I agree with pretty much everything here, however, Hardens has better games WAY more than he has bad ones. I think he is the most consistent player on the team this season and he's doing it at an MVP level. Every player has stinkers (e.g LeBron, Curry, Duncan) and can't be too harshly criticized for them. It's much easier to remember the bad games than the good ones it seems lately. Also, I do agree that Harden has yet to prove much in the playoffs since his OKC days. Its about the only thing I have been disappointed about with Harden. We can only hope he has that next gear for this years playoffs. We know Dwight has it
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/damian-lillard-portland-trail-blazers-fourth-quarter/ Just read this and could not help thinking this 2 alongside each other could be the greatest duo ever. On offense, this 2 alongside each other could be a thing of magic. Both shoot AND create 3s at high clip, both goes to the paint hard, while limiting mid range shot. On defense, they will struggle, but rox could just fill up the roster with defenders. No chance Lillard will leave Portland (in the near future), but one could dream.
You don't put up the numbers he is putting up without being consistent. There are some "better teams" he hasn't performed well against so far this season, but there also some "better teams" he has dominated. I'm looking at his team to team splits and there are only a couple matchups where his efficiency is so bad that his total output doesn't quite make up for it. His 1 game against the Hawks was no good. His 3 games against Memphis he is 20/6/6 on .634 TS% He had 1 great game against GS and two forgettable performances. His 2 games against NO have been pretty bad, but when you really look through it team by team he's been WAY more good than bad no matter the competition. P Maybe it's just me, but there is no one on this team I have more faith in than Harden to perform when it counts. His bad outings have been untimely, which I think makes it stand out more for some fans, but I just don't see how people can watch this guy from night to night and doubt his ability to dominate consistently.
I think the commonality here is good defenses give Harden trouble because those teams are able to load up and stop Harden knowing no one else on the court can get their own offensive shot when Harden passes out of converging defenders. The Rocket's lack of offensive options allows defenses to overplay Harden and since the rest of the team's offensive production is so heavily reliant on Harden getting them easy shots, it makes the whole team look especially bad. A good coach could probably overcome this with adding wrinkles into his offensive sets on the fly but I think most would agree McHale only recently reached average/minimum acceptable level as a coach. The other way to remedy that is give Harden another offensive option who can create his own shot. Dragic would seem to be a really good fit in that case and I can only guess the reason why we haven't acquired him is either the Suns are asking way too much or a deal is dependent upon Terrance Jones(now sorta expendable with Josh Smith on the team) actually showing he can still play basketball. Coincidentally, wouldn't Phoenix's medical staff be the best suited to take on a promising young big with a potentially serious injury?
James Harden is no doubt the favorite, really the only question now is can he bring it in April, May, June? We're asking too much from him and I think its now time for the other guys to come in and play inspired ball for him, create some plays, be SMART with the ball, good time management, gotta feed of this man's stellar season and this should start now. 2nd half is looming in, we have to see what kind of team we're going to be come playoffs. Don't wanna have Harden beaten physically by then. Let's get it!
I think most people outside of the Rockets Community think Curry is the current favorite. Statistically, they are both having similar years but Harden additionally has to overcome the baggage of his infamous youtube stardom. If the Rockets finish in the bottom half of the playoff bracket, I think Curry wins it in a landslide(assuming he doesn't tank the 2nd half of the season). The only thing working against Curry at this point(this is minor) is voters will likely also be voting for Kerr as coach of the year and maybe even Draymond as most improved player. Some voters could get self conscious of too much Golden State. Personally I think Harden's performance has been more impressive as he really has carried this entire team through a constantly revolving lineup of media hated players(Dwight & Josh Smith), and former D-league stars. James has been the only continuity in Houston this year and they are still a relatively good team albeit not yet in the upper ranks of the conference....but the Warriors are media darlings and Steph Curry's face is shown at literally every commercial during a basketball because of that state farm commercial. Also gotta figure at least a few people give Lillard a few votes and the question is, are those people taking their vote away from Harden or Curry? For all those reasons, I think Curry is likely the favorite.
It's always like this, when there's no dominant MVP candidate (ie Lebron or Durant) the fall back is go to the team with the most wins, that's why both DRose and Nowitzki have MVP awards. I personally don't understand it, MVP is supposed to be an individual award yet "the experts" use team records to decide the victor, on the other hand rings are team accomplishments and yet people always act like the superstar won it on his own (ie Kobe has 5 rings but Lebron has to ask help from the super friends to win even 1 ring).
