What excuse will they use for denying Harden MVP this season?

I don't remember C-Webb ever getting serious MVP consideration, or Jason Kidd when he was on the Nets.

 

Harden has gotten too pretty over the years, fixing his teeth.

 

Kidd was 2nd in MVP voting in 01/02, the same year SAC had the league’s best record and Webber only turned up 7th. So I will give you C-Webb.

I’ll just note that there’s another important factor here that plays a huge role in MVP voting. When a star joins a new team, and that team sees a significant improvement in its win loss record, he will get some extra MVP credit. That went into the voting for Kidd that year, who newly joined the Nets, it affected the vote for Nash, and its a factor this year with the buzz around Kyrie Irving.

 

The starters talked about it and how the narrative matters, mentioning it’s unfair to the rockets but honestly we dgaf at this point. This is just routine

 

LOL, one of them felt sorry for the Rockets fanbase.

 

I can at least respect them openly admitting they're not objective about this. Better than others.

It's all good, though. Goal posts have shifted. Harden will lose again, but at least it happened early this season.

 

Kidd did. He was the runner up in 2001-2002, and lost only by 57 points to the winner Tim Duncan that year, which is second closest ever in NBA history(2004-2005 Nash Shaq is the closest, 24 points). Both Nash and Kidd got serious consideration or even won the MVP because the improvements in wins they brought to their team, and that's what great point guards always do. Without any other major roster changes, just by replacing Marbury with Kidd, Nets won 26 more games in 2001-2002 and went to the finals; very similar case for the Suns, just by replacing Marbury with Nash in 2004-2005, they won 33 more games.

It's just amazing how big a difference a true point guard, a facilitator can bring to the team compared to a dynamic scoring point guard who seems to be good but "doesn't have any help". Marbury is pretty much Westbrook back then. Replace Marbury with Kidd/Nash, the team can win 30 more games; Replace Westbrook with Harden/Paul, the Thunder will be a real threat to the Warriors.

 

The Celtics were #1 seed last year without Irving.

 

Kyrie had a 47 pt game and we still haven’t heard the end of it. That’s an “above average” game for harden

 

So here is something. Micah Adams is in charge of ESPN's stats.

He posts the below tweet yesterday which suggests he IS hearing people's complaints.

 

media conspiracy

 

Mark Jackson: 2-horse race: Harden & Kyrie.

Mike Breen(echoing a previous sentiment shared by JVG): I think you should be fined if you have a MVP discussion before January 1st.

 

Mike Breen bout get fined 600K for slandering ESPN

 

Guys, Lebron has won 8 games in a row. Here is the new "MVP story" that the media says plays a big part in MVP awards.

They will say "I'm tired of not voting for Lebron just because it's someone else's turn. He's the MVP every year."

 

Last season was his Alltime High of rebounds 8.1 rpg and it dropped to 5.1 for now.

 

Definitely keep an eye on LeBron.
Seems people have cooled on Giannis. Kyrie will hover. But if LeBron keeps winning, he will have the stats and there is narrative.

 

Gotta rob someone else of MVP to make up for getting robbed of MVP to confuse the standards, right babe?

 

^^ At least Lebron is a reasonable guy in the race.

Kyrie?? Lol.

 

Kyrie 47=67 for Harden. Therefore it's much better than Harden's Game.