I'm glad to see James has stopped doing the "stirring" hand motion early in games. It should really only be done in situations like last night: when he hits a big shot late in the game to secure a win.
You're reading correlation as causation. Most of "history" is based on poeple reading newspaper box scores and not watching games. Not so true anymore.
I don't know about that. Here's a list of people who voted for the MVP last year. Most of the names I don't know, but of the names I do know I'm not expecting them to be impartial or logical in their selections. bball-reference has an MVP Tracker that "ranks candidates based on a model built using previous voting results. This list does not represent the opinion of this site. Rather, these are the players that the voters are likely to target (maximum two players per team)." It has 39.5% chance of winning it and Harden with a 24.6% chance of winning it. Spoiler Code: Rk Player Tm W L W/L% G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS Prob% 1 Stephen Curry GSW 57 13 .814 68 68 32.8 8.0 16.7 .477 3.4 8.0 .420 4.6 8.7 .530 4.0 4.4 .913 0.7 3.6 4.3 7.9 2.1 0.2 3.1 1.9 23.3 39.5% 2 James Harden HOU 47 23 .671 69 69 36.8 7.9 18.1 .439 2.5 6.8 .369 5.4 11.3 .482 8.8 10.1 .868 0.9 4.9 5.8 7.0 1.9 0.8 4.0 2.6 27.2 24.6% 3 Chris Paul LAC 46 25 .648 71 71 35.1 7.0 14.5 .480 1.6 4.2 .379 5.4 10.3 .520 3.3 3.7 .883 0.6 4.1 4.7 10.1 1.9 0.2 2.4 2.5 18.8 9.1% 4 Westbrook OKC 40 30 .571 55 55 34.0 9.1 21.3 .427 1.1 3.8 .300 8.0 17.5 .454 8.1 9.7 .844 2.0 5.3 7.3 8.7 2.2 0.2 4.4 2.6 27.5 9.0% 5 Anthony Davis NOP 37 33 .529 56 56 36.0 9.6 17.6 .546 0.0 0.2 .100 9.6 17.4 .550 5.4 6.6 .828 2.6 7.8 10.4 2.0 1.4 2.9 1.4 2.1 24.6 6.2% 6 LeBron James CLE 46 26 .639 61 61 36.3 9.2 18.8 .492 1.8 5.0 .350 7.5 13.8 .544 5.7 7.9 .719 0.7 5.1 5.8 7.3 1.6 0.7 4.1 2.0 25.9 5.0% 7 Blake Griffin LAC 46 25 .648 56 56 35.5 8.7 17.4 .501 0.1 0.4 .381 8.6 17.0 .504 4.7 6.5 .719 2.0 5.7 7.6 5.1 1.0 0.5 2.3 3.0 22.2 1.9% 8 Damian Lillard POR 44 24 .647 68 68 36.2 7.2 16.6 .434 2.4 7.1 .340 4.8 9.6 .503 4.4 5.1 .862 0.6 4.1 4.7 6.2 1.3 0.3 2.7 2.0 21.3 1.7% 9 Marc Gasol MEM 50 21 .704 70 70 33.7 6.6 13.4 .493 0.0 0.2 .200 6.5 13.1 .498 4.5 5.6 .809 1.4 6.5 8.0 3.8 0.8 1.7 2.2 2.6 17.8 1.5% 10 Aldridge POR 44 24 .647 61 61 35.7 9.3 20.0 .466 0.5 1.4 .373 8.8 18.6 .472 4.4 5.1 .853 2.6 7.9 10.4 1.8 0.7 1.0 1.8 1.9 23.5 1.5% I could easily envision those voters listed above looking at such a table comparing these players and saying "Well, Curry has a higher FG, 3, and FT%. More assists per game and fewer turnovers per game. Scores a few less points, but GSW won X games and swept the season series against the Rockets. So I'm picking Curry."
I still don't think we're quite there yet. We're getting some love now from media outlets, but that will all change. Hell, I think players will be more physical with Harden and get away with it in the postseason. Media doesn't want to see 20 avg free throws (in playoffs) even if he is legitimately fouled.
I think the reason Harden get crpa for his FTs is because he isn't the most athletic guy. Guys like Westbrook and LeBron just look so dominant physically that you give them a pass for getting to the FT line so much. Same with MJ. "They're so athletic, how can you stop them without fouling?" Harden' a sneaky good athlete but far from dominant, he gets his FTs by being the master of angles. He moves into the body of the defender at the exact right time, he extends those arms at the perfect time, etc. People don't give him enough credit for being extremely strong. This is a guy who is OUR BEST DEFENDER AGAINST ZACH RANDOLPH! because of his lower body strength. This is a guy who gets fouled more than anyone else in the league by a mile and still plays in every single game. It's amazing how people label Harden "soft" for relying on FTs so much. The reality is that he's one of the toughest and strongest players in the league relative to his position. An MVP would be nice. But what Harden really needs to flip the narrative on him is WIN IN THE PLAYOFFS. Once he does that the "wait until the FTs stop in the playoffs!" trash talk will stop. I'd take a 3rd place MVP finish and great playoff run from Harden over an MVP and another poor performance. I can't wait until the playoffs, that step-back makes him so much harder to guard these days. He's gonna tear it up in the playoffs imo.
The issue is that the HACKS are so VICIOUS that the shots look like he just throws them up . . . If the defender did not foul they would be easy layups and AND 1s Rocket River
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>My Top 5 MVP candidates are Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis & Chris Paul.</p>— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/MagicJohnson/status/580414716318781441">March 24, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Yup and the fact that Curry is statistically superior in aggregate metrics like RPM, PER, Win Shares per 48, Box plus/minus as well as individual metrics like TS%, FG%, FT% Assists, Turnovers, Ass/TO ratio, steals and 3 point %, has nothing to do with it .
So the Westbrook argument for MVP is that he is putting up historic numbers. The Curry argument is team record. Harden is a combination of both.
But you don't include things like per/warp etc. Curry is a better shooter than Harden... so is Kyle Korver.
