James Harden is gonna get screwed over again in MVP Voting

Which all has a grain of truth to it unfortunately. Now to be fair, those accusations are over-blown out of proportions, but since when do objective facts matter, right? It's all about perception. Harden is just not likeable on a gut level, and it's something that Houston fans have to deal with.

 

I get that Nash was a media darling, but Kobe finished 4th!

I mean, he basically didn't have a chance to win even tho he averaged 35 ppg and had an 81 point game and a game in which he dropped 62 in 3 quarters. The media wants to talk about Westbrook not having any help , but Kobe had Smush Parker and the world-renowned bust Kwame Brown in the starting lineup. Nash averaged 19 and 11 which is impressive, but Kobe's 05-06 season is still talked about to this day. The hypocrisy from the media is annoying. If Kobe couldn't get it back in 06, then don't flip the switch now and award Westbrook for having amazing numbers on an above average team. It's no coincidence that Kobe's MVP came when he had worse numbers but his team won 12 more games than it did in 06. Now all of the sudden we have people saying that all Westbrook has to do is make the playoffs or be the 5th or 6th seed. Since when is that enough to be the MVP?

 

Some other interesting stats I found:

For Harden:

• He is 2-16 from 3PT vs. Golden State (12.5%)
• vs. Utah he is averaging just 7.7 apg and 4.3 rpg
• His ORtg vs. Cleveland is 145!, 2nd only to 149 vs. NYK
• His TS% vs. LAC is 74.7%!!!

For Westbrook:

• His Usage rate vs. Utah is 50.9%!
• His ORtg is below 100 vs. CLE and GSW
• Out of the 9 teams, he only averages a triple-double vs. CLE
• He is a perfect 17-17 at the free throw line in 2 games vs. WASH

 

When it comes to precedent and convention in regards to MVP voting, it is apparent that can ALL be thrown out the window this year with Westbrook's triple double. It apparently is the unicorn stat and if achieved, nothing else matters.

Player A did X,Y,Z....."yeah, but"... "triple double" yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

Somebody email this to Stein and other ESPN 'analysts' :


Against top 10 teams by record :

Westbrook : 30.2 PPG 9.8 RPG 9.4 APG on 39.3 FG% and 53.1 TS%

Harden : 28.8 PPG 7.5 RPG 11.3 APG on 44.7 FG% and 61.2 TS%


Against top 10 defensive teams :

Westbrook : 30.2 PPG 11.1 RPG 10.0 APG on 39.6 FG% and 53.6 TS%

Harden : 28.9 PPG 8.5 RPG 11.0 APG on 43.3 FG% and 60.3 TS%


http://basketball.realgm.com/player/Russell-Westbrook/NBA/759/2017/By_Season/Per_Game/Regular_Season

http://basketball.realgm.com/player/James-Harden/NBA/1598/2017/By_Season/Per_Game/Regular_Season


As Cowherd pointed out the other day, WB really feasts on weaker teams, while mightily struggles against elite opponents, especially scoring efficiency wise. If you consistently shoot under 40% against top teams of the league, and can't even put up league average TS% even with all those help from the free throws, how is this guy considered an MVP?

This is my main gripe against WB. Unlike other people, I'm actually impressed by his play-making ability; I think it is underrated and needs re-evaluation. But everyone keeps forgetting that WB is still not a very good scorer. Yeah, he leads the league in scoring, but that doesn't mean he should. He's only top scorer because he takes most shots by far with historically high usage rate. No other MVP in recent memory other than Iverson was this inefficient scoring wise, but at least Iverson led his team to the top seed in his conference.

 

I agree that they are partly true, especially the traveling one but I also agree that they are blown out of proportion.

I mean no matter what he does, he will be defined by this because of how much he has been typecasted.

We can criticize any players for gimmicks that are partly true. Kobe always offensive fouled, steve nash always palmed the ball, and lebron always travels.

I mean westbrook has had a worse season on defense than harden by certain metrics but some people are using westbrooks defense as an arguing point against hardens mvp candidacy.

This is why I supported javale being annoyed with shaq. That type of stuff does damage your reputation more than it seems at first.

Once your are put in a box and defined a certain way, it can be difficult to escape that box in the eyes of many.

 

He's always going to be in the conversation because of who he is.

However he's not an actual contender for MVP. He has zero case over Harden or Leonard. You could, funny enough, legitimately choose him over Westbrook.

 

You are def right that it comes down to not being likable on a gut level.

He has a rare combination of introversion and conceit that really bugs people.

If you are an introvert than you need to come across as extremely humble and a good soldier like kawhi.

At the end of the day, i think harden has burned a lot of media relationships with his introversion, sensitivity, and conceit. I remember stephen a used to say harden was the most sensitive/ standoffish player he ever met.

You can only get away with the conceit and arrogance if you are really extroverted in the eyes of the public.

Standoffishness really bugs the public. They hate it when they cant tell whats going on in your mind.

Harden isnt what people want out of an athlete. He is more along the lines of what the public wants out of lead guitarists in rock bands. Shy, introverted, awkward, and weird but insanely confident, arrogant, and standoffish. Like john frusciante lol

 

look at his shooting against winning teams, lots are under 40 percent

 

Looking forward to Harden cleaning up on MVP votes and winning this thing. And of course the subsequent "greatest MVP snub OF ALL TIMES!!!???" headline on sportscenter.

 

Westbrook does not play harder, that is such a massive misconception about him. Just because he takes crazy shots and plays at a fast pace, people think he plays hard.

he is a ball hog as well, he could easily make his team and team mates better if he passed more

 

Yup, I've always said that Harden being named Shaqtin' A Fool MVP will incur much more damage to his basketball career than you'd expect, and even some people on clutchfans last year took it as some kind of harmless joke. No it's not; it has serious ramifications.

We live in an age where contents on Vine, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and other social media platforms shape reality and people's view of the world. At one time, the most popular google search term regarding Harden was 'Harden's defense'. If 15-16 season didn't exist, and Harden's current performance followed his excellent 14-15 stint, I guarantee you that the support for Harden would have been much greater.

 

I'm not going to let this stress me out anymore. At this point Harden's reputation is what it is and there's only one way of fixing that.

And it's not by winning an MVP. So I'll focus my attention on the only thing that matters for Harden to do.

 

howard beck on nba tv just gave his top 5

1. harden
2. leonard
3. lebron
4. westbrook
5. durant

*did say he has the right to change his mind by seasons end

first time i've seen any media guy have westbrook that low

 

Does he have a vote?

Did he explain why he thought Harden was #1 and Westbrook was #4?

 

i caught the very end so all i heard was his reason for harden was the unexpected record

 

The other guy Bill Reiter (CBS) had...
1a. Lebron. Sounds like Lebron is his guy right now.
1b. Leonard
1c. Harden
4. Westbrook
5. Thomas

Don't know if he has vote or not.

 

You better remember them they won titles with Ginobili on their team lol

 

How in the world is Lebron the MVP right now? Worse record than the Rockets and he has 2 other stars with him?!?

Harden
Kawhi
Westbrook
Lebron

 

Worse stats than Harden too