Russ is one of my top 5 fav players in the league and I'm not one to hate like others on this board, but 4/18 is pretty bad lol
I can unfortunately see it happening. I think there's going to be a fair few more games this season that played out the way the latest Pels game did. Not so much the 30 point drubbing, but Harden taking the back seat offensively and being more than content to get everyone else involved and get their numbers. "Harden doesn't have to come out every night and drop 30 to have a chance at winning, like Westbrook blablabla more crap crap crap"
It'll be interesting to see if Russ can put up those numbers also now that he has more help. Added McDermott and Gibson, and Kanter will be back. I can't say that Russ doesn't deserve it - just that Harden deserves it more.
I think the ASG performance will be engrained in media heads voting for MVP. Not that it's appropriate to do so, but it's the media we're talking about here. If Lou performs at a high level for us, I think it'll be much easier for voters to defer the award to Russ. It's frustrating for sure. Dude just can't win whatever the argument. I do wonder if finishing with the second seed can lock it up for us. Personally, I'm worried that Harden winning the award will make him complacent? Will he perform at a high level in the playoffs? Not winning it showed in the WCF. He was disappointed. But idk, I hope he stays driven throughout the postseason.
Harden's a slight favorite for MVP - and the betting market has reflected this for quite some time now (I think maybe a month or two now?) and you have tons of players vouching for him. After the Pels game, they asked Boogie, and he said Harden was MVP for sure. Don't understand why everyone can see this but not the media. Very frustrating and perplexing for sure.
We need another thread with players quotes where they vouch for James, like we had two seasons ago...there was a thread with Kobe, Lillard etc quotes
