PER rewards volume. Westbrook defined volume last year. There have been voters that specifically mentioned they voted for him because triple double. Literally, triple double.
You are devoting way too many keystrokes defending Westbrook. Harden's only failed year was when Ty Lawson and Dwight blew up the locker room and he was having sex with a Kardashian. Harden still got that team to the playoffs. Westbrook PG 13 Carmelo Brewer Adams Pat Patterson - Was a good 3 point shooter all of sudden sucks, defender Jerami Grant - Can shoot the 3, athletic, good rebounder, defender Felton - Can shoot the 3, good PG off the bench Abrines - Can shoot the 3 x3 other defensive athletic wings they have on the bench That is enough to get you 50+ wins. People were saying they should be 2nd or 3rd in the west. That is a good team. Not well coached, but they have plenty to be successful. Every time Westbrook underachieves, all of sudden he is playing with trash.
wesbrooks mvp last year was a joke. nobody in the modern era should win MVP with a team that only has 47 wins.
Let's get a few things straight, 1. Anyone that said the Thunder were a 1-2 seed are legitimately slow thinkers. 2. Being as the 3-10 seeds in the West are essentially tied, I'm not sure why this "3rd best in the West" prediction wasn't palpable to you. 3. It's amusing to watch enraged fans jump on Westbrook, but then massage their way out of James Harden's 41-41 season. (Or data dump SAS G5-G6) 4. Please, find me a playoff roster with a crappier 4-10. 5. WE ARE GOING TO BLAME WESTBROOK FOR PATRICK PATTERSON, RAYMOND FELTON, COREY BREWER, CARMELO ANTHONY, ALEX ABRINES? THIS. IS. CLUTCHFANSSSSSSSSS!
Why the "modern era" disclaimer? Just to suit your argument? I am a huge Moses Malone fan, so I vehemently disagree. (47-35 record for our Rockets the year Moses won) 31.6 PPG 10.4 APG 10.7 RPG .554 TS% 47-35... Now, come on. Harden is better than Westbrook, but are we really saying that these numbers are a joke? Sure, he stat pads. Know who else stat pads? An ass ton of NBA legends. David Thompson, George Gervin, Kobe & Shaq, Wilt Chamberlain, etc. James Harden. I think James deserved it, but that doesn't mean that WB didn't deserve it. After James, I think he was the clear number 2. What he accomplished was and still is remarkable.
Westbrook has chance to be like Kobe but instead he is choosing steave francis and Allen Iverson Route by just playing selfish...
This guy is funny. Westbrook has A+ talent and an F- brain. It is what it is. Get over it, Harden is and has long been the superior player, and RW, is as I said, overrated. Perhaps garbage is a bit harsh but you get the point. And I chuckled when you spoke of how phenomenal Westbrook played with Harden. Of course he did. Everyone does. And just like everyone else that plays with Westbrook, Harden left and became an Allstar. Slob WB if you like, but I personally think he sucks. (At least compared to how he's portrayed.)
Spoiler: James Harden took this team to 45 wins and the playoffs 2012-1013 his first year in Houston Beverley Garcia Parsons Omer Asik Jeremy Lin James Anderson Delfino TJ Greg Smith Spoiler: James Harden took this team to 54 wins with Dwight wanting 50 futile postups a game in 2013-2014 Bev Parsons Dwight Omer Lin Troy Daniels Garcia Terrance Jones Spoiler: James took this team to 56 wins no starting PG to the WCF in 2014-2015 Terry Ariza TJ Dwight Pablo Prigioni Nick Johnson Corey Brewer Josh Smith Clint Spoiler: Harden took this team to 55 wins when everyone said EG and Anderson were trash players in 2016-2017 Bev Ariza Anderson Clint EG Dekker Montrezl Nene These teams are comparable or worse than what MVP Westbrook has now. Did I mention Mchale was the coach for a majority of these teams? No one was blaming Terry and Prigioni on Harden.
You are missing the point. No one here is saying Westbrook is better than Harden. It doesn't mean that Westbrook didn't deserve MVP last year, nor that Westbrook isn't an excellent basketball player.
I'm not missing the point. You think Westbrook is doing just fine with the talent he has on his team. I don't think Westbrook is doing enough.
Well you say that but Harden being a better player than Westbrook kind of does mean that Harden and not Westbrook deserved teh MVP last year.....and Westbrook isn't an excellent basketball player. He's arguably the most detrimental player to his team in the entire league. I mean I guess the stat padding impresses some, but given that he does so at the expense of his team...it really shouldn't impress anyone. He's not a top 5 player in the league and probably isn't a top 10 player in the league.
Certainly a down year, it happens to even some of the all-time greats. 41-41, Game 6, etc. Hell, even Dream had some crappy years in between the 80s and the mid 90s. Still, 47-35. How many games with his roster would be acceptable in the West? 50? 52? I am really not sure what you guys expected OKC to do this year. High hopes huh? Or buying into the ESPN narrative? Or creating the anti-narrative? Carmelo Anthony is the 4th best player on the team, and he is probably not a top 100 player in the NBA. That's about all you need to know concerning the OKC roster.
because if your team is not one of the best teams in the league you should automatically be disqualified for winning mvp. i used the modern era disclaimer because certain **** from a long time ago should not be relevant in modern times like guys winning mvp with a losing record or winning finals mvp and not winning the finals. westbrook didn't deserve it at all over harden. harden had comparable numbers on a team that had a better record. maybe the rockets should have let capela and nene sacrifice rebounds so harden could have got that extra 2 a game to average a triple double,
NAME me one MVP in the last 30 years with less than 50 wins. When you're the MVP, you're expected to lead your teams to win, not padding stats. Westbrook needs more help. So why did he get MVP then? What MVP in the last 30 years was on a team with less than 50 wins?
But no one stat pads like russel, the okc organization and the coaching staff are all behind him getting triple doubles. He would be a double double or probably just a scorer if they didn’t have Steve Adams and if their players didn’t box out for him and get the rebounds. Adams even taps rebounds to Russ. The fact that Oscar Robinson got his triple double when they didn’t even record it back then is amazing but Russ is all intentional. That’s the only reason they got PG13 to go there and Carmelo to agree to be traded. Okc wanted Russ to win the mvp to get good or great free agents to go there. But all of his stats are padded. He averaged 31 ppg or so with a lot of attempts and low percentage. His rebounds were fixed by the team I bet their game plan is box out so Russ can get rebounds. A lot of them are tipped or he jumps into his team mate and the bigger player just lets him have it. His assist are usually or mainly to Adams and many of those are bail outs or bad passes. If they didn’t have Adams he wouldn’t get those assist because he has a great touch and great hands. He only passes when he knows he will get an assist. He doesn’t pass it to players that might need to pass the ball again to get a better shot.
Who is Portland’s 4th best player? Aminu, Turner? Portland is the superior team and they’re not loaded with quality depth. Westbrook is the reigning MVP. George is an all-star and Adams is one of the best defensive centers in the league. I expected them to be better than Portland who’s best player (Lillard) struggles to make the all-star team. Who is San Antonio’s 4th best player this season since Kawhi is out? Green? Gasol? No excuse for OKC to be on the same level as them either. You can malign OKC’s bench, but their best five-man lineup was Westbrook/Roberson/George/Melo/Adams and they were only +3.0 per 100 possessions. Even their starting lineup is mediocre. Westbrook is just difficult to build around due to his combination of high usage and average to below average efficiency. He can’t play off the ball and forced Durant to do so during his time there, even though Durant is one of the best scorers in the league and excellent in iso. Westbrook is an insane talent and I kind of respect his unwillingness to change his game, but I wouldn’t want to build a team around him as a main piece at all. I’d rather have a player with fewer accolades but is easier to build around like Lillard. Far less challenge there.
You'r arguing for the sake of it. The point OP and many of us made is that he's averaging another near triple double with essentially the same record as last year yet he's not even in consideration for MVP. Harden OTOH is averaging fewer assists and rebounds and is the considered frontrunner. It reinforces the idea that WB shouldn't have won it last year and not get it this year if we are rewarding stats over wins. History will not look kindly on WB's MVP Award.
The analyst saying how Harden quit in the Spurs game, is merely their guilty conscience talking. They know Harden carried the team to an incredible record, but they went with the sexy stat. Even though Westbrook’s production didn’t translate to wins. Harden can impose his will on games when it matters most; this is in regards to 5-8 minutes spans in time critical to the game - not just last minute shots. MVP’s have a knack to dictate the momentum that gets the wins.
That 31.6 PPG was on the highest usage rate in NBA history by a good margin, and the TS% of .554 is nothing more than league average these days (.552 last year, .556 this year). Remember, we're directly comparing this to a guy who scored 29.1 PPG on an elite TS% of 61.3. Assists are also directly tied to that insanely high usage rate. Now I'm not discrediting him completely in this category, but without the insane usage rate he's not sniffing a triple double. Rebounds are a joke, yes.
