James Harden is gonna get screwed over again in MVP Voting

the main concern that I have with Harden is that when he struggles, he can really struggle...like 13 turnovers in game 5 struggle

I do think that he can be the best player on a championship team, he's just gonna need 2 or 3 all stars around him...Harden and role players will never be enough to win a title

 

Agreed. That's the issue with Harden. Media will never favor him, therefor the narrative will never be in his favor, therefor he'll always be behind somebody.

I could also see Lebron getting one last MVP push "because he's just, simply put, the flat out best player in the NBA. Forget about the stats, this is the real MVP and we all know it come playoff time".

 

Wow that is the most annoying article I read in along time. What a bunch of bullshit to ignore facts and look for alternative truth to support your narrative.
Harden clutch rating since he's a Rocket:
2013: #6 in the league
2014: #5
2015: #1
2016: #2
http://www.nbaminer.com/clutch-time-stats/
To say Harden is not a clutch player looking under the rug for stats to prove it is more than embarrassing. It's pure stupid.

 

Recency bias and all, but what a night of games: Rockets at Warriors and Spurs at Thunder. "hot take media" will be all over those games. We all better hope the Spurs punch the Thunder in the face in that game.

 

"Clutch rating" is poorly named. It's simply the total points scored in the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter and overtime with neither team being ahead by 5 or more points. Since it's a cumulative volume stat, it's not really a good measure of "clutch". I think the more useful stat is the "FG% Difference" which is the difference between clutch time fg% and regular season fg%. In 2016, Harden's was -8.9% so he actually shot significantly worse in the clutch (35%).

Of the 21 players who scored at least 100 points in "clutch time" in 2016, Harden's 35% fg% is the 2nd worst. John Wall shot 34.6%

 

He hasn't struggled like that at all this year. Not even a glimpse of that level of struggle. He has had 10+ turnovers but still fairly dominated offensively and was just really sloppy. I think that game was and will be the worst game of his career. I think it helped his spiral out of control because it was the last game of the year and on the last play. But he's really really grown and matured from that. And he's at the beginning of his absolute peak level years of 27-30.

I absolutely think he can be the best player on the team to win a title. I'm not the believing that he needs 2 or 3 more all stars to win either. I honestly think 1 more all Star is enough. That's how good he is. A Paul george/butler/hayward/griffin level player is all he needs imo. A clear number 2 who compliments him.

While I believe Harden is in his prime years and will stay in his prime until 32 I don't think this is his absolute peak. I honestly believe next year at age 28 under this system and position for a 2nd year we will see the greatest offensive season ever. I really do.

I was bullish on him this offseason and would tell people at the courts I think he would avg 30/12/8 under mda and people scoffed at me and called him a bum. Called me an idiot. But I wasn't far off.

Next year I think he will be immaculate and will have the best season of his career. I really hope we win a chip for him because he is still so under appreciated and underrated

 

I hope he has a vote.

 

he said in his video that he has a vote this year. and the voters change every year so it's up to them to reveal themselves before the results come out.

 

really good post man

You're right that Harden hasn't struggled to the level that he did in that game 5. I'm just always a little worried that he might have 1 of his little meltdowns where he just goes on a turnover barrage while struggling to score.

If we can get a player like PG to put next to Harden then I believe that we'd be a legit title contender. If we added another star as well, then I think we'd be a title favorite.

I really hope that he can lead us to a title, it's been so long. Rockets fans should really appreciate what we have right now, because it could be a very long time before we get another player on Harden's level. This guy is a special player.

 

If Westbrooks beats the spurs tonight the MVP debate is over.

 

James isnt being screwed. He's being overshadowed by history.

 

Well what a comeback by the Spurs to beat the Thunder

 

Harden is creating history, doing something no one has ever done before

Westbrook is doing something that has been done before

 

I can see it now....Leonard takes back first in the MVP race as his game winning basket seals the deal against the Thunder. Then ESPN is like Westbrook still got that Triple Double tho.

 

I jinxed it! Harden is still in it!

 

The analytics era makes it so that Harden is the first person to have blah blah blah. Cool to talk about . WB is doing something unbelievably historic in terms of basketball greatness.

 

Westbrook has 2 more rebounds and 8 less wins. Those 2 rebounds must be amazing.

He's having a historical performance in the sense that he's averaging numbers that meet some arbitrary cut off point. But it literally boils down to 2 rebounds. It was historical enough last time to earn all of 3rd place in MVP voting.

 

I don't like this.