I was gonna write something profound until i double checked the analyst. Who is dude and why does he matter?
In both cases, I think it has more to do with the fact that a team with 2 all stars is better than a team with 1.
Harden is reaching top 3 player status in the NBA, Howard has been good but Harden is why we win most nights.
Tough call, and it really depends on how you define MVP. Howard gave the Rockets something that was missing last year, and that is a center who can actually score on his own. Asik might actually be the better defender right now from what I've seen (he's been dominant on defense when's been getting the extra minutes lately). But last year on offense, we were playing 4-4.5 on 5 each game on offense. I give the 0.5 to Asik for setting a good amount of impenetrable picks, but he's still absolutely a non-factor when trying to score by himself. Dwight (even with his post play inconsistency) still puts us back at 5 on 5 because he can handle passes and play above the rim. I think it's impossible to deny how valuable it is to have a center who IS an offensive threat. It gets a lot more people open so that they can get better looks and improve their game. Harden, on the other hand, has improved insanely. He was good last year, but he has filled in many of his weaknesses from last year to become nearly unstoppable. He is playing so much smarter and assisting much better. Harden's value is right out there in the open and it is winning games for us when nothing else will. Dwight's added a more subtle factor that I think is also helping the team as a whole to improve immensely. I'm gonna go with Dwight as a choice between the just the two, because we now have a complete team on offense (and his free-throw shooting has improved markedly by now with us.) If I had to choose most valuable over the whole team, though, I'd go with Beverly. His sheer energy and hustle raises the entire team, his defense psychologically wounds opponents, and he's shooting very well from behind the arc now. I'd say Beverly's energy transformed this team last year and continues to power it to a large percentage this year. The Rockets are actually playing defense pretty well now. Beverly started that last year. He'd be my overall Rockets MVP of the McHale era, Dwight would be my Rockets MVP of this year, and Harden would be my league MVP caliber player since that's really a "who's the best player>" award. He's maybe not the NBA MVP this year, but in a year or two if he keeps improving even more, he probably will be. When it's that hard to choose, you know you've got something great going, and I'm just happy to be able to say that.
agreed as well. Dwight's presence alone allows our players to play more aggressively and confidently on defense.
Here's how Hitler reacted when Dwight left the Lakers for Houston. VERY FUNNY http://captiongenerator.com/7177/Hitler-reacts-to-Dwight-Howard-leaving-LA
Oh, it is a troll to believe that MVP candidates should play at least some form of defense? I call that a different opinion.
Its not like Dwights defense has been great... and Hardens has not been that bad. Omer has played much better D that Dwight has all year. Don't get me wrong, we are way better off with D12 but he has not made as big an impact as he should/could.
jbasket actually played D1 college basket ball, obviously he understands more than most of the fans here.
Michael Jordan is considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time, so don't ever question his decision when he picked Adam Morrison or Kwame Brown with the 1st and 3rd pick.