First Take: "Giannis is the better player, but Harden is the MVP"

Oh but he’s a better shooter also didn’t ya know? I won’t click......

 

Like I said, they were going to credit Giannis for the win w/ BS like this just because they won.

 

Harden is the better player, and Harden is the MVP

I’m not watching this BS

 

There is a GM survey in the offseason where I think they are asked who the best player in the league is. It will be interesting to see what they say after this year.

 

Just Noise. They call it TV.

 

This site looks at a bunch of different advanced all-in-one metrics and ranks the resulting best players via a weighted average of them:

http://craftednba.com/player-cats/king

It has Giannis #1, Steph #2, and Harden #3. Surprising to see Durant down at #8. LeBron dropped down to #7. Steph benefits from multi-year input.

The above is a per-possession ranking. Harden would take the number of one spot if you multiply the rating by total minutes to get an overall "value added" metric.

 

Giannis is a far better defender, but that's really about it. Harden has him beat everywhere offensively outside of dunking. I'd take Harden's passing/playmaking over Giannis' for sure. Harden has also experienced far more playoff success in a far more difficult conference, which seems to be overlooked.

So...I don't think it's a ridiculous claim, but it's yet another example of how nobody can say anything about Harden without using some qualifier to also take him down a notch lmao

 

Anyone got a summary I refuse to watch it lol

 

Calling Giannis the better passer is such a joke.

 

Harden has had a season for the ages but if Giannis ends up winning MVP, I won't have a problem with it. Idk who the better player is, each one has strengths and weaknesses, but Giannis has had a historically dominant season in his own right and his team's a legit championship contender. Obviously, I prefer that Harden gets it, but overall it won't be some kind of travesty if Giannis gets instead.

 

The total value stats all favor Harden which really is what should matter the most -- the actual value you outputted on the court for the regular season, not what you hypothetically would've done if you played 36 minutes or a full game.

I wouldn't call what they do an all-in-one metric. In their formula, they only use plus/minus statistics. Their formula also uses multi-year stats which really shouldn't be used for determining MVP. What any player did a previous season should be irrelevant in MVP discussion.

 

I wish we didn't have threads about this every single day. I understand the frustration for lack of respect but at this point just want to win championships. Regular season MVP's are great for Harden's personal legacy but as a fan of the Houston Rockets team, I just wanna win it all.

 

I'm curious if voters are willing to vote Harden MVP because they will give Giannis DPOY and Budenholzer COY.

Not sure if spreading the awards around is a thing they're concerned about or not though.

Either way, it doesn't make sense to have a Defensive Player of the Year and not an Offensive Player of the Year. Maybe because it's implied that OPOY would be the same as MVP, which would most definitely go to Harden if it really was OPOY.

instead, they don't have such an award so Harden is in danger of being left out of any award besides 1st Team All-NBA.

 

The sooner you guys realize that they literally just flip a coin to see which side they have to argue for the better.

It is an entertainment show, they argue against each other because its better for rating than them both agreeing on a subject.

 

What "Most Valuable Player" means year-to-year is completely malleable to the people that vote on it, so as much as I get caught up in the hype around it when our boy is a contender, I remind myself that they'll bend it how they will.

"Better player" or "best player" however...not budging on that. There's a lot more you can bring to that argument to lock it down. Harden is absolutely the BEST player out there right now. Even amongst some phenomenal seasons by others this year. And all the objective arguments for that are here on these boards, so I'm no even going to attempt to summarize the insanely long list of reasons.

 

These guys and all the talking heads don't give a damn about who the best player is. They just have time to fill so they talk and talk and talk.

 

I actually think these guys have a point

 

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

 

Gianis and Harden should team up.