This season is equivalent to baseball's 1998 season. Super inflated stats, for various reasons, have allowed for players across the board to put up Mickey Mouse numbers. And just like that year in baseball, they are going to give the MVP to basketball's version of Mark McGwire because...OH WAIT THEY GAVE THE MVP TO SAMMY SOSA INSTEAD, BECAUSE THE CUBS ACTUALLY MADE THE PLAYOFFS AND EVEN IN BASEBALL WINNING MATTERS YOU MEDIA IDIOTS
Westbrook is a top 3 player, he has higher ceiling than Harden because of his athleticism, and he destroyed the Spurs last year in the playoffs and went completely off on the warriors. That was MVP performance This is season is just him stat padding though, what he did this season is not any more spectacular than any other season he has had imo, he just chucked more shots and stole bunch of rebounds from his two very good bigs. He has a lot of good players around him, but he didn't play to win, he played to chase stats.
Neither of these things are true. Westbrick isn't a top 3 player and he doesn't have a higher ceiling than Harden because Westbrick is an inefficient ball hog chucker that only focuses on padding stats rather than doing what it takes to help his team get better and win. It's not just this season, this is the guy Westbrick has always been.
No he hasn't he was their best player for OKC in the playoffs, quite frankly Durant **** the bed which is why they lost. His athleticism allows him to do much more than Harden, there's no way you can deny that.
Not sure how you came to any conclusion which puts Westbrook's ceiling above Harden. Players that rely heavily on athleticism tend to flame out faster than guys who rely on finesse and high IQ level of play. Harden may not be the athletic freak that Westbrook is, but I would argue that he's a way more durable player and he doesn't need to rely on athleticism since he plays the game with a very high level of intelligence that Westbrook lacks. I could see Harden putting up insane numbers well into his mid 30's, while Westbrook will probably not age that well unless he learns to play the game without having to rely on that athletic ability so much.
Harden is a bit athletic himself.... basically Harden can do everything Westbrick can do only Harden can do it better. Maybe if Westbrick learns shot selection, learns how to be a team player, and learns how to shoot the ball worth a damn, we can start to compare the two. Till then, there's no comparison at all. Harden is one of the best players in the league and Westbrick is a burden to his own team. The reason Durant isn't in OKC anymore is Westbrick being Westbrick.
Maybe ceiling is not the right word, they probably both hit their ceilings at this point in their career. My point is WB's athleticism allows him do more things on the court than Harden. That's not a knock on Harden, it's just physical facts. Harden is a read and react player, he plays much less recklessly than Westbrook because he can't rely on physical abilities as much. People get carried away bashing WB I dont know why. I like the way he plays sometimes when he's not bone headed, he showed a lot of heart and passion last playoffs and fought for every possession and jumped for every offensive rebound. I think WB has the physical tools to be better than Harden, but his BBall IQ prevents him from doing so consistently.
WB's athleticism might allow him to do crazier physical feats than Harden, but Harden's much higher basketball IQ and vision allows him to do a lot more for his TEAM and winning than WB ever will. A team with Durant and WB could have beaten GSW, but Harden and Durant definitely would have.
Man.. I ALMOST made a Giannis deserves it more than WB does thread on another site going into that last week of the season, but didn't pull the trigger on it. Then, during the Bucks-Raptors game last night someone on the broadcast had a similar take. Thinking I should've done it; oh well.
nope. the triple double to me puts him in serious contention for MVP. if he only had 9.9 rebs a game? close but no cigar. harden is very deserving and i hope he wins. but like we see every year - the criteria varies by voter.
If that is the main criterion, did Robertson win the MVP award when he recorded the first historic triple double? That would settle it for me.
