[Lowe Post] Howard Beck "leaning hard" Giannis, Lowe at a standstill

Beck's statement that Harden was a reason for slow start is not backed up by showing that Harden was slightly below his MVP numbers of last year, before going Super Saiyan.

as @BigMaloe says: that is weird logic.

 

His 114 could easily be randomness like I said. He wasn't playing bad by any means and to reflectively say he was is asinine at best and saved for hot take artists who dont watch basketball.

The begining of the year our entire chemistry was shot. Our offense was shot. Our pacing, our spacing was all shot.

Melo was in there messing things up badly.
Trying to get used to new teammates was messing things uo.
Learning new rotations was messing things up.
Regression from main stays was messing things up.
Complacency from the prior year was messing things up.

What wasn't?

I'll give you 1 solid guess.

Harden, was his absolute self but the team around him was in disarray. It took 11-14 games to figure things out.

 

So what MVP was really about during the Nash and Duncan era.

Getting other players to score as well.

Given the horrible start, of course the chances are getting worse. Harden made history with individual numbers but his assist numbers are not at an alltime high.

Sure the role player sucked but it won't matter to the voting.

 

How is Giannis better than him? Harden has way more to his game, and he certainly doesn't need a good coach and his teammates like Giannis does.

All Giannis can do is bully his away to the paint and then do that stupid predictable spin move to a layup or dunk..... over shorter players. He can't shoot the 3 pointer, the mid-range, the fade shot, the post shot, he can't iso, his passing isn't that great, and he's definitely not a good dribbler. The only advantage Giannis has over Harden on the offence is rebounding, layups and dunking..... and that's because he's 6ft 11. To be honest with you, Giannis hasn't really got that good of a post offence game. Watch the Rockets game as an example for that.

Compare the stats for Giannis from last season, you'll see there isn't that much of a difference. They only made the playoffs by like 5 games last year. The reason his record is much better is because of the coach and his teammates contributing more. Just like if Harden had a talented coach and consistent help from his teammates, his record would be better than it is. Put Giannis in this Rockets team and put Harden in that Bucks team, the Rockets ain't finishing in no playoffs..... not with all injuries they've had this season. If Harden was in the Bucks, they would probably have around 65 wins by now. It's a miracle the Rockets have the record they have now with the amount of injuries they've had.

The MVP is an individual award, not a team award. It should go to the best player in the league, and that player is clearly Harden.

 

Blames Harden for his team mates not making shots........

 

the nba has the worst hall of fame, and the worst media members among the 4 major sports leagues in america

 

You have all sorts of excuses at the ready for removing literally all responsibility from the team’s best player, and highest usage player, on a horrendous start to the season.

If you wish to suppose that Harden’s drop in efficiency earlier in the season was purely attributed to randomness and teammates screwing up chemistry, and he shouldn’t be held responsible for any of it, go ahead. Others can come to their own conclusions.

 

Reading through the nonsense, I've come to the conclusion LeBron should have been the one winning all of the MVP's over the years.

MTP means Most Talented Player. MVP means Most Valuable Player.

Harden deserved it last year. This year he is putting up Westbrick style numbers.

 

No. He's been putting up big numbers whilst his teammates have been injured for a lot of games.

 

Harden was our highest usage offensive player. Any dip in his efficiency on that end, even if you call it “slightly down”, has a significant effect on our overall offense. And on the defensive end, he has to take a share of the blame in our horrible defense at the beginning of the year, because a lot of what the Rockets do defensively is specifically designed to make up for his shortcomings on that end or to save his energy on that end.

You can’t disregard all of that and say he has nothing to do with our poor start while he has virtually everything to do with our turnaround.

 

The cost of getting that bum Melo on board.

Cost Rockets the wins at the start, home court advantage, and Harden the MVP.

Chris Paul and Harden were trying too hard to get Melo involved.

Dont tell me the team didnt pay for it.

Should have never signed that scrub.

 

At this point doesn't matter. They are NOT gonna give it to harden again. They will holler about its close etc etc but it will go to the guy who plays in Milwaukee. Funny how Giannis can have a relatively average game and harden is required to score 50 or 60 to even keep the MVP discussion alive. .

 

If Westbrook was as efficient as Harden he’d be locking down his 3rd straight MVP.

 

Harden will sometimes play himself into peak shape...

At the end of the day the MVP is a popularity contest.

 

It's over I think. All the media members have made their mind up. They're going for the new trick in town.

When you look back on Harden's career, and you look at all these snubs he's gotten by the press in spite of his numbers, the 1 MVP and 3 second places, the omission from even the all-NBA third team during the Dwightmare year..you'll realize that the media doesn't matter anymore. The MVP doesn't matter. They can't take away his stats. It's all the bloviated opinions of a predominantly Caucasian, predominantly Northeast-born gentry that spin the sports stories how they want. **** them. Don't ascribe to their hegemony.

 

More on Harden's start to this season. Just looking at box score numbers, as captured by the Hollinger game score rating. I plotted his average game score over 22 game windows for the past 3 seasons:



What this shows is that Harden first 22 games of this season is his lowest rated 22 game stretch in the regular season over the last 3 seasons. Is it a coincidence that this stretch also coincides with the worst stretch of games by team win/loss record over these 3 seasons?

 

Beck said "He was responsible for that' the slow start. He did not say "share of the blame." You are describing share of blame. And as @SamFisher told you in the "Inflated Stats" thread, that is a tautology. "Harden shares in the blame, because he's part of the team."

The undeniable logic of a tautology is being weirdly applied by you to defend Beck saying "Harden is responsible for [the slow start]," which is what @BigMaloe addressed.

You and Beck might be trying to agree on the premise that if we give Harden all the credit, then he needs to take the blame, too. But that is a see-saw argument that implies equal credit/blame to both parts of the season. A 41.1 ppg explosion for 32 games demands a freaking lot of credit, and a slight drop from 116 ORtg (MVP numbers for that USG) to 115.1 (between Melo and Dec 11th) doesn't call for equal scrutiny to the credit that explosion demands.

My word ... this is a really bad take of yours, or are you trying to summarize for us what the voters are thinking.

I'll comment on this in great detail, but I'd really like you to defend that statement first. You can't just say it into Truth anymore. Please explain "[Rockets defense] is specifically designed to make up for Harden's shortcomings."

Maybe start with explaining his shortcomings this year, the defensive strengths/shortcomings of the other early-season guards (Paul, Ennis, Green, Gordon), positioning of the players, and how it is we see Capela ISO'd on perimeter more than Harden, when hunting for mismatches is a hallmark weakness of switching defenses?
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If you don't want to defend your statement, feel free to retract it as out-dated, or say you're just summarizing what the voters are thinking.

 

It’s the nature of the game. Freak is bigger and more athletic in a game that values that. Harden is more skilled. Probably more “valuable”. But if you were drafting players Freak and Davis and Durant all go before Harden. Like 80 or 90 percent of talent evaluators would have Harden at something like 5, 6, or 7 on their big board if I had to guess.
I don’t ever get worked up about someone wanting to give MVP to who they think is the best player in the game.

 

He lacks in the BBall Brain department to use it for efficiency.