James Harden is gonna get screwed over again in MVP Voting

If Harden would've won the MVP in '15, do you think he would be more, or less likely to win it this year?

 

Harden would have zero, like...literally zero, chance of winning this year if he won in 2015, because in that case, it would have been Harden's superior individual season overcoming Curry's team-success, which I would be completely fine with, because at least some semblance of consistency/precedent would be in place if Westbrook were to win this year, rather than the blatant biased takes being thrown around right now that directly contradict 2015.

 

I agree with you. I think the possibility of Harden missing out on the MVP for a second time would be brutal

 

Harden's got it baby.

 

less likely unless he was averaging a triple double this year as well

it's hard for me to imagine the media making Harden a 2x MVP

also, if Harden had won it back in 2015 then I honestly wouldn't be as invested in the MVP race this year...Harden getting 1 MVP is good enough for me

 

Harden getting killed by the runner up and his team (Curry and the Warriors) would have been a huge story and would have greatly diminished his chances of winning another MVP.

 

This guy is a warrior.

 

The most powerful predictor of MVP among all existing stats is Win Shares :

http://popgates.com/projecting-the-nba-regular-season-awards/

"In studying the Most Valuable Players of the last 30 years, I focused primarily on the advanced statistics Player Efficiency Rating (PER), Win Shares (WS), Box Plus-Minus (BPM), and Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). One aspect I also tracked was whether or not a given MVP played for the best team in the regular season. In the last 30 years, the representative frequency of the MVP leading the league in each statistic was 43% (PER), 56% (WS), 40% (BPM), and 47% (VORP). The MVP was also on the best regular season team 56% of the time. These percentages tell me that there is a good likelihood that this year’s MVP will lead the league in one or more of these categories."

Leading the league in WS is an equally strong a marker of MVP as finishing with the best team record (56%)

Harden leads the league in WS, 2nd in BPM and VORP, and 3rd in WS/48 and PER.

Westbrook leads the league in PER, BPM, and VORP, but he's only 5th and 9th in WS and WS/48.

Kawhi is 2nd in WS,WS/48 and PER, but only 5th and 8th in VORP and BPM.

LeBron is 7th in WS, 8th in WS/48, 6th in PER, 4th in BPM, and 3rd in VORP.

Harden is the only player who is top 3 in all major advanced statistical categories (except RPM.) He also has the best TS% among MVP candidates, and 2nd best team record.

Due to this consistency factor, basketball-reference has Harden way ahead in this MVP race

http://static.bkref.com/friv/mvp.html

 

Eh.

Harden isn't going to win MVP.

Legit no one in the media aside from a few say Harden is their MVP. They all give it to Westbrook and then Kawhi.

Every media person has this scoff followed by a look of disgust when someone even mentions Harden in the convo.

Just lol.

You guys can sit here and discuss stats and why he should be. And he really should be MVP. But media personalities are usually uneducated idiots. They're not gonna vote based on logic.

Harden as MVP ain't happening boys.

 

The people on ESPN aren't as stupid as we think, or maybe they are. They see the same GM polls and media polls that we see. They know James is the MVP and the gap is wide. Now they are pushing hard to sway as many voters as that can to Westbrook. They are simply trying to close the gap. It's just to make sure if Westbrook is not 1st on most polls, then he'll be second. That makes a big difference in the total votes at the end.

Plus, they don't have anything else to talk about besides March Madness. They don't even report facts anymore.

 

fwiw:



still hafta believe if you reverse which player has which stats, Lillard still wins, citing "Lillard with an amazing 4 triple dubs in one week."

 

This isn't a normal MVP year. The criteria is not objective. For many, the criteria is entirely narrative-based. These stats are great, and show Harden obviously being the MVP, but that's not the criteria this year. The criteria for many this season is "who would be the most fun to see win MVP", and 9 times out of 10 that is going to be Westbrook.

 

Its Hardens to lose

 

Less, surely. People would be giving Russ every last benefit of the doubt.

 

If Harden loses it will be the greatest injustice in NBA history.

 

This golden state/okc game is going on ten minutes of straight coverage by sportscenter. Awesome that OKC got routed but it'd take 10 Rockets games to get 10 minutes of coverage.

 

It's over. JH13 go and grab that trophy

 

He's my MVP

 

If Harden had the game/results Westbrook had tonight, the media would declare this race over tomorrow.

Westbrook will rise again, soon, though. He'll have a triple double the next game and none of this will matter.

Harden's the MVP, though. We all know it.