I think the only certainty of winning is if a player is the best player, period. That player will typically win multiple MVPs over the course of his career. Number 2 usually is sure to win, sooner or later. Then a few MVPs will be sprinkled on 3 through 20, each of whom are longshots in a given season.
It's certainly possible. He has the talent. What he needs are a couple of great seasons with deep playoff runs to cement his reputation, which is already damn good (excepting the opinions of a few chumps here), and preferably a championship or two. Nothing too difficult for the Rockets, right? ;-)-
I think he has a shot. If he can avg in top 2-3 ppg in a season and the team is top 2 in the conference and he has shaken off his defensive liability reputation then he will be in a serious MVP conversation and from there anything can happen
If he puts up ten straight Harden seasons, then he has a very good chance of picking up an MVP in one of those. But it would have to be one of the stronger seasons, in conjunction with meh seasons by his strongest rivals.
I think hes this era's Dirk, a guy that will be a fringe top 5 player in the league for a long time, but his defensive questions will hurt him in MVP voting. I know Dirk got his but he was lucky to be playing in a time where the gap between #1 and #10 was much smaller than it is today. Stuck with between a perfecly staggered prime of Lebron, KD, Paul George and A Davis will make it tough.
http://www.nba.com/mvp-ladder/ Given more time Harden would be at least top 3. Better defense and rox making finals
I dunno if he can get an MVP with LBJ, KD, Anthony Davis and other players still in the league but IMHO he has a really good chance to get the most important MVP...Finals MVP
He has the talent but his peers (KD, LBJ) are equally or more talented and aside from that, winning more. If Harden can bring home a ring though, he might have a chance. For now, it will be more for LBJ and KD. It's still a long road...
I still can't believe we got FREAKING JAMES HARDEN. I'll never forget the moment I found out the news through ESPN. At first I was disappointed because I loved Lamb's potential and kept thinking about Harden's performance in the finals but man what a steal! Getting him pretty much accelerated the rebuilding of this team, ex. getting Dwight Howard and now talks of Carmelo. Him coming here saved the franchise 5 or more years of rebuilding. Wow. Of course the man behind the plan (Daryl Morey) deserves the most credit. I honestly don't care if he ever wins an MVP as long as he wins a championship during his career.
James Harden is currently leading all guards in both PPG and True Shooting % (1st since Jordan in 87-88) r/nba awwwww yisssss
Can somebody tell me how the hell this guy isn't even in top 3 MVP Race...!!! for the month of April he has been average 29 PPG 8.9 APG 5 RPG and caring his team to the playoffs I don't understand how Joakim Noah and Lamarcus Aldridge are a head of him
He's never had to be THE guy. Showed signs of it last year when he helped this team with a nice little playoff run, now that he is maturing as a leader, great ball handler, shooter, money in crunch time he should be at least considered. I personally believe as the years go he will be a better defender than what he is showing right now
People are minimizing Harden's impact because a good deal of them adamantly believe that Dwight is our MVP this year. This perspective comes from our jump from the 8th seed to the 4th seed in a stronger West. What those people fail to see is that Harden has had to pick up the slack on a nightly basis because we don't have last year's Lin and our bench production has been nonexistent at times. Dude has been otherworldly.
