Do you think the 2016 MVP race will be as close as last years race was?

this is going to be his 7th year in the league, going into his 4th year playing at a high level. There isn't going to be some new way of defending him all of a sudden created. If you're just waiting for some massive drop off you're going to be pretty disappointed. averaging that many assists has nothing to do with his shooting. He's an elite ball handler. and btw when has anyone even averaged that much, definitely wasn't recent.

 

yeah its ridiculous

 

Riley is really going to have to bring it for her Daddy to win the MVP again.



He's your mom's favorite player.

Spoiler

Besides me.

 

It depends on injuries first and foremost that are unpredictable.
I think Durant will be back in the mix. If AD shows a similar improvement next year as he showed last year then he will be the MVP. He also has put up more muscle and has focused on hitting threes. With the new coach I expect he will be even more involved in offence.

 

Lawson will help Harden more than most people realize. Harden will be become very efficient. He is going to take it up a notch.

Curry is amazing but he will be hard pressed to post a better season than last year.

James is always there but I think he won't ever repeat unless he just goes 32+ 8/8

Westbrook will battle Durant for star attention.

Davis is the X-Factor, he is still getting better but I think he's MVP is after Harden's.

 

That last line is money. Lol
Its going to be an interesting season, 1 more month

 

The refs will decide who the MVP will be. If no one can touch Anthony Davis this upcoming season then he will be the MVP.

 

I think it will be one of these guys:

http://stats.nba.com/players/

but I'm not sure.

 

I agree, I don't think people realize how much pressure is going to be taken off of Harden because of the addition of Ty. Look at Hardens last season in OKC when he had less pressure on him because of the defense having to account for either Durant or westbrook or both on the court. Now obviously Ty is not on KD/Russ level but he is definitely the best offensive player Harden has played with in Houston, not to mention Harden is just flat out a better player now than in OKC.

If Harden gets his shooting back to 49/39 expect him to get close or avg 30ppg he's that dynamic of a scorer. I expect his assist to go down to 6 but his rebounding should stay the same at around 6 also.

If Houston is top 3 record in the league which seems pretty likely and Harden is putting up 30/6/6 on 49/39/88 shooting he will win MVP because the media can't mess up 2 years straight and not expect the fans to start questioning their credibility.

His PER would be pushing close to 30 with those numbers and easily rank him in the top 15 seasons every played in the NBA.

Crazy thing is those are attainable numbers for him and what he should Be striving for. It's good to be Rockets fans right now we have a very special player on our team and he's very very young still and already done great things and seen as a top 5 player and is just entering his prime this year..... Scary for everyone else.

 

If I had to put money on it (assuming everyone had the same payout), I'm going with Durant w/ Lebron a close second.

Due to his injury plagued season, people have forgotten how dominant Durant can be and that he was close to challenging Lebron for best player in the league.

Durant missed most of 14-15 season, but he is medically cleared and healthy as anyone going into the 15-16 season. Expect him and the Thunders to come out like the 60+ win team they've been for the last half decade.

 

If Lawson's addition to the Rockets is successful off court issues and on court play, I seriously doubt Harden will average 28 pts let alone 30 6 6 per game. History has shown, the vast majority of times when star talent is added to a team, the individual #'s of each star player will fall. There is only one ball and only so many possessions.

I expect Harden to probably improve his efficiency in terms of raw fg% or 3 pt % and maybe only slightly in terms of ts% since his ts% is already really good.

However I'd also expect to see a drop in points, FGM/FGA, FTM/FTA. as well as a decrease in total possessions used, usg%, time of possesion/dribbling and maybe even minutes.

Of course if Lawson is a disaster on court or off court, expect Hardens number to be similar to last season.

 

Curry, Durant, Harden, Davis

 

I diasagree, KD led the league in scoring 4 years in a row playing with Russ and harden, lebron still held his avg at 27/7/7 playing with wade and bosh. Kobe still got 28 with pau on the team.

history shows the opposite if your truly an elite scorer like Harden is. All Ty is going to do is make it easier for harden to get the looks he's already been getting in better spots.

On top of that lawson is a good player but he's not a star that's going to come in and demand touches and shots. He's here to make hardens life easier scoring the ball. Everyone said hardens ppg would go down when we added Dwight the exact opposite happened.

 

Its, fine if you disagree, but the facts are against you. Lebron prior to joining Wade/Bosh in Miami avg close 29.7 8 & 7. and avged from 31.4, 30.0 27.3 and 28.4 the four years prior. In Miami & cleveland his scoring avg dropped to 27.1 or under. along with minutes played and usg rate. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html Furthermore if you bothered to check, you will also find Bosh's and Wades numbers showing similar regression in terms of simple counting statistics.

Lets move on to your next sample - Kobe. Kobes averaged 31.6 and 35.4 points per game the year before Gasol arrived! So 28 points per game is obviously a huge drop off in terms of usage/shots/possessions. In fact in the next 3 years Kobes points, attempts, minutes would continue to drop even lower. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bryanko01.html

Your last example KD did lead the lead in scoring 4 years in a row but he didn't do it playing with Harden and WB as you stated. Harden only played with KD the first 3x he lead the league in scoring and this included his rookie year where he averaged 9 points per game... his sophmore year where he avg 12 points per game. Even in Hardens last year iwht the Thunders he only average 16 points per game. I'm not sure how or why you would think that helps supports your case. In fact it shows the opposite. Once Harden moved away from Durant and WB and was able to use more possessions, shots and minutes his numbers naturally exploded. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duranke01.html

As far as Harden/Howard... Harden's points, fga, fta and minutes all dropped slightly with Howards arrival in 2013. his increased in scoring, minutes, attempts etc in 2014 can easily be attributed to the fact that the Rockets were injury ridden including Howard in 2014-15.

 

I agree with blahblahblah. His usage will fall so the most likely and expected is that his raw numbers will dip. Instead of sharing the court with Bev he will share it with Lawson.
However I don't think the dip will be big and that it will matter when it comes to MVP. Because he won't win based in raw numbers. There will likely be other Mvp candidates with better raw numbers. (AD, KD).
If Harden wants to really go and win the MVP he should focus on improving his defence and getting the first seed for the Rockets.

 

Curry is already on an all time trajectory.
He is arguably the best shooter off the move in history.
He is also a complete scorer with the ability to finish in the lane with either hand and floaters as well as a mid range game.
12-15 asst per game will never be achieved because of their style of play.
An avid Rockets supporter but give credit where it is due.

 

I think it will be between these 4. If I thought New Orleans was going to finish high I'd say it's gonna be AD but I don't