The Rockets need to keep winning if Harden is going to be MVP

The award is not called 'Best Player on the Best Team', it's the most valuable player. The most valuable athlete on the planet is James Harden.

 

Well they’re not winning..,.

 

Rockets need to go 17-8 to get to 50 wins. And hopefully get the 4th seed over the Blazers. And Harden needs his 30+ streak to keep going. And Harden needs a few more "signature wins" like upcoming national TV games vs LAL and GSW.

Otherwise, Giannis' stats + Team Success is going to carry him with voters.

Heck, Paul George being "2 way" plus offense plus team success will get votes. OKC could get the #2 seed in the West. That will REALLY help his case.

Too bad the Rockets pissed away games and pissed away the chance at the #3 seed because that REALLY would have helped.

 

Yeah that loss last night dropped Harden 4% points on basketball references mvp odds tracker. Haven’t seen that big of a 1 game jump in a while.

Giannis is going to win it.

 

That tracker really counts TEAM WINS big. But the tracker doesn't have a "historical narrative" angle. The same type of angle that propelled Westbrook.

 

That’s true, but it seems WBs season was much, more favorably received by the media.

 

I don't think Harden's run has nearly the same cache with people that Westbrook's did from from a media perspective. Westbrook got nearly universal praise from older players in the media as well as the new media heads. Harden is pretty split with accusations of being a ballhog and a lot of older players saying "anyone" could do what he's doing if they tried to. As I listened to NBA radio today it was unanimous with every host that Giannis is the MVP with multiple saying it's "not even close."

I don't care what the odds tracker says, if we are barely a 50 win team and the 4 seed I'd be shocked if Harden wins the MVP and that seems like an optimistic scenario.

 

Yup, The TEAM WINS thing is hard to overcome right now. We'll see how things shake out on the media aspect with the final 25 games.

 

Regarding attrition and workload....it is interesting how aesthetics play a role.

Consider this.......

Wesbrook's high flying mean mugging style

Harden's measured and efficient style.

Both have a HUGE workload. But HOW it is looked at by the media/fans translates in how they feel about the player.

This is why the "triple double" streak gets more weight over Harden's scoring/assisting.

 

The national narrative has completely shifted back to ******** on harden. Everyone that was licking his boots after the GS game have regressed to the norm.

We’re definitely going to have to get to 50 for harden to get the mvp again.

 

He's his team's best defensive player, rim protector, rebounder, playmaker, slasher, offensive player.
Without him they lost to Orlando by 20 points at home.

I'm not saying who deserves to win more, but to say so casually who is the most valuable athlete is just epidermic analysis and biased.

 

Harden not winning the MVP. I think he's the best offensive player in the NBA but past 4 games he's has been just stats padding.

 

Right now Harden is favorite at -250 here:

https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/sports/navigation/830.1/8047.1

Which means he has ~71% chance of winning the MVP.

 

When he was asked about being considered for MVP (after the Rockets' game), Giannis replied "I don't know if I'm at that level." In contrast to most of his peers, who love to boast about themselves, his humility is quite refreshing

Giannis deserves it and his play speaks for itself.

 

Harden is on a better run than Westbrook was only stat that favors Russ is vorp and bpm. So what’s the issue... colorism

 

Need to KEEP winning? How about START winning? This is the most unfocused, undisciplined, and badly coached Rockets team in a long time. They don’t play defense ( give layup after layup), they don’t get defensive rebounds, they brick at least 35-40 3’s every game (instead of getting closer for higher % shots - the whole 3 is more than 2 story is nonsense), and D’Antoni does not know when to call a timeout and/or can’t tell them to play with energy in the 3rd quarter.

 

They're both good, but no one is comparing Giannis to Wilt or Michael Jordan or Kobe. That isn't a knock on Giannis' year, but James Harden is clearly better. He's not more popular, he's not the new shiny thing, he's just better and he's been at an MVP level for 4/5 years.

#Harden4MVP