Nick Wright: It Will Take James Harden A Historic Season to Beat Giannis for MVP

F*** Gianiss...or however its spelled...dude cant get even a three to save his life.

Him and Simmons should team up.

 

It would take a historic performance to beat out Giannis... and guess what, Harden has done that.

Nick is great. Voice of reason.

 

You shouldn't have shown me this video. It made me more sympathetic to the case for Giannis.

Actually, there's an easy compromise available: Give Giannis MVP for this season. He has absolutely had an MVP season. And give Harden the award he really deserves: MVP of the last 5 years.

 

I watched the video. Cris Carter is really annoying, not only because his argument makes non-sense, but also because he is very rude. He even said Giannis is as good a distributor as Harden.

 

Dude made 110 million in his career and he is BROKE. He went from a maybach (and many others) to no cars and using uber. Sad. He looks MAJOR heavy and unhealthy. I didn't even recognize him.

Has a net worth of $250k bc bankruptcy left 1 home for him and family to live in. Sad.

He's trying to help others (pro players)not end up like him so I guess that's something.

 

btw cris carter has been a certified harden hater going back years

 

Harden could be averaging 40 points per game and be 1st in the west and he probably still wouldn't get it.

 

That's basically Westbrook's number, and Lopez is probably the worst rebounding big in the league (probably also cause he plays out a lot but, point remains) so, it's really not that impressing, especially considering the Bucks have not great rebounders in other spots too.

 

Harden blah blah blah blah, BUT MY VOTE IS GIANNIS.

What else is new?

 

Loud noises

 

Put Giannis in place of Harden in Rockets uniform at the beginning of this season with CP3 and Capela intermittently and in consecutive games missing in action, and Gordon hitting careers lows most of the season.

Can anyone guess where Rockets would be?

 

Harden might be not be DPOY material but he’s far from a bad defensive player. In fact, he’s easily one of the better post defenders despite being only 6’5”

 

yeah in that scenario they just give it to PG13. anyone but harden

 

Antoine looks like he's still hitting 3s...

3 all-you-can-eat buffets.

 

I find it incredibly ironic that Giannis seemingly turned the tide after that 45 point game against the Sixers. Can't count how many times I've seen people say that "sealed the deal for them."

The entire Giannis > Harden argument is based on Giannis being a more efficient player, playing fewer minutes, and winning more games. That scoring isn't everything and defense needs to be considered. Yet a 45 point game seals the deal?

Meanwhile Harden's last 6 games:
31.4 MPG, 35.2 ppg, 8.3 assists, 8 rebounds, 70.7% TS, 50.8% FG, 6-0 record with a +25.8 margin of victory (shoutout to @PlayoffLonzo on twitter for the stats).

Over the past week or 2, Harden has literally taken the argument for Giannis, and done it better. Yet all the talking heads preaching fewer minutes, greater efficiency, more wins, etc. are celebrating a 45 point game like it's unheard of. The hypocrisy with these people is maddening. For God's sake, I saw an NBC reporter saying he was voting for Giannis because he has 144 unassisted dunks this year...are you serious? Harden has 311 unassisted three pointers...

It just doesn't make sense.

 

One of the few bright spots of the game in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago is that Harden made everyone who tried to post him up look stupid, including Giannis.

 

Lemme get this straight - not only do they try to discredit the player's vote for Harden (they only focus on offense, they know he worked on his game) but they try to dismantle Harden in order to prop Giannis up.

Meanwhile, the only neutral party in Nick tries to elevate both guys (Harden more) but Cris and Antoine go against him the whole time.

To be honest, Nick should have been more aggressive, in that he should have finished his point of "anyone not named Harden" and also try to refute the opinions of the other two bozos by pointing out the technicalities (same statline as last year for Giannis, still an easy conference to play in, etc).

Pretty much this. Cris Carter also did his best to completely cut off Nick's argument. Nick was basically saying "if anyone not named Harden was averaging what he's averaging, they'd be MVP." Cris took it as "Yes, Lillard and whoever can average Harden's average, but who can average Giannis' average doe??"

 

Giannis will not win DPOY either, let's be real here. Gobert, George and Kawhi are far better defenders if only talking about superstar players.

Give Bud and playing in East props for Bucks being so good on D .... as a team.

 

The Rockets spent 12 games as the 14th team in the West this season. (Source. Tell it to highlight the Rockets in the table.) During most of that time, the time was mired in bad player acquisitions, Melodrama, and injuries. The team is now the 3rd seed in the West and could possibly even take the 2nd seed. That's ALL James Harden's doing.

Let's look at one specific game: January 14, 2019. The Rockets blow out the Grizzlies 112-94. These teams are only 6 games apart in the standings at this point. Most notably, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon were ALL out due to injuries that game. James Harden scored 57 points. He was a +25 for the game. He led the team in rebounds with 9. He carried the entire team himself. Not just in that game but in pretty much all the games during that dark injury period. The gimped team climbed in the standings during that time.

I mean, there's nothing to say in response to this. I'm merely archiving this information, so that it will always be available, because it was astonishing.

 

It is true that Harden’s numbers are more of a statistical outlier. Unfortunately, this also works against him. What he’s doing is so unprecedented, there are no past examples we can point to and say “See, this is an automatic MVP.” Frustrating, but true.

Also, how many players have lead their team in points, rebounds, and assists per game, and also FG%? While also being their team’s best offensive and defensive player? Giannis is having a special season in his own right. No need to subtract from it just because of what Harden is doing. And history is on Giannis’s side:

(1) league’s best record
(2) numbers in line with the strongest statistical seasons ever, especially when you also factor in his defensive impact.
(3) huge improvement in wins from prior year
(4) never won MVP before

What he’s doing would result in a landslide victory in any normal year — look up the history for when all four boxes were checked by a candidate (last year, for example). It’s kind of amazing that Harden has turned this into a real debate. He’s had an incredible run, going back 5 years.