I have zero desire to dump on James, he is the man and he's bringing a new era to H-Town. But statistically he just gets killed by Lebron and Durant across the board. You can argue team role and so on, but he's lower in literally every advanced statistic possible. 3rd of the trio in TS%, 3rd in turnover rate, 3rd in assist rate, 3rd in rebounding rate, 3rd in PER, 3rd in win shares, 3rd in offensive rating, 3rd in defensive rating. <PRE>Rk Player Season Age G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1 Kevin Durant 2013-14 25 62 62 2386 9.8 19.2 .508 2.1 5.3 .393 7.7 13.9 .553 8.0 9.2 .871 0.7 6.5 7.2 5.3 1.3 0.7 3.4 2.1 29.6 2 James Harden 2013-14 24 55 55 2115 7.1 15.6 .457 2.1 6.0 .350 5.0 9.5 .525 6.9 8.2 .852 0.9 3.6 4.4 5.3 1.4 0.4 3.5 2.3 23.3 3 LeBron James 2013-14 29 58 58 2171 9.6 16.8 .572 1.4 3.7 .373 8.2 13.1 .628 5.4 7.2 .746 1.0 5.7 6.7 6.2 1.5 0.3 3.3 1.6 26.0</PRE> <PRE>Rk Player Season Age G MP PER TS% eFG% FTr 3PAr ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% USG% ORtg DRtg OWS DWS WS WS/48 1 Kevin Durant 2013-14 25 62 2386 30.2 .637 .563 .480 .278 2.2 19.5 11.3 26.9 1.9 1.6 12.7 32.7 123 102 11.5 3.6 15.1 .304 2 James Harden 2013-14 24 55 2115 22.5 .608 .525 .524 .387 2.8 10.4 6.9 25.2 2.0 0.8 15.3 27.7 117 106 7.0 2.1 9.1 .207 3 LeBron James 2013-14 29 58 2171 29.4 .650 .613 .426 .221 3.7 19.0 11.6 32.0 2.2 0.7 14.3 30.8 121 105 9.5 2.6 12.1 .267</PRE> I love Harden. He's a stud right now. But in the paraphrased words of Phil Jackson...Lebron and Durant played a great season. Give them some f***ing credit. Now if Harden keeps playing at this week's pace and the Rockets keep winning at this week's pace, we'll talk.
Definitely. Harden is the best player on the best team in the NBA. And he should be the favorite to win it too. Go Harden!
LJ who? Rockets is the best team in the NBA. And Harden is playing like the best basketball player in the world.
Harden effort on Defense has definetly picked up. He's been great on the post, his D on post ups is very effective. Its when they make him chase guards through screens where he struggles. He's been fantastic, and should be MENTIONED in the MVP awards but i rank Duran, LBJ, Griffin, ahead of the The Beard.
From the beginning of Feb till now (15 games), the Beard's averages: 28 ppg 48% fgp 41% 3-pt 82% FT at 9/game 4.5 rbg 6.13 apg 2.133 spg
Right now, Harden is playing at a top 5 and arguably top 3 in the NBA level. Outside of KD and LBJ, the only other guys that are playing this last month on Harden's level is Griffin and maybe Carmelo(except his team is not winning). I think Harden is in the conversation, but he probably can't win this year due to the seasons that KD an LBJ have had.
ATTENTION POINDEXTER..... no one REALLY thinks that Harden is going to win MVP, or SHOULD win MVP, only that he deserves "consideration", hence the word "consideration" is in the thread title.
IMO he definitely deserves to be in the conversation, but really nothing more than that. He's playing incredibly, but both Durant and LeBron are having historically great seasons, if the season ended today they would each have one of the top 25 PERs ever!
But let's also not forget they hate the Rockets and Dwight over there. The only reason they can't diss us is because we keep kicking the arses of the teams they consider superior to us. First we are the hottest team in the calendar year of 2014 and we recieve almost nothing in accolades. Second SAS tried to minimize are victory against Miami and then they talked more about the Pacers woes then the fact they ran into a buzzsaw. And now SAS has jumped ship and called Harden a superstar. First Lebron is a superstar and Durant is a superstar in my book and that's it. I think Harden is approaching that territory but not there yet. But SAS calls Harden a superstar and then he poisons the water by adding Melo and Westbrook and even includes injured Kobe and Derrick Rose and that's when I say a backhanded compliment that he only gives to save face. So now they are talking about the Rockets and if we win the next 3 they will even give us more cred. But it's only after a pile of hate and even worse non existent apathetic caca that stunk up the station. If somehow we beat Miami at home on Sunday you will hear a little love but expect more hate toward the Heat than giving us credit. And if we lose especially if it's a blowout not once will you hear in all due respect Houston has been on tirade and it's no wonder they tired. So take it with a grain of salt. Harden is who we know he is and the Rockets are who we know we are. We are not there yet but we are close and we still have room for improvement.
If we finish with the best record in the west (which is a real possibility) then harden will win the MVP without a question
Thought I'd make a little something... it's nothing special, but it's just a great memory from what's on the headpage of clutchfans! Definitely a memory, a game, and a performance I will never forget from our Rockets! Didn't know where to really post this, but decided to post it in this thread.
2 Things 1. Rodman you did it again! Just keep on doing your thing man. I liked your Saiyan gif but my favorite thing about your gifs is how original they are. You took an old gif we all know and put it in a completely new and funny context in response to this thread. Keep surprising us bro. 2. Harden will get some MVP buzz but what about most improved? I know this award is meant for more up-and-coming players. But seriously Harden has gotten so much better over the course of this season. His D is better (although he'll never be Gary Payton), he's not relying on the refs to bail him out as much, he doesn't throw up his arms and stop playing after a missed call, he's standing around when he doesn't have the ball less, he just looks more locked in. And how much better has he gotten in the clutch? My biggest problem with Harden before was that I thought he tried to do too much. But recently it seems like he has really bought into the system and is playing in flow with the game and the rest of the team. He's not calling his own number over and over again just for the sake of it. And it's showing in both his stats (especially crunch time) and the team record.
He's certainly in the discussion, no doubt about it. Unfortunately for us, Lebron is...well...Lebron. lol
I don't think what I said was negative in the aspect of Harden playing amazing basketball but being realistic in him being top tier, just not the top. Consideration would be great. And the rowdies are alright but does every home crowd in the NBA need to chant MVP for their players? We are smarter than that. Leave those dumb chants for Dallas or LA.
