No one player is surging more than Leonard on that Spurs team right now. Add in the fact that Harden's past playoffs performance with Houston and heavy regular season minutes, it doesn't sound as ridiculous in that context.
Yes it does, James Harden is an MVP caliber player. Right now Leonard isn't even close. it's a crazy statement
Can someone please go and retrieve James... <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>There is currently a goat loose on the ESPN campus right now. Can't make this stuff up. <a href="http://t.co/gDJuBe6k2k">pic.twitter.com/gDJuBe6k2k</a></p>— Jordan Loperena (@JLope34) <a href="https://twitter.com/JLope34/status/586231572459839489">April 9, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Simmons & Haralabos on MVP: BS: What the hell do you do with Kawhi? He missed 16/17 games and clearly hurt but the past 4-5 weeks, he's been in the conversation for best 5-6 players in the league. HV: He's my MVP. He didn't guard Harden the whole game or at all really but he's more efficient than the other team's best players he's guarding. He'll get CP3, Harden, Curry for a stretch and he's so good defensively. It's almost unfair. ... He's not my MVP, not enough games/minutes, but I can't think of any one player who impacts the outcome of a game on both ends of the floor more than him when he's on. LeBron obviously the other one but crazy how good his defense is. BS: It depends on what you think a MVP is. HV: What is MVP? BS: No one ever figured out the exact definition and they like it that way. I think it's some sort of combo of the excellence you had during the season, how valuable you were to your team and if you replace the person we're talking about with an average person at their position, what is the impact? If you replace Harden with Afflalo, what happens to the Rockets? Do they win 30 games? That would be his case. If the Warriors win 67-68 games and become a historic regular season team and [Curry's] the best player and sets the chemistry, responsible for spacing and everything else he brings, how much do you value that? These are all up to the voters I guess. HV: I don't know to be honest. If you look at Houston's mismatched roster they plug in and out, Harden really and truly has the ball all the time. The only thing you can take away from Harden is you need to play some defense but he's not as bad as he used to be. Below average. He can be a good defender. If you look at his physique and body style, he's not in superb...he'll never have a great, great, great physical thing where he can play both ends but he's not like Kawhi. Harden has the ball the entire game. He's creating all their 3 point looks. He does everything. Because of that, you can't ask him to play a lot of defense. When he had to play defense last year in the playoffs and teams focused on him, he fell apart in the 4th quarter. A player who is a MVP candidate would be Chris Paul. We both thought they could fall with Griffin out. Not only did they not fall, they held it together. That team is awful. A great starting five, but even then, Barnes & Redick aren't creating on their own, Jordan is not a post threat. Chris Paul is their best offensive and defensive player by a big margin. That team has played quite well. Their bench is historically bad. BS: Redick has been good this year but with you on Chris Paul. If you say no one does more than Harden, Chris has to be in that conversation. ... Harden is mediocre defensively. Not a liability. He's not Damian Lillard. HV: The more he has to play good defense, the worse his offense. What's better for their team? BS: Doc traded Dudley. He was hurt all last season. Doc knew he was hurt. Then he used a future first to get Dudley off the team and he's been playing 23.7 minutes a game, 40% from three, plays crunch time routinely. He's what the Clippers needed and they traded him with a first round pick. That secretly is the worst trade of the last year. HV: Not only was he injured but was asked to play injured. Crazy they got rid of him.
http://www.nba.com/2015/news/features/fran_blinebury/04/09/harden-declares-he-is-this-years-mvp/ Nice article. Harden has some nice quotes. Most I've really heard him talk about the MVP
If Harden wants the MVP, he'll beat the Spurs tomorrow. If he loses, Rockets drop to 6th and he's all but eliminated.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Tidbit from Andrew Bogut story: on/off point swing w/ him is even greater than that of Steph Curry's (22.1 to 18)- <a href="http://t.co/7KuMthdar8">http://t.co/7KuMthdar8</a></p>— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/586368296166932480">April 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Focusing on "best player on best team" doesn't do justice to how much the TEAM is responsible for the Warriors success.
I don't understand how MVP became a "Team" reward any ways. It seems like they did it to give Nash the award over Kobe that year although he was having a legendary season. It was Nash that won the award for orchestrating team success. It seems odd, If Steph Curry wants to be the best player on the best team then wouldn't that be the Finals MVP award? Much more valuable I agree, but how can you determine that the Warriors are the best team without having determined who the best team is in the post season? It could end up a Robinson/Dirk MVP where it turns out...oops, guess that team wasn't so good after all. Just being a deep team means you are going to win a lot of games since half of the league (More than half) are mediocre at best. Playoffs are different though. Warriors are the best team of the 2014-15 regular season, everyone can agree with that...but to throw that around constantly in the debate seems like people are actually just admitting that Harden is the better player but oh well, you have to reward the Warriors as a team somehow.
Real plus minus...lol... So without Curry the Warrios still outscore their opponents, but without Harden the Rockets get outscored with a big negative that's basically lotto team level... if that's not MVP. Harden accounts for 43% of the Rockets total offense.. TOPS IN THE LEAGUE... if that's not MVP :joe: Curry is not a better defender than him.. he just has Klay, Green, and Bogut that heavily affect the team defensive numbers... Harden has been without two of his top 3 defenders on his team for much of the season and yet they've remained a top defensive team. The Rockets have had numerous starting lineups that have changed with all the injuries... they've had D league players getting significant burn... Harden has McHale(not the greatest coach :facepalm.. He has fools like Dorsey playing notable minutes(worst FT shooter in history)... Has Josh Smith whom most would consider a cancer.... He's had to carry the biggest load without another reliable #2 scorer and also face the most defensive attention in the league... yet despite all this the Rockets are a 2 seed currently... if that's not MVP. :smug: Curry has many off games where GS still wins... If Harden is off.. 9/10 times that's a loss for Houston in a major way... another reason he's the MVP. The Warriors have been pretty fortunate in the health department... They'd likely be challenging them for the 1st seed with a healthier team.. You can tack on even more games to this graphic now too. Harden is the better scorer, rebounder, and defender... 28 on 18 FGA >> 24 on 17 FGA Accounts for 43% of his teams offense.. as I said.. tops in the league. Leads the league in FTAs Leads the league in 3 point assists Leads the league in points scored on drives. He leads the league in his share of advanced stats.. WS etc. :work: Goldsberry: The Rockets retrieve a ridiculous 55 percent of Harden’s close-range misses, which is by far the highest share for any volume shooter in the league. Put another way: Harden converts only 54 percent of his interior chances, but when you consider that freakish offensive rebounding rate, a whopping 79 percent of his close-range attempts result in either a bucket or a fresh 24 for his team. Harden has the lowest assist rate, which means he also creates his own close-range shots at the highest rate in the NBA. / THREAD HARDEN IS MVP.
What's more important is beating the Spurs tonight. The MVP award can take a backseat. We are fighting for our place in the playoffs. We are fighting for respect. I hope the guys have another level to go to in this game.
Yeah, it's over. 17-23 FG% .. 8 threes.. 45 points. Absurd 4th quarter from Curry. I love Harden but Curry and the Warriors are just having a historic season. I don't give a **** about Harden winning the MVP anymore. Let's focus on getting out of the 1st round and that 2 seed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Warriors' and Rockets' offensive ratings, with and without Stephen Curry and James Harden <a href="http://t.co/ZPmYnOLjqw">pic.twitter.com/ZPmYnOLjqw</a></p>— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/586399727945564160">April 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Basically says Harden means more to his team as his absence creates a steeper falloff in regards to his team's offensive rating.
But where is Curry on the second chart? And where is GSW? I read that as without Curry GS offensive rating tanks lol
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Blake Griffin's pick for MVP is James Harden.</p>— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/586587474383613952">April 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
