At this point I don't even think it was Harden's in the first place. Well maybe in December, but that was long ago. Since then I think the majority of the public have been saying it's Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook. Best player on best team or triple double. Since KD got hurt there was a shift to Kawhi though because the idea of him being the best defensive and offensive player on the 2nd best team is very worthy of MVP and we as Rockets should all recognize that because we had Dream. At this point I think Harden needs to do more than he's already doing which is kind of crazy. He isn't good enough defensively. Not saying he's a bad defender, but with past MVPs like Lebron and KD, and now Kawhi they are all great defensive players. The elite offensive players are in the 2nd tier. Or Harden needs to obtain the best record in the league. Those are the only two ways I can conceivably see James as the favorite to win an MVP award. It sucks because neither are likely. We all see James being capable of playing fantastic defense. No one mentions the tough defense he played on Kawhi in those small spurts in last night's game. Kawhi foreal got clamped by Harden at one point but got free throws because a mistake from James/Lou. James Harden can play defense and I don't think hes afraid of checking a wing. Maybe not a point like Kyrie, Curry, or Paul because they're all too quick with their ball handing... but Derozan, PG13, Kawhi, Durant, Butler, Hayward, and Klay? I think Harden can check all of them except Durant honestly. I don't mean shut down, but I think he can make it really tough for them if Harden locks in. In a nutshell this is what Beard has to do to win the MVP but most importantly be respected as a top player in the league by the public. -start defending the teams best offensive wing more often -less turnovers -win 60+ games And before anyone starts complaining. We should expect this out of Harden. We can't baby him anymore. It's funny. We lose by 2 points where Kawhi had perhaps his best game ever and the Rockets and Harden are considered a joke by the public. No respect. Lol.
I'm not referring to the people that constructively criticize him as i do that too. There's a group of people that for some reason carry heavy disdain torwards him. You can't deny that, it's embarassing, fans would kill to have a player like Harden on their team.
****ing tired of us building a good lead, sometimes up until the 4th and coughing it all up to the Spurs!!
Wait, what?! So Harden is eliminated because he has more help? What about Curry when he won it the first time in 2014???!!! He had more help that year (practically every single player was killin it) than Harden did (didn't Dwight miss like 40+ games?) and Harden didn't have anybody else except Dwight as a "star" type player!!! But Curry won it because his team had the stupid better record. Harden was robbed, and whether anyone disagrees as a Rockets fan or not, it's true. Jump to 2016 season (right now), Westbrook is having in comparison a similar type of season Harden had in 2014, just not team record wise. No supporting cast in a way, but Westbrook ballin lights out. So... Westbrook can't win, 100%. Rockets in 2014 finished 2nd in the west, with Harden carrying the team with no Dwight for half the season, but Curry won the MVP. Curry's team was just 1 seed higher. There is NO way Westbrook wins it over Harden this year. If anything, it's Kawhi vs Harden, but even then, numbers and performance wise in relation to team success, Harden has to win it. If Harden does not win it this year, he will never win it and the media is 100% biased and corrupt against anything success related to Harden and the Houston Rockets. The NBA needs to change the voting somehow. I don't know how, but the current system is terrible. Need to involve coaches and players, or something along those lines. What pisses me off the most is that every year the definition of MVP changes. Am I missing anything?
I also thought Harden deserved it in 2015, but he wasn't robbed. Even though the Warriors were only 1 seed higher, they had the best record in the league and 11 more wins than us. That's a huge gap.
D'Antoni is a great coach. Pop is the best coach. Didn't you see how he erased a 15pt deficit in the third simply by switching Kawhi onto Harden? It was a sudden change and it worked fantastically. D'Antoni had to call a timeout before we could counteract it properly, but that was basically the game right there. The only solace to take is that we made Pop fire off one of the bullets in his chamber. Now if he does that to us in the playoffs we'll know how to fight it. He'll have to try something different to catch us off guard.
So basically, you're agreeing that Westbook has no chance winning it this year, correct? Yeah, Kawhi isn't anything close of a passer like Lebron or Harden. Currently: Offensively: Harden>Lebron>Kawhi Defensively: Kawhi>Lebron>Harden Passing: Harden>Lebron>Kawhi Finesse: Harden>Kawhi>Lebron
Yep, I don't think Westbrook has a chance. I think it's Harden's unless the Spurs can take the #1 seed.
If defense was such a big critera for winning mvp then explain steve nash, dirk and most recently curry. The goalposts once again being moved for harden
What public is this? Harden has front run this thing from the get go. Kevin Durant has never remotely been a serious MVP candidate this season. The media members, when asked who they would vote for, have very clearly chosen James Harden. Everyone on ESPN had Harden as MVP at the all star break. Westbrook has definitely gotten the most love and coverage from the media, but he wasn't winning the award out of the 7th seed. Leonard has always been there in the background. Harden has absolutely monster numbers and has taken a team most predicted to miss the playoffs, into the 3rd seed. We don't need to search for reasons why he should win it, just look at his output. He hasn't stopped doing it either. The team is currently the exact same seed they were in 2 months ago. With that said, people would LOVE a reason to not vote for him. Those 2 plays from Leonard last night is exactly the kind of thing a voter can use to justify voting for him over Harden. Westbrook was never a threat to win MVP, Leonard may have actually taken the lead because of about 5 seconds of basketball.
