[SI]Daryl Morey: MVP Criteria Is 'Shifting Away From Winning'

Lol we are still talking about the MVP award. Harden should worry about showing up in the playoffs for every game than an MVP award.

 

We already knew that participation was all Griffin cared about when he resigned with the Clips

 

Bro, you also forgot to talk about why Curry was the "Unanimous" MVP the year before. Was Curry astoundingly more amazing than say, Durant, LeBron, or even Kawhi? Not really. His team however, was on a war path to make history. Winning was the metric that got him that MVP. Why then, the very next year, was it that winning mattered less than 1.6 rebounds a game? Hmm...

 

Where does it even say that Harden is "worried about the MVP award"...

 

The criteria for MVP is a joke. Harden lost the MVP to fake MVP Steven curry in 2015 because they said Steven was the "best" (I use that term very loosely) player on the best team. Now he lost the MVP again because they're claiming because Westbrook "only" had Adams, Gibson, Kanter, and oladipo that means he has no help and should get MVP even though he stat padded like a MF. Even though this season harden had the best stats on the best team. Keep in mind everyone had projected the rockets missing the playoffs and thunder winning 50+ at the beginning of the season. So basically everyone thought Westbrook had help and harden didn't have help at the beginning of the season. Bullshit

 

And even if it's all about the numbers, Harden's numbers were just a hair under Westbrook's, and he led a "won't even make the playoffs" team to the league's 3rd-best record.

They not only moved the goalpost, they moved it away from Harden and toward Westbrook, purposely, to capitalize on the triple-double-average trick -- despite the rebound component being partially manufactured for him.

 

Who owns the rights to the new uniforms for the NBA?... Who made those commercials for when WB averaged a triple double?...

Now think, if those people, in the background, did all they could to change the narrative from winning to individual accomplishment. Nike would have a turdstorm on their hands if Harden did pull down those 1.6 rebounds a game.

Edit: Go Ducks!

 

I sort of agree that goalpost has moved this year, but in Curry's case you also have to consider that the breakout of GSW was so amazing. They won 67 games which was easily the best record in the NBA that year, when nobody even expected them to be what 4th seed in the WC before the season? Houston winning 55 games and ending up as a 3rd seed is just not as impressive. In the end, it's not just about winning, but how DOMINANT you are. 14-15 GSW was truly dominant, whereas 16-17 Houston was not.

 

Remember when klay thought he was the best sg in the nba?

**** klay

 

You don't have to convince me about how Westbrook is a lesser player than his numbers would lead you to believe. I'm not a fan of WB at all, and don't think he truly deserved to be the MVP. I'm just pointing out that Westbrook's relative strong performance late in the season contrasted with how Harden and Houston as a team kind of fizzled out in the end contributed to media narrative favoring WB. It wasn't the only factor in WB winning the MVP, but the case for Harden would have been really legitimate if he played in March like he did in December. Needless to say, Harden's meltdown in the PO didn't help in terms of garnering my sympathy.

 

Yeah, well, seems that WINNING is not the main criteria for a lot of players, it is their brand.

Might want to look around the Rockets some, too.

DD

 

Again, that's a clouding of the metrics. Is it winning or not? Is it individual dominance or team dominance? You can't tell me curry was particularly dominant in any of his mvp years. He was amazing, but it wasn't above any of his competition. His teams however, they've been dominant. You get what I'm saying, but you yourself are even shifting posts to accommodate your view. Maybe not by as much as the media but its still there.

 

I think I've found my next bumper sticker.

 

I was going to say... you've had a pretty good reputation since you jumped on CF. Suddenly, I was like what is this? But you meant something very specific and come to think of it, you're being fair about that element.

 

Morey is right. This past MVP was a joke. Harden deserved it.

 

It's pretty ingenuous to say that it's only about winning games. No, how you win games also matter, and the fact is 16-17 Houston was not a dominant team like 14-15 GSW in any sense of the word. Maybe dominant offensively, but overall was not the best team in the league by far.

And yes, 14-15 Curry was not a dominant player as he was in 15-16, which is why Harden was considered a MVP candidate despite winning 11 less games than Curry. But Warriors was much better when Curry was on the floor, and that part was pretty clear.

 

Nope, he did not deserve it. Media decided triple doubles were the main criteria this year, and Westbrook was superior in that regard.

 

If it's "best stats on best team", then Curry and Leonard have a better case than Harden.

Of course, the reality is that it's a mixture of the two and there's no set formula year to year how much one gets weighed over the other. If people really want absolute, non-debatable consistency year to year, then devise a formula and just use that. The irony is that if you go that route, the prestige in winning the award is kind of lost because it becomes less about earning people's respect as league's most outstanding player.

 

Wrong. I can agree that kawhi had better stats but Steven did not. Steven is a fraud and is hyped by the media.