It's more nuanced than that. OP is saying you're guaranteed to lose the conference finals. If they're not going to win the championship anyways, what does it matter if they go one more round or not? I'd rather be able to say "I remember Harden's first MVP season" than "I remember when we got swept by the Warriors in the conference finals".
There are a lot of player only fans in the NBA. Lebron, Kobe, MJ fans just want their player to succeed. Even though Harden deserves the award, losing the MVP might put a finals sized chip on his shoulder. Losing the MVP could be a good thing.
That's another problem I have with the poll, and I have a great deal of respect for Durvasa. The premise is whacked. This is sort of a convoluted way to gage the feelings of the BBS about the value of Harden winning the MVP relative to team success. The truth is that if the Rockets make the WC Finals, the outcome is unknown. It doesn't matter what the difference is in the records of the two teams. It's why you play the games. Individual awards are just that. Individual rewards. Team success trumps all.
winning two playoff series is pretty good in my books, especially considering our 1.5 decades of playoff failure I don't want to remember Harden's first MVP season as the one where we got bounced in the first round either it will be forever made fun of like Dirk's MVP seasons until he finally won a championship
If Harden will lose the MVP race to either Westbrook or Curry, that could be the best situation for the Rox, I would rather see a much motivated Harden in the playoff to help this team.
If you're saying losing in the conference finals with the MVP versus not getting the MVP & going to the finals... I go back and forth. Realistically, this might be his best chance ever get the MVP. I mean, this era has a ton of potential candidates - Lebron, Durant, Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Curry, etc... And the position he's put the Rockets in this year given all the injuries... Although he's likely to have lots of first-team worthy years, I don't know if he'll ever have as good of an opportunity to get the MVP. But I think we'll have lots of opportunities to get to the conference finals. So, I say Carpe MVP.
If you really believe this season is Harden best ever chance to win a MVP, then you will probably believe this could be our only chance to make out of the first round in his era.
Over 70% of the argument FOR james harden being MVP this year is that in spite of being the most injury depleted team and without our second best player has been out most of the year, James has put in performance after performance, basically willing us to the second best record in the west on his own. I would hope that next season and in future seasons we don't have the same injury problems. Meaning he has a weaker argument for MVP, but a stronger squad to advance deeper into the playoffs.
Yeah, Harden mvp would be more memorable, as in more people would remember the first mvp to not lead his team out of the first round.
99% of the argument for Curry being the MVP over Harden is because his team is playing better than the Rockets and they have a better record.
