Skip Bayless: Is James Harden clear-cut MVP after dropping 58 Pts vs Heat?

they have actually lost to NY, Magic and Was, from the west that you listed only once to the Clippers. So far.
Their record vs the West is one of the best in the league last time I checked.15-6 or something.

 

The NBA has for over a decade officiated games decidedly in favor of eastern conference teams, especially on their home court, just to make things seem more even. It doesn't help the bottomfeeders in the east, but the so-called "contenders" get preferential treatment for sure. Remember that year Chicago was a paper tiger and played Houston in Toyota Center, and the FT disparity was like 28-4? Lol. You can't convince me that any of the Houston games in Toronto the past decade or Philly the past few years wasn't also heavily manipulated.

 

How many times has a player had a PER greater than 30 AND his team was a #1 seed?

15/16 Curry
12/13 LeBron
09/10 LeBron
08/09 LeBron
99/00 Shaq
90/91 MJ
63/64 Wilt

All were MVP seasons except for Wilt's (his team was #1 seed in the West, but with only a 48-32 record). Harden just barely missed the 30 PER cutoff last year -- 29.8. He was also MVP.

Giannis right now has a 30.2 PER and the Bucks are a #1 seed.

 

They haven't been favored by the refs though. It's a small market team that before this year noone paid attention to and have been robbed all the time when playing against bigger market teams. If they get 50/50 calls they are satisfied and call it respect from the refs.


Anyway I am happy whoever of the two wins.

 

Have you also observed this pattern in games not involving the Rockets?

 

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Nobody was doing something as historic as Harden during those seasons. Harden is doing something we haven’t seen since Wilt averaging 37, 7, and 8. If Russ can get it, then Harden should too, especially if the Rockets manage to get the 3rd seed.

 

Who's current DPOY leader ??

 

If the Rockets get up to the #3 seed or even close to it, then Harden absolutely deserves it. If they stay the 5th seed (or worse) I won't be upset if he doesn't win.

 

Russ would not have gotten it if Harden led the Rockets to a #1 seed and 60 wins that year. Instead Harden was 3rd.

 

In 2017, both Westbrook and Harden were in the top two scorers. In 2019, Harden is #1 and Giannis is #7...he is not in the top 5 of all scorers where most MVPs are awarded. The Bucks are in first for two reasons. One the competition is easier in the East and the second is the Bucks are a complete fine tuned team. As good as they are, I still don't see them as a Championship team...yet. But the foundation is great.

Giannis doesn't have the stats to be awarded a MVP.

 

Giannis' PER is 0.22 lower -- 30.30 vs 30.52 -- than Harden plus he might win DPOY.

I wish media would mention his Eastern advantage more often though.

Kawhi DNPing every other game.. lol

 

Now I'm not saying Harden should aim to do this, because I'm not sure it would be best way for team to prepare for the playoffs. But if he averages 38.55 for the rest of the season, he would eclipse Jordan's best season PPG average.

i'm not sure how any voter can overlook that.

 

PG-13 and Gobert should be in the lead for the award.

 

At least we haven’t heard any of that “co-mvp” crap.

Was Harden 58 points away from leading the pack? Or did he just put another huge performance in between he and the field? Giannis for mvp = talk show fodder. Harden is better and more impactful, more key to his team’s success this year than last year. Who wins mvp and gets better? Because reaffirming on a daily basis that harden has had it wrapped up for at least a month doesn’t make for exciting tv. Particularly not when you’ve spent the better part of a decade dumping on the guy.

 

Same Gobert you barely watch ??

Okay.. Giannis is a Top 3 candidate.

 

The media are ironic since they supposedly hate the focus on scoring points, yet when do they claim Harden should be MVP? That’s right, after a high scoring game..

 

Yeah, I'm just playing it by ear, and I'm hearing PG's and Gobert's names being thrown out a lot for the DPOY award.

 

GS won 67 games that year, so basically Harden had to do something impossible (something last year’s team didn’t even do) in order to beat a guy who averaged 2 more uncontested rebounds per game

Harden pretty much had the same statline as Russ while being way more efficient as a scorer and carrying a team with nothing but role players to the 3rd best record in the league

this year, Harden is blowing out the competition when it comes to stats...there’s no one who’s even close

his team has dudes in and out of the lineup all year...he’s having signature games and MVP moments every other week...61 @ MSG, 44 pt triple double and game winner @ Oracle as the Rockets came back from 20 down with no CP3 or EG, 58 including 17 in the 4th against the Heat while coming back from down 21, 50 point triple double against the Lakers, and more...Giannis hasn’t had 1 moment this season that even comes close to any of those games

Giannis pretty much has the same statline as last season, but the Bucks added Coach Bud in the offseason

 

Even that year Harden was in conversations including only Jordan, cause of the steals average/pts/rebs/ast. He was making history that year too. And he was only 2 rebs aways from averaging a triple double himself. This while not having the entire team hand him boards. Even if we got the 1 seed, because of the Triple Double and the fact that at that time Harden didn't have near as much respect from the media as he does now, they still would have gave it to Westbrook.