AMEN! So sick of hearing about this record and that record... triple double this and that.... stat stat stat.... was it MJ that said "it don't mean a thing - without the ring" - regarding bulls record setting season?
2 years ago when it was Harden vs Curry. They said the MVP goes to the best player on the better team. They didn't give Harden any credit for taking a team that was missing Howard for long stretches to the number 2 seed. Now in this race, all of a sudden Westbrook is carrying his team with a triple double and Harden has a better supporting cast so he doesn't have to do much for his team. It's a bunch of horse crap and it's basically whatever the media wants it to be and which narrative they have to fill and will sell more. This is one reason that the media should not be the ones making the decision for MVP. If anything it should be a mix of players, media, GM's etc. There are some media heads, and it was shown 2 years ago that hate harden and didn't even have him listed on their ballot which is a complete and utter joke and their votes should be taken away. If I am not mistaken since the late 80's or whenever the media took over, there has been only 2 or 3 MVP's that were a 3 seed. The rest of them were a 2 or 1 seed of either the East of the West. If they give Westbrook the MVP it will be a crazy move in my opinion. How will you give the MVP to someone whose team is barely in the playoffs while the other is in the top 3 of the NBA. If they want to say it's a triple double thing, are you trying to tell me 1.6-2 rebounds a game is that much more important than having a winning season as Harden is doing? Before the season and even up to pre-season everyone was writing us off, and now we are just too good all of a sudden. It is a joke and sadly there is nothing we can do about it.
Finally. No one expected the Rockets to be any good this year including rox fans who hated the "Pringles guy hire and overpaying for stay hurt bench players". But now that they are overachieving everyone has gotten amnesia. Harden has made it look so easy that people are jaded. By the way, olidipo a carer starter is a better player then a recent bench player who was signed to be a bench player. Gordon has played well but his current and future value is not better. Both Harden and Westbrook are the only allstars on their teams that's it.
All Harden has to do is keep winning and putting up monstrous stats. If we can snag another win against Golden State or the Spurs and harden has a big game in those victories and wipes the floor with Westbrook in the final showdown the triple double will mean jack ****.
Definitely everyone would have picked Oladipo over Gordon. Gordon has been a revelation this year, but I doubt anyone saw that coming. To the point of the OP tho, Houston and OKC have similar talent levels. People were just shocked when Houston came out of the gates swinging at 31-9 and couldn't really find an explanation for it.
Magic: Russ is MVP, slightly ahead. Harden is right there & Kevin Durant too. Second half of the season will determine who will win. No one at Westbrook's level of greatness plays with less shooting on the floor so to me, it even...there's another level respect for what he's been able to do. They don't have range shooting. It's hard. - JVG
I know people worry about Harden's turnovers....but this is pretty amazing..........The turnovers have also been a problem for Westbrook with five double-digit turnover games this season, which is the most for a player in any season over the last 30 years.