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

And the media made a stink about a few plays that were just awful defensively, and the narrative created was that he is one of the worst defenders in the league. The fact that he's not great on defense may certainly be true... but more of a big deal was made about Harden's lack of defense than any other player.

We might know that Love and Curry don't play great defense, but their lack of defense wasn't a "story". So people kind of brush it off.

So what the average fan thinks of James Harden:

He flops a lot so he scores most of his points on free throws. He's a ball hog. And he is the worst defensive player in the league.

There isn't much of a positive narrative coming from the media about James Harden. And most fans and even journalists do not watch more than a few Rockets games in a whole season. So everybody is basing their opinion off of the media narrative.

 

I agree with most of what you said, but you have to agree that there is a reason this "media narrative" was created in the first place.

 

In a nutshell, *** espn.

 

Wow, a lot of Harden haters on here. Pathetic. Y'all actually making excuses for ESPN.

 

**** ESPN LOAD OF FKN BS

 

Lol at Aldridge, Nowitski, Curry, Love, or Jefferson playing defense.

 

Screw ESPN, some things never change. I bet they are terrified that the Texans might draft Manziel.

 

#3 and #6 play for the same team.

Dwight hurt Harden's chances not because he is helping the team as well, but because he left ESPN's beloved Lakers no one can stand to recognize the Rockets.

 

Right. But I'm saying because there was a "story" about Harden's defense and analysts were calling him out specifically for it, he gets hammered for his lack of defense while other bad defenders get a pass.

 

I think the problem isn't that Harden didn't get votes, but that anyone besides Durant and James did. I know the panel members each cast 3 votes, but that's going to cause some weird outcomes on your 3rd choice votes after you use the first 2 on Durant and James.

But, mostly I think Fighton is right -- Harden and Howard are a tandem, which mutually eliminates them as 3rd place votes. Other guys like Love, Curry, Nowitzki, etc are seen as the only franchise players on their respective teams who have to carry the whole load by themselves. And then you get a couple irrational votes thrown in, like Griffin as a 1st-place vote getter.

So, ultimately, it doesn't matter. They're just ESPN and their opinion doesn't count for much. And the only vote-getters that matter are James and Durant, and their poll is probably at least accurate in predicting those two. The rest is noise.

 

but paul was out for quite a bit of the season and blake carried the team during that stretch.

and yes, believe it or not, people do see two all-stars on the team in harden and dwight. and yes, clippers have two as well but one was out for quite a while and the other carried the team to a better record then us.

 

Messed up list.

Harden is a legit top 5 MVP candidate and is having that kind of a season.

 

and btw i think paul is on there purely by reputation. he hasn't done enough THIS season to warrant it.

 

I hear ya. I was just implying that your defense has to be pretty freaking awful for there to be a story generated about it. It didn't happen to any of these other players.

 

Outside of JVG, no one really shows Houston any love. That Includes kenny smith tbh. Definitely nothin from that fat ass perennial loser Barkley. Lately, I noticed brent and webber giving us some props though.

 

Harden is indeed one of the worst defenders in the league. The other bad defenders at least try.

Even Kelvin Sampson said so and he not media.

 

Zach Lowes list

1. Kevin Durant
2. LeBron James
3. Stephen Curry
4. Joakim Noah
5. Blake Griffin

Apologies to: Nowitzki, Love, Harden, Howard, CP3, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Al Jefferson, Goran Dragic, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMarcus Cousins, Kyle Lowry, John Wall, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan.

Don't know if the players after the top 5 are in order or not, but in the article he mentioned Dirk and Love as his top most painful omissions so that could be his order all the way down.

 

Forgot the link

http://grantland.com/features/nba-awards-season/

 

I don't think anyone deserves to be MVP without a semblance of defense. Should he be on a list? Yes. But he'll always be a placeholder until he steps it up.

 

Not a fan of all the rationalizations for the snub in this thread. Those are good reasons why he's not getting first place votes. They are absolutely not good reasons why he is a worse candidate than Al Jefferson.

Personally, Harden's transformation into a legitimate point-guard-in-SGs-body more than makes up for the defense in my book. Throwing up P/A 20-10 games from the 2-guard slot isn't simple - in the last 15 years, only Wade and Iverson have done it as many times in a season as Harden this year. I'd have him as a strong #4 on my ballot (sorry guys, I really do buy the Griffin hype).