Amen amigo! Kawhi is perfect and never gets bashed for anything by anyone. Harden is bashed by folks who claim to root for him. Amazing.
No, because he wasn't that close to it to start with. It's great to have an efficient scorer who is also an elite defender compared to Harden and Westbrook, but Kawhi doesn't distribute the ball on any signifcant level (less assists than Brad Beal, Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee, Andre Iguodala among others). I would have him as, at best, a T-4th (tied with Lebron; behind Harden, Westbrook, and Durant - obviously Durant will drop out of the top 5 by season's end due to injury). I love Kawhi and would want him on my team in every possible situation, but let's not get carried away over one game (in which Harden was also excellent).
I got no problem with your statement or sentiment however know this IF Leonard is clearly the best individual and team player in the NBA todate, he isn't on the level Lebron was at his absolute best, Tim Duncan or arguably Kobe at his best. The quality isn't what it once was. And I won't even bother to include the Greatest Ones.
Russell WB might be the best stats stuffer in history, he aint going to last in the playoffs. If he makes it. OKC had all the pieces of the puzzle to the championship.... but could not hold them together. KD, Harden, WB. And those 3 as talented as they were, they just selfish in their own way. Dayum, if they could only care less about stats and more about the team.
It's hilarious. Thunder's bigs are ordered to leave all the defensive 'freebie' rebounds to Westbrook. Adams would be averaging 12rpg if not for WB's stat-stuffing.
The only problem with this is that the Spurs now finish 3-1 against us and now Kawhi proponents could use this in their case against Harden. I think this is all knee-jerk, but let's see how the rest of the season plays out. If the Rox finish top 3 in the West and San Antonio remains behind Golden State, Harden will have the MVP. The only possible case Kawhi wins MVP is if the Spurs finish with the best record in the league, and even then Harden is still in the mix.
If the Spurs can get the one-seed, I think Leonard has a case. He's a phenomenal defensive player who has learned how to take over games offensively while carrying the corpse of Tony Parker on his back. However, I do wonder if there is "Spurs fatigue" among voters. Basically, does winning 50 games per season for 20 years make them less likely to award individual achievement and chalk success up to Pop's system instead?
No. Still a bunch of games left. More likely just more data that these are two top candidates for MVP.
Among all guards who play >20mpg and 40 games played. Harden is 5th in Dbpm at 1.3 Harden is 13th in Drtg at 107 Harden is 3rd in D/ws at 2.9 Harden has an overall dfg% of 46.9% which is just below average. Harden has a dfg% against the 3 of 36.1% which is average. Harden allows 70.6% under 6 ft. By far his worst spot but it's also most likely layups and dunks. Goes to 62.9% if you take away the paint. Harden has a mid-range dfg% of 37.6 which is average. 14th in spg 22nd in bpg All that data, collected together. Paints he is average defensively. That's where my narrative comes from
So, some stats say he's one of the worst in the entire league, and some says he is somewhat average. Interesting.
We are overreaching guys. We are fine. We will win when it matters watch. Remember the Clippers situation.
And others have him as among the best in the entire league The one stat that paints him at the bottom is what you used drpm. That's practically it. He's also one of the best defensive rebounding guards of all time. It's all perspective. There isn't a perfect defensive stat. You have to put them all together to get a view of overall defensive impact. But by all means, dismiss the overwhelming data portraying him as average. Totally disregard the areas he is tops in the league. And continue to keep pushing the one stat that paints him the worse. Not bias at all or trying to skew stats to back your argument
Are you some kind of spurs homer? How easily people forget James has put up 2 50+ point trip-dubs this season, leads the league in assists as a former SG, and our roster was completely **** on at the beginning of the season (some even predicted we'd miss the playoffs - how soon they forget), now it's all like Anderson is awesome, Gordon is great blah blah blah...why weren't other teams throwing big cash at them then? Even our own fans questioned those contracts. Harden (and MDA to a lesser extent) are the reasons for our success and nobody denies it. Everyone knows pop is an all-time great coach. Everyone predicted the Spurs as a top 2 seed. Spurs are 4-1 without Kawhi....take Harden off our team, we're a lottery team easily. Does 2 good plays by Kawhi, crucial phantom call and no-call on Nene make him deserving of MVP? Certainly not. Kawhi is a stud no doubt, but Harden is the MVP, take him off our team we're trash. Take Kawhi off the the spurs they're still probably top-4 seed. Come on it's an 82 game season, not a 2 minute highlight reel. People just don't find Harden's game sexy enough.
