James Harden forgotten by ESPN's "analysts" in their MVP forecast

Everyone I saw on that list gives SOME effort on D.

 

doesn't matter - harden has essentially been the 3rd best player in this year for a great portion of the season and is undoubtedly the reason we are so good. to not have him included is ridiculous.

 

I'm ok with it. You have to have perfect attendance to get them astroworld tickets.

 

Sure, Harden is the 5th best scorer, but where would you rate him as a defensive player?

That's why he's not even in most people's 2nd tier of MVP candidates.

In a nutshell, if you don't play consistent defense, you're not going to get MVP credit unless you are truly dominant on the offensive end. IE, you better be a top 2 or 3 scorer in the NBA (Durant/LBJ/Melo type numbers).

 

tanks a lotz Dwert

 

Harden is amazing, and should no doubt be on a list of 10+ MVP candidates, but to me this is not a big deal. Plus, MVP and best player are two completely different discussions. Maybe the fact that the Rockets were 6-2 without Harden this year had something to do with the slight.

 

Where would you rank Curry defensively? He shouldn't be there either if we're taking that into account. Same with PG's offense.

 

Harden is just as good at D as Curry or Nowitszki

 

The problem is neither of them are the worst defender in the league. You just don't see from them what you see from Harden every night. He literally stands there and lets people blow by him and half-heartedly goes for the steal. Everyone sees this happen, and it makes an impact.

 

Are you rating "offensive dominance" purely on points per game...

But yeah Al Jefferson, Goran Dragic, Kevin Love and Stephen Curry sort of run against that theory of yours.

 

I hope Harden realizes this! Maybe this will light a fire in him for the playoffs, you know to prove people wrong. This same but different scenario happend when Olajuwon was snubbed in favor of David Robinson in 1995 for the MVP trophy.
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LMAO at people ITT giving harden crap for defense yet are the same people who say Dirk is a horrible defender and just lol at curry defensively.

wait love is also on there? lmao dude is legit frightened when he defends people in the post its pathetic

 

I don't agree with any of them being in the list either. You could *maybe* make an argument for Curry, but if you're going to include Curry you might as well include Harden.

Personally, I suspect if Harden didn't take so many defensive plays off, he would have gotten more consideration.

 

Isn't Kevin Love dead last in terms of opponent FG% in the paint when he is on the court?

 

Yeah, why are we rationalizing this? This is an absolute outrage!!! Good thing that ESPN analysts don't matter in the big scheme of things......

 

Harden is a top scorer and a great playmaker, not to mention really clutch.. to say his defense should leave him out of MVP voting is a ridiculous argument. Look at it this way - even with his lackluster defense he still carried his team to the 5th best record..

Other reasons this argument is weak:

Dirk, Curry and Love are on this list.. seriously?

STEVE NASH WON 2 MVPs.

 

Rebounding is widely considered a defensive stat. And I wasn't talking about ability to PLAY defense, I was talking about EFFORT. You don't see those other players constantly getting clowned by the media about their lack of effort on D. James' own coach even said he doesn't give effort on defense. Are there any other coaches out there criticizing these other players efforts on D?

 

A bad defensive player get no a love for MVP race, that is fine for me. I hate any player who can not play a solid defense, so no MVP for Harden until he can improve his defense.