James harden has to be the MVP curry has a teammate in the top 6 in the MVP voting! James is the most valuable player to his team in the league
Unfortunately, this doesn't apply. Scottie Pippen finished 5th in MVP voting in 95-96 when Jordan won it. Never the less Curry has Klay Thompson AND MIP potential Draymond Green on the same team picking up any slack. Curry is a PHENOM, but he is not having as good of a season as Harden.
Not a scientific study but my own observation has been that the past week or so, Harden has been getting more talk for MVP than Curry. Prior to that it was a different case.
I agree. The media absolutely loves the Warriors but it's Harden that seems to be getting the attention. He's the one winning the conference player of the week awards and leading the league in scoring. The media loves that ****.
Since 2000, 6 players have won MVP while not being the best player on the top seeded team. (Garnet, Duncan, Nash, James, and Durant)
I'm guessing that Harden has a real shot as long as the rockets maintain top 5 team in the NBA status. Especially without Dwight and in the west, it will be a very strong case for him.
Since Moses Malone in 1982, only one player has won MVP without being on a #1 or #2 seeded team, MJ 1988 as 3rd Seed.
I'm not sure why you guys don't think Harden is getting love or he doesn't stand a chance. He just won back to back Western Conference Player of the Month honors. He's stacking up Player of the Week awards. ESPN just put out that article where they interviewed three players on how you can possibly stop him. Jalen Rose keeps proclaiming Harden is the MVP. Simmons and Lowe always say it's a two man race between Curry and Harden. Being the scoring champ will definitely help his case. And I sometimes wonder if the way the media hates Howard almost works to his advantage. The narrative could well become he carried his team in spite of Dwight. I think if we can stay in the top 4 best records in the league like we are now, Harden has a legitimate chance at the MVP. Especially after the media notices the Rockets are doing it with Howard missing half or most of their games.
Excellent find. I was going to point out that every one of these players were also on a #2 seeded team but opted out of fear of being wrong. Thanks
That's because facts don't have inclusive "might" clauses embedded. Look, in last year's playoffs, D12 was the best player on this team. Fact. No "might" about it. We're not talking 2 or 3 or 5 years ago; we're talking last years playoffs. Harden will get his when its due. Right now, it's as simple as this: Can you replace Harden on the Rox with any other player in the league and project a better outcome for the Rox? That's my litmus test for non-starters in the MVP discussion. With a healthy LBJ or KD my assessment would be no. However, none of the other guys in the top 25 of PER invalidate Harden. So, yeah, that makes Harden one of 2 or 3 in the discussion. Once we start to give away season-long awards at the ASB then the b1tching deserves some discourse.
There's been 3 months in the season and Hardens won player of the month twice. At this point he is the MVP.
I've heard this several times and believe it still carries some weight, but this year is very different than most others during that timespan. The w/l margin will be too close in the west this year so I don't think that barometer should apply.
The funny thing is I hear media people say the rockets need a top seed for Harden to win MVP but say that Davis only needs to make the playoffs for him to be the MVP. I understand Davis is the next great thing but that seems off to me.
I've also heard people say (Lowe in a podcast) Davis should be MVP even if he misses the playoffs. /shrug
