I thought Harden had this on lock but now I think Westbrook has the edge. Harden recently has not played too well and with Lou Will Harden's stats will drop besides assists and he won't be playing as many minutes. Meanwhile, Westbrook is hellbent on putting up stats and his team is improved after the deadline.
Controversy ripple effect? This goes back to the year Curry won it the first time when Harden should have. Currys team had the better record... but Harden deserved it more solely due to the term most VALUABLE player, a la Dwight was gone 3243534634344 games and so forth, but as we know, Curry got it because his team had the better record. In retrospect, if Curry won it that year, Harden SHOULD win it this year and Westbrook can hope to try again next year. Stats shouldn't even be the deal breaker. Harden simply is the clear cut more valuable choice, because his team has the better record. If Harden does not win it this year, the NBA is 100% rigged and riots will happen. Every ****ing year they indirectly change the rule of who should win MVP based on accommodating the more likeable player by the media. It's sickening. Our boy is in his 8th year and ballin lights out. Give that magical beard the ****ing award already.
I don't know what the numbers are but I've seen Westbrook take that extra gear when winning time comes, Harden not as much. I remember Harden being at the top of 4th quarter scoring a couple of years ago, he always seemed to come in and end whatever nonsense went on. I miss that Harden.
Anthony Davis, great #'s, does NOT win games Demarcus Cousins, great #'s, doesn't win Andrew Wiggins, Karl Towns, great #'s, doesn't win Kyrie Irving, great #'s, great guard like WB, without Lebron is BLOWN OUT by 20. Never won without Lebron Kevin Love, forgotten "stat padder" star who never won by himself Russell Westbrook, WINS MORE games WHEN getting triple-double than the games he doesn't. Team overall has winning record All the other guys mentioned rack up big time stats too, but their teams arent good even with 2 STARS on the team. THAT means ALL of them have unimpressive stats. Yet Westbrook's team iS decent. Honestly, Westbrook's #'s arent THAT hollow
That's because OKC is actually a good team? Exchange Anthony Davis or KaT with Westbrick and OKC won't be just 7th seed, that's for sure. So people are supposed to celebrate OKC winning more games than it loses when Westbrick gets a triple double than he loses? Wtf Houston doesn't even lose games when Harden blows up, ur team is supposed to overwhelmingly win when ur star blows up not sometimes win and sometimes lose. OKC is a good team that is playing down to expectations and Westbrick is a large part of that, he has record breaking usage rate (has the ball ~42% of the time) but then he converts at a horrible rate. If Westbrick was extremely efficient with the ball like Harden is I would ok, he deserves to hog the ball because he scores so much. But Westbrick doesn't really do that, all his pts and assists come from shooting to much and generating all the offense of OKC. His triple double is artificial, if OKC really wanted to win at all costs there's no way Westbrick is getting all these touches.
I only said Westbrook's stats are not THAT empty. I didnt say Westbrook is Legend bow down to the God It could mean that his Meaningful Stats rating instead of a 2/10 its a 5-6, but doesn't mean its 8 & Up Incredible. (Just adding, when I see mock-version of names used like "Westbrick", (or like the feminized forms like "She-Mac", or "Stephanie Curry", etc) ... I assume personal agendas, pure BIAS, no objectivity of any kind. Like or hate a player however anyone wants to, but I just wont take the opinion seriously honestly. )
I hate to borrow a Golden State narrative, but this isn't a good argument because the Rockets and Celtics are winning those games before the final three minutes. It's like the "Curry sits because the Warriors are winning by 30" argument from two seasons ago.
Team has to be within 5 when under 3 min to play, so Harden would be playing. But I would like to assists and how many games each team has in that situation.
Wow. Talk about picking and choosing your stats. This has all kinds of problems. Sample size issues, doesn't account for "points created" doesn't account for actually winning or losing those games, etc. We all know Westbrook takes over whether he wins or loses. Absolutely tired of the idea that Westbrook should get credit for taking all of the shots for his team. This is something we used to criticize players for. It was held against Kobe for years and Westbrook is less efficient than Kobe was and definitely wins less. Somehow Westbrook gets credit for playing with a talented team that he doesn't utilize and winning less than any MVP ever.