip during the time of the award ceremony, when that trip could have been easily scheduled around that date.

 

James and Chris didn't even shake the Warriors hands after losing to them at home - a lot more people noticed that than some might think.

As much as I hate to admit it, the tweet is sadly reflective of the leadership of the org right now. It's sad to see the org taking this path when they have not shown they can put together a championship team yet. Those who say shut up until you do something are right imo.

 

This falls into the "He's dead, Jim."/sunk cost thing. 2018-2019 season is over.

Would have preferred Congrats to the new MVP. We'll get you back next year, followed by Finals MVP or something prepping for the next season.

 

I guess I have a different mentality. If I'm competing against others and they are awarded something over me, I'm more likely to congratulate them than go out of my way to list the reasons why I think I deserved the award after all - especially when there are no objective measures for what should determine the winner of the award.

IMO, it's a weird world where not whining would be considered weak.

 

So, just because haters will hate we're gonna shut the ... up??

 

Yeah this wasn’t Westbrook winning bad. Giannis had a good case. Harden too. I do think some type of mentality may have swayed the group think towards Giannis. Voter fatigue, dislike of style or whatever, but I don’t think that’s THE reason Giannis won.

In the end the only thing that has driven me nuts about the debate was how WAY too many people were essentially saying on offense they were about equal, MAYBE Harden had a slight edge and that on defense it was Giannis by a landslide.

I just can’t get behind that. Harden is clearly the superior offensive player and Giannis is clearly the superior defensive player. If Giannis was really Harden’s equal on offense he should expect to win the MVP unanimously. For the next few seasons.

 

if you're talking about game 5, then i'd say why would they need to? technically the series hadn't been over yet and i notice that players usually shake hands, share congratulatory gestures after the series has been completed.

at the same time, i can't help but agree with your opinion of the organization, but why not also see it as the team's support for our MVP? i sensed no hate towards Giannis, who i believe edged out just enough popularity votes to win. and rightly so. he went on to lead the bucks to the conference finals only to lose to the eventual champs. if you ask me, getting further in the playoffs counted more towards winning the award

 

It's a classic "nothing to gain, everything to lose" situation. There's already a negative media perspective when it comes to the team and Harden. Why feed that? It's not that big of a deal but it's also something they should've rethought before pressing send.

 

Harden has deserved to be MVP at least 3 times now. I embrace and endorse the heel turn.

 

Playing devil's advocate for a second - Giannis's eFG% (which normalizes for 3 pointers being 50% more valuable) was still significantly higher than Harden's. Harden scored 36.1 ppg on 24.5 shots/game (a little under 1.5 points per shot) and Giannis 27.7 on 17.3 shots (1.6 points/shot). Certainly Giannis had better teammates, meaning it didn't make sense for him to take as many shots and he didn't see the same defensive attention as Harden. But efficiency matters. So does volume. How much they matter in comparison to each other is open to debate.

But between a VERY good offensive season, huge advantages in rebounding and blocked shots, being DPOY runner up, and closer to Harden in assists than you'd expect (5.9 vs 7.5), he's absolutely a deserving MVP, even before you consider that he led the best regular season team and helped take the eventual champs to a wild game 7 finish.

Before you torch me for saying that, Harden also would have been very deserving. I get being disappointed for your guy, but the idea that Giannis winning is somehow a massive insult / evidence of media bias just doesn't hold up. He had an incredible year.

 

I essentially agreed with and stated a little differently everything you said in my post. Giannis deserved it.

Scoring efficiency(not diversity)is about the only comparable thing offensively to me between the two. I don’t believe Giannis would be capable of keeping his efficiency as high as it was if he had to put up 7 more shots per game, but that’s just my opinion. Giannis has no touch outside the paint. It’s all bully ball and hey that can be really effective and it was for him this year, but it’s not diverse. Assist numbers be damned we all know Harden is a far superior passer and playmaker.

For me the eye test says Harden is the better offensive player and every single advanced offensive stat I have come across shows Harden as clearly the better offensive player. And like I said too many guys painting them as basically equals is the only thing in the debate that has really bothered me at all.

 

You're right, my comment about acting like Giannis didn't deserve the award was misdirected as a response to your post - that's more a response to the general tone I'm seeing on this board from lots of people.

I hear you on the bully ball comment, but it was obviously extremely effective this season. And stylistic critiques like that start to sound like a lot of people who dislike Harden because the Rockets style can be hard to watch.

Which advanced offensive stats are you referring to?

 

WHO CARES!!! What is wrong with backing your superstar who you feel got snubbed? Who cares what random NBA twitter soldiers think. It does not matter AT ALL.

 

I am sick and tired of Morey and the Rockets shamelessly drumming up Harden for MVP award every year.

It's classless.

 

I'd respond to your post, but it doesn't matter at all.

 

its not a bad idea though i d appreciate more if harden were to throw his mvp trophy into garbage can in front of cameras after its been awarded to giannis over him this year to show what he really think of credibility of this award and make his protest more impressive