They made themselves some expansion room in that graphic. Perhaps as much room for 3 more 50+ games at the top.
Scott and Gooden still both chose Giannis as their MVP...reason? His team has the best record. LOL, wha? The lowest seed East team is nearly 10% lower in win percentage compare to the lowest West teams but that's the main reason? That qualifier seems to be more dependent on all the other teams you were lucky enough to have in your conference than an indicator of how good your team actually is...that's what it seems like to me anyways. Hell, they're only 3 games better than the Raptors. Oh well, I wonder what the narrative would be if the Raptors caught them...or even passed them in the standings.
So just number of wins matter, not wins against quality teams? I'd love to see the stats of both Giannis and Harden when they play against teams over .500. The fact that most of us read the above and thought, "Gonna be tough, but he's got a legit shot" is utterly bananas.
Funny to think that my favorite team of decades has a player who is developing into my favorite player today, if not already there. It's been fun.
Imagine that it's September of 2012. Jeremy Lin is the Rockets' big FA signing and James Harden is still playing for the Thunder. Someone from the future materializes in front of you and tells you that the Rockets are going to have a player in 2019 who will rack up these incredible statistics, getting his name mentioned routinely with Wilt and MJ.. Would you think it's: a) someone currently on the Rockets roster b) someone we trade for (and who?) c) someone we drafted
Its crazy that i remmeber this game vividly. I think westbrook got in foul againist us, and scott brooks put harden at the pg and harden was killing us until we came back and won when westbrook came in and starting chucking
c) someone we drafted. I would assume we win the lottery in either 2013 or 2014. I'd assume it would be Andrew Wiggins LOL. This video came out August of 2012.
Harden's 118 points in the past 2 games are the most scored by an NBA player in consecutive games in the past half century.
Gooden's opinion is stupid because his reasoning is stupid. He detracts from Harden by saying, "James started out slow." October 28.5/6.3/9.0 November 31.3/5.5/8.7 I guess he meant SLOW compared to 40 ppg. Forty is the new standard... since James actually Did FORTY over an entire month. He also said (not in this video, but still, last night on NBATV), "if Giannis doesn't play, Bucks lose by 20." In Greek's last two DNPs, Bucks are 1-1 with the L being a 5-point difference. Dude INVENTS lies to discredit Harden, yet OMITS obvious facts (obvious because it's been true for 30 years) like, "the East being weaker than the West". Best Record is wack for this season's MVP argument. Gooden and Scott LIKE Giannis more. Personal feelings are involved and it's affecting rational judgment.
I just heard the Warriors commentator say he is voting for Giannis for MVP, because Giannis is a 10 on defense and Harden is a 0. Doesn't he know Harden is top of the league in steals? Also I guess he is fine with Curry getting MVP when is one of the worst liabilities on defense. The hate is strong.
they just dont want harden to tie curry in mvps, also if harden is a zero on defense then what is steph curry lol.
The case for Giannis is legit. MVP numbers (like upper-echelon MVP numbers), super defense, easily the best player on his team, team had the best record in the league. But Harden’s historic scoring explosion this year, carrying his team to 50+ wins despite numerous injuries to a variety of key rotation players, is pretty special and worthy of MVP consideration as well. I just don’t think you can go wrong picking either player at this point. Giannis would be the conventional pick based on the usual MVP criteria, but Harden’s season seems like it will be more memorable.
Where would the Bucks be without Giannis and Rockets without Harden? There’s definitely a legitimate case to be made for Giannis, but they’re feasting on the East, have very good role players who’ve been around and coach Bud makes all the difference in the world. Then looking at Harden’s side: the West is brutal this year, we’ve had serious starting trouble and roster issues to overcome as well as injuries to key players. Lastly Harden is just putting up historic numbers and winning. I don’t like to use coach Bud here, but remember how many media ****s used MDA supposed genius and subsequent freedom for Harden as a case against him winning the MVP. I don’t mind Giannis winning, he’s worthy, but if Westbrook can win because of numbers without winning than Harden should even more so because he’s done several things that have either never been done, only once and or by only a handful. And he’s winning. I lastly want to say that it’s the media that actually votes who cause fans to get heated over this. You cannot just discredit Harden because he: - won it before - plays subpar defense, supposedly plays no defense still in their eyes - he has CP3 and MDA - he is just shooting a lot (of free throws) and any star player can supposedly score like him if they had the freedom - he is a flopper/ looking for calls/ travelling and what not
Gooden's opinion is stupid based on the reasons I already mentioned. People/media are straight up lying and/or omitted facts to justify their pick. If Harden was LeBron, everyone would mention the East's inferiority. And they'd mention Kawhi's DNPs to detract from "best record" argument.
Meh, I think the bucks still make the playoffs in the East without Giannis...the Rockets would not have made it this year w/o Harden. Best record in the league doesn't mean as much when you play more inferior teams. That seems to be one of the main reasons many people chose Giannis...hell the Raptors are right behind them. That doesn't seem to be a indication of some great achievement. Not to me anyways.
