James Harden is clearly playing the best basketball of his life. Better than 2 years ago when he was 2nd in the MVP race and clearly should have won. The argument then was Steph Curry was the best player on the best team and deserved to be that years MVP. It was a terrible argument since the rockets were the 2nd seed with no other players on our team even remotely close to having Harden's talent. Curry had Thompson, Green and a strong bench. Now, as I was watch ESPN, Sportscenter, Fox Sports News...etc, they claim Westbrook HAS to be the MVP because he's the only one on the team that is carrying the load. The Irony is ridiculous. The Rockets just beat OKC in OKC, Harden had a better game than Westbrook, Currently has better stats, and the Rockets have a better record AND YET Westbrook still leads the MVP discussion. What else can Harden do? Will he never win it? I really want to see a Rocket win MVP in my lifetime as I was only 2 years old when Hakeem won his, and I feel like James will be unfairly robbed AGAIN. Am I wrong? I hope so.
The Thunder are going to start losing, and the Rockets are going to keep winning. Everything else will follow.
Definitely not. If brings us a ring, he might end up as a top 5 Sg of all time. Seriously. He keeps blowing expectations out the water. He's been to the finals and "carried" a team to the western conference.
It's pretty crazy too since OKC right now are the...7th seed. If the Rockets finish 3rd or 4th and he doesn't win then he'll probably never win the thing. At this rate probably the best guy to never win MVP.
Basketball reference have developed a model that is based on previous voting results. They rank the players who voters are likely to target. 1. Harden 45% 2. Durant 17% (etc) http://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/mvp.cgi As the season keeps unfolding the beard buzz will keep getting louder. You don't want to be crowned December MVP - means nothing, wait a few months until things get serious, and then the same old markers that have always been measured will be looked at. If the Rockets keep winning and beard keeps balling, then looks like he is almost a lock (by the above research)
Finals MVP is what he should be shooting for. Just have to hope Harden doesn't let regular season awards get into his head and start acting like a clown how Westbrook has recently. Did you watch that OKC vs Portland game the other night? Westbrook is a total nut.
Harden won the MVP 2 years ago as voted by his peer. What are you talking about? His peers voted him MVP, that's what count. Not media baised voting for Light skin dude
I almost feel like Harden will go the Pablo Picasso route. Underappreciated at the time, but fans looking back will be blown away by his stats. It seemed absurd to tons of fans earlier, but if Harden wins a ring, with his numbers, he could be an All-Time NBA great honestly. The anti-Rockets/Harden bias is very real. I go to a college with people from all over, and they all inexplicable hate Harden while jerking off to Westbrook/Curry. They HATE how well Houston is doing this year, and are still so hesitant to give Harden his due.
The media basically takes the top 2 or 3 dudes statistically and out of those three they give it to the dude on the team with the best record. If OKC drops off the map then Harden will be in a duel with his friend Durant for the award, the way it looks right now -- And you know how the media will swing if its a two way contest between those two. Best for Harden to just forget about that award and let his play on the court do the talking, win the title and **** the warriors, man.
Yup, and that's why I think Harden will win the MVP this year. Rockets are going to have a better record than OKC so they have to give it to Harden over WB. OKC will probably finish in 7th place and a .500 record by the end of the season while the Rockets will finish 3rd in a tough Western conference. They have to give it to Harden over WB
Hmm... is the media that on the Warriors this year though? Legitimately curious since I've sorta tuned the mainstream media out so far, but at least this summer the anti-KD/Warriors wagon was strong. I don't know about ESPN themselves (they will never give Houston their due, ****'em) but I feel the average fan would root for the long star underdog vs KD, who ran away from OKC to form one of the beast superteams in NBA history. They definitely would give it to Russ if OKC finished near the top of the West. Why not Harden? I just don't get why people don't like him so much. Some of my friends hate him for his 'flopping', but Harden at least actually gets fouled most of the time. He just craftily, and I guess annoyingly, draws them. He doesn't have the egregious flops you see from CP3 or Lebron. I also hear "yeah he scores 30 points a game on 100 shots" like dude Harden is one of the most efficient scorers of all time!!! Before this year heard "such a ballhog" oh yeah buddy well he is leading the league in assists this year so hows that argument working out for you? People just search for a reason to hate Harden and I don't get it man.
I think if Harden keeps up with this play and the team keeps winning he's got to be the front runner.
The NBA MVP goes to whoever the media starts hyping with their narrative. It changes every year between. Best player on best team and who carried their team when
Some people still rail on Harden for his defense, yet Steve Nash won two MVP's with Phoenix and he was easily one of the worst defensive players in the league, nobody cared. Some people rail on Harden's game and suggest he gets unfair superstar treatment from the refs, yet Dwayne Wade basically made a career out of this and nobody ever calls Wade out for it. I don't know why Harden gets the cold shower treatment from the media, only answer is that its because he plays for Houston. If he played for the Lakers you can bet people there would be quite excited to have him, and the media would quickly forget about any of his deficiencies and start slurping him more.
I thought about this the other day! It irked me that Russell Westbrook seemed to be the choice for MVP, when they used the "best player on the best team" logic in selecting Steph Curry in 2014-2015. Will genuinely be irritated if Harden doesn't get the respect he deserves (as long as Rockets stay reasonably higher in seeding than OKC)
