I realize starting a thread will have no impact on the (already concluded) MVP vote, however on the narrative of Westbrook having 'no talent' around him, I thought I would look back at the so called experts and their pre-season predictions. Shockingly (not really) to us all, the Thunder polled ahead of the Rockets across the board, with almost every expert picking them to finish ahead. So who had less talent around them? ESPN preseason power rankings: 7th overall: Thunder 14th overall: Rockets http://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/17873365/nba-power-rankings-preseason-edition Fox Spots Thunder 45.5 wins Rockets 41.5 wins http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/2016-2017-nba-season-win-total-odds-and-predictions-092016 Bleacher Report (lol) Rockets 11th The Rockets did add talent during the offseason, and it was nicely spread throughout the roster. But this squad still lacks convincing depth Thunder 7th Westbrook has a palatable group of players surrounding him, the Thunder added plenty of talent by trading for Victor Oladipo and Ersan Ilyasova http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-projections-for-every-team-pre-training-camp CBS panel (5 judges) Rockets 42 43 45 47 45 Thunder 45 44 44 43 47 http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2...ons-each-teams-win-total-can-warriors-top-73/ Vegas preseason win total O/U Rockets 43 wins Thunder 45.5 wins That's it. Simple. Russ is banking on 'but he had no talent around him' as his MVP case, while Harden uses the old 'he made his team better'. It's an absolute no-brainer - clearly nobody thought Harden had a better cast around him at the start of the year (I'll put my hand up and confess I thought the OKC supporting cast were better pre-season, but thought Houston might finish with a similar win total because Harden is a better player). It's a re-write of history now for people to have voted Westbrick.
Narrative changed to "It's just a prediction. All it means is that they got the prediction wrong. Rockets are stacked, snipers everywhere you look. Russ is playing with a bunch of scrubs" YAWN
I think there was too much unknown. They thought they knew more about OKC.... it was basically Durant's team without Durant. Still a playoff contender.
brehs just don't realize, it's because of the beard. haren needs to be rid of it to be taken seriously.
the only poll that matters here... http://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NKE#...pbmVDb2xvciI6IiM0NWUzZmYiLCJyYW5nZSI6IjJ5In0=
