Yup. warriors are second to last and rockets have the 4th hardest so far. http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS
may be bias talking but id give it to Harden. I think this team without Harden plays significantly worse then GS without Curry. that being said i do worry a bit that if we slip to a lower seed, like 5-6, he might lose just on that. I hope we keep around 3
2015 NPI RAPM 1 James Harden 8.99 2 Manu Ginobili 8.40 3 Kyle Korver 6.78 4 Draymond Green 6.67 5 Markieff Morris 6.50 6 Stephen Curry 6.45 7 Damian Lillard 6.32 8 Cody Zeller 6.40 9 Anthony Davis 5.85 10 Zach Randolph 5.74 11 Kyle Lowry 5.73 12 Kawhi Leonard 5.71 13 LeBron James 5.67 14 Khris Middleton 5.63 15 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 5.54 The sample size is still too small really, but this will be a very interesting stat to look at once the season is over. A postseason on par with James' play so far would have to put him in the conversation with the best Kobe and T-Mac seasons.
Rockets are #4 in RPI? Nice! That means the committee might give us a 1 seed after all. I really hope we're not in the same bracket as the Clippers though.
Look, the narrative is for Curry to win it since the Warriors are #1 in the league and doing it in a fashion not seen often before (new rookie coach etc.). Right now, even though Harden is the clear MVP, it is Curry who the NBA will continue to support. In some way, I don't blame them. If we were clear contenders, division winners and ready to get to the conference finals, I would say it would be a travesty if Harden didn't win it. So be serious, do you want Harden to win it over Curry when we lose in the 1st round again? Try to look at it from a Warriors' (fan) perspective. You are #1 seed and looking at having a very special year, what more would it take for Curry to get the nod? The guy is clearly making that team go, despite of the better cast than Harden.
MVP should be given to the most valuable player, essentially the player that does the most tor his team to succeed. MVP should not be given to someone for the basis of a "good story"
From the Warriors perspective? For Curry to be better than James for most of the season. Curry won the first player of the month (should have been Davis, but Curry was better than James in month 1) Then James has won the last 2 James is putting up 29-7-7 in February, Curry is putting up 27-6-4, James cops way way way more defensive pressure, so James has been better than him in February too Russell will win February player of the month (unless he lays a cpl of eggs to close the month out). Do you know why? Because he's been the best player in February. See how this works?
If the season ended today, Harden would be MVP. I've been seeing a lot of members of the media giving it to harden for the way he has carried the rockets this year. He just needs to keep it up.
Would you want Curry to win over Harden if the Warriors lose in the 1st round this year? I imagine if the worlds were reversed, Curry may still be the one with the nod for MVP, because thats who the media is trying to sell us on. Can the Warriors (fans) look at it from our perspective? Harden is carrying this team without the second best player, and still top 4 seed with a better SOS. This guy is making our team go, with a much lesser cast. See, I can do that too.
Let me phrase it like this: do you want Harden to win it, even with a big chance of a 1st round loss? I wouldn't. By the way, that piece is largely not my opinion, but just the way it works.
Who doesn't have a chance at a first round loss? Are Golden State even the favorites for their likely first round opponent, OKC? It's not a post season award. It should go to the most valuable player, if OKC go 30-2 to round out the season and Russell goes 50-40-90 at 30-10-8 like he's been in February, grats to Russ
Simple, the Warriors are a better team, so he has that advantage over Harden. Again, this is how the NBA works, not how I would like it to be.
Take Curry off the Warriors and they still win 40-45 games. Take Harden off the Rockets, and we are a contender in the Jahlil Okafor sweepstakes.
Generally speaking, when teams are seen as duo efforts, they're usually dismissed, Harden was under that cloud entering the season. Just as the Spurs were the best team last year, and the Celtics were the best team in 08 and heck the Sonics were the best team in 94. Did you know that Thompson has won player of the week more times than Curry? (he's actually won it more times than anyone in the west). There would be quite a few things that have never happened before in nba mvp voting for Curry to win, and their team isn't historic to qualify for a unique butterfly award.
We will see, I am all for Harden being MVP, since he's clearly the best player in the league. Curry does not even come close imo. To me the MVP race is between Harden & Westbrook, maybe Lebron but his early season play (like a loser) should weigh hard. Lowry was in earlier, not anymore. Davis is maybe the best player in the league, but team record is just not good enough. The Hawks, Grizzlies, Warriors & Bulls do not have a clear MVP type player imo.
While it's true Curry is a media darling, we're talking very much social media, ie an average age of early 20's, if you're asking for a popular vote, it's Curry and how But it's not, it's a vote of people in the media, with an average age of about 45, Bill Worrell gets a vote and that guy doesn't know how to connect to twitter, and there are a lot of Bill Worrell's across the team broadcasters (old guys as tech savvy as a rock). Obviously we haven't heard from the locals guys, things can change and we'll see that at the end, but what about the national guys? Well Sekou Smith on nba.com has had Curry since the beginning. He doesn't get a vote. How about Chris Broussard? He has multiple sauces, he also gets a vote, and right now it's Harden. Simmons and Lowe? both get votes and the other week they were discussing if Davis had passed Curry for 2nd. How about Stein? he had Harden in the lead in december, and since then Harden has won another player of the month. He gets a vote too. David Aldridge? yep Harden, yep gets a vote SI whose never been much of a fan of Harden just dedicated their front cover to his MVP candidacy, can you guess where that vote is going? The only national guy with a vote whose basically pitched his tent in Curryland is Amick, the guy who lives in San Francisco, shocker that one.
Good points! Still strange how it feels everybody is on Curry's jock, but maybe that's more due to NBA.com, TNT, except for Webber, and just the love for Steve Kerr and the Warriors play in general. ESPN guys are usually in favour of Harden.
