It's still early, but there's been a lot of talk by the media regarding who is the MVP so far this year and who is likely to win this year. Lebron and Durant have dominated the conversation, Carmelo Anthony has been suggested and of late Chris Paul has been mentioned. One name that hasn't been talked about by the national media is our own James Harden. I'll admit his defense drives me a little nuts, but what he's done so far this year should have him in the discussion for MVP. Tonight's performance in the fourth quarter was insane. He was a one man army on the final possessions and the T-Wolves had no answer. It's time to get people talking about Harden as an MVP candidate. Our record still needs to improve, but if we can continue winning and end up with 45+ wins with Harden the same numbers he should be in the running!
No. Like it or not, a big part of being MVP is having the team to back the player up. Houston is overachieving but compared to league-leading players in Melo and Durant? No. Plus Durant beats Harden in most statistical categories.
He might be in the conversation, but Lebron and Durant are obviously better players doing work on actual contenders. He won't really be "in the running."
As long as Lebron and Durant dominate and make it to their conference finals, no one else will be MVP
He'll be top 5 at best, but Durant and Lebron are going to duke it out for MVP this season and they'll win every MVP for the next 5 seasons. I'll take Harden over Melo though. Melo is overrated and he is certainly not the reason for the Knicks success this season.
Kobe will most likely also enter the discussio once the Lakers pick it up. I just don't see Harden in it for right now.
MVP ranking Lebron Durant Melo Kobe(assuming the Lakers recover) Harden?? If he can get 5th, I'll be reallyhappy.
I admit he's very unlikely to win at this point, but I wanted to get the conversation going at least on this forum. You hear home crowds chant M-V-P for their star players even when they're nowhere in the discussion. I just think as fans we should start creating some noise for the guy and to not even have a thread about him being MVP this year seems odd. Sometimes you guys are too rational and objective, but then again it does help make this board the best out there.
Chanting M-V-P when he shoots free throws would be a nice boost, but that is different from actually suggesting he should be the MVP, which was the tone of your first post. I agree, it would be cool to chant for him though.
Realistically, a team needs to win at least 65% of their game for one of its players to win MVP. Last 20 years: Code: [B]Yr Player Tm Win%[/B] 11/12 LeBron MIA 70% 10/11 Rose CHI 76% 09/10 LeBron CLE 74% 08/09 LeBron CLE 81% 07/08 Kobe LAL 70% 06/07 Dirk DAL 82% 05/06 Nash PHO 66% 04/05 Nash PHO 76% 03/04 Garnett MIN 71% 02/03 Duncan SAS 73% 01/02 Duncan SAS 71% 00/11 Iverson PHI 68% 99/00 Shaq LAL 82% 98/99 Malone UTA 74% 97/98 Jordan CHI 76% 96/97 Malone UTA 78% 95/96 Jordan CHI 88% 94/95 Robinson SAS 76% 93/94 Hakeem HOU 71% 92/93 Barkley PHO 76%
The rule of thumb for MVP has always been 50+ wins. Anyways, even if Harden doesn't win, I think everyone here knows Harden's value. Awards don't really mean anything to me. It's nice to see players that I like and players on my team win it, but it doesn't change him in a historic standpoint. Awards are voted by writers, is there really much of a difference between a casual fan and a voter besides the fact that the voter has a journalism degree? Probably not.
If Harden wins the mvp this year, his max (25% of the cap) contract becomes the supermax (30%), as he doesn't have the nba team or all star selections to get the 2x for it so far, can I say no thanks? lol