James Harden=Sleeper MVP Candiate

[tpols]

WITH THEIR NEW COACH,ROCKET'S DEFENCE WILL NOT GD,THEY WILL BE JUST LIKE NASH'S SUNS

and what did Nash win in those regular seasons again .. ?

[ClipperRevival]

Its not a sleeper. He should basically be the favorite. Him,Westbrook and maybe Lillard. Whoever's team wins the most games. If Davis stays healthy for 75 games and wins more games than them all, he's of course in the mix.

Curry and DUrant will take votes from each other and Lebron will take a sabatical. Davis always gets hurt.

Westbrook is the odds on favorite to win this year at only 2/1 odds. Harden is at 10/1. Lillard at 33/1. I would say Lillard is definitely a darkhorse for sure if his team overachieves and he balls out. He has that type of offensive game too.

https://sports.bovada.lv/basketball/nba-season-props

[Spurs5Rings2014]

After golden state and san antonio the West is pretty much wide open.. completely possible he could win MVP with a 3rd or 4th seed imo.. Harden plays better with 3&D role players around him than he does with other stars. the rockets went on a tear with dwight out a while back and were playing like a top seeded team..

You missed the point. He won't win with the 3rd or 4th seed. He didn't even win with the 2nd seed in 2015, so what makes you think he'll get it with a worse seed? You realize how many have won MVP while not being on a top 2 seed in their conference and how long ago it was? It's happened like once in the modern era, and Harden ain't Jordan, sorry to tell you. He won't play elite DPOY defense and have GOAT level offense as well, so there's no chance of him winning it with a lower seed.

[GrapeApe]

Highly, highly unlikely. You have to be a top 2 seed to win MVP, and that isn't happening. He'll put up his usual big numbers, play zero defense, and flirt with his own turnover record. I think Harden is who he is at this point.

[tpols]

You missed the point. He won't win with the 3rd or 4th seed. He didn't even win with the 2nd seed in 2015, so what makes you think he'll get it with a worse seed? You realize how many have won MVP while not being on a top 2 seed in their conference and how long ago it was? It's happened like once in the modern era, and Harden ain't Jordan, sorry to tell you. He won't play elite DPOY defense and have GOAT level offense as well, so there's no chance of him winning it with a lower seed.

completely possible he does win it with the 3rd or 4th seed given context.


Curry is done due to voter fatigue + super team stigma
Durant will have a tough time due to super team stigma
Lebron will have his foot off the gas for regular seasons goin forward


who does that leave ? kawhi, westbrook, and Harden.. Kawhi has as good a shot at this as he'll ever get but if Harden and Westbrook drop Big O lines and get a high seed (not 7th or 8th like you said) it is completely possible they bend the unoffical criteria a tiny bit to reward them. It's not out of realm of possibility at all.

[tpols]

Russel Westbrook is the MVP favorite by odds right now.. and his team has no shot at a top 2 seed.

[Spurs5Rings2014]

completely possible he does win it with the 3rd or 4th seed given context.


Curry is done due to voter fatigue + super team stigma
Durant will have a tough time due to super team stigma
Lebron will have his foot off the gas for regular seasons goin forward


who does that leave ? kawhi, westbrook, and Harden.. Kawhi has as good a shot at this as he'll ever get but if Harden and Westbrook drop Big O lines and get a high seed (not 7th or 8th like you said) it is completely possible they bend the unoffical criteria a tiny bit to reward them. It's not out of realm of possibility at all.

I'm sorry, but there's no context in which Harden can win MVP. If there was, he would of won it in 2015. He won't have a better chance to win it than he did there. Odds are his team is healthier this season, he gets a lower seed, etc.

And no, I don't see him bending the criteria like those in the past have with lower seeds. The likes of Jordan, Kareem, etc. He's not a GOAT tier player to be able to do that. Like I said, he would have to play GOAT level on both sides of the ball with ATG efficiency, low turnovers, well-rounded stats, etc.

[Smook A.]

no, he just doesn't know what defense is.
dude is not able to play bball without travelling, an mvp ?

Literally every single player will get away with a travel at some point. I've seen Harden travel but people reallyyy overexaggerate it. Take it from a guy who watches the rockets religiously

[Smook A.]

gonna be hard to win mvp on a 7/8 seed

This. The MVP is usually always given to a player on a 1st or 2nd seed team. Harden is definitely going to be putting up monster stats, but in order for him to get the MVP he'll have to push the Rockets to one of the top seeds and that's going to be an unlikely and very difficult task. You can say the same for Westbrook.

[tpols]

I'm sorry, but there's no context in which Harden can win MVP. If there was, he would of won it in 2015.

Curry in 2015 was a stronger candidate than anybody going forward this year .. and harden was voted runaway second place over guys like Lebron, Paul, westbrook etc.. so if it came that close to happening before in a tougher environment, Harden isn't going to have to be Jordan or Kareem to win it.. you're exxagerating to silly proportions. And acting like rules are set in stone when theyre not at all.

[swagga]

mvp that can't understand defense and destroys teams from within

fukking millenials keep destroying basketball tbh in before some nerd chucker fan gonna tell me all about TS% usg% and other contextless stats. Harden is a career loser, only interested in his stats, he is a cancer not an mvp, he could put 35/5/5 and he'd still have less value than draymond ****ing green, not even a top 10 player ... yes .. that's exactly his value, not even top 10.

[Spurs5Rings2014]

Curry in 2015 was a stronger candidate than anybody going forward this year .. and harden was voted runaway second place over guys like Lebron, Paul, westbrook etc.. so if it came that close to happening before in a tougher environment, Harden isn't going to have to be Jordan or Kareem to win it.. you're exxagerating to silly proportions. And acting like rules are set in stone when theyre not at all.

That's because the Rockets were the 2nd seed. His team won't be the 2nd seed this time around, that's why he would have to have a GOAT tier season to win MVP. The lower your seed, the more insane season you have to have. The rules are set in stone with a very few exceptions that we just went over. If Harden wants to buck the trend, he's going to have to have a season comparable to those exceptions.

[MiseryCityTexas]

Montrezl Harrell the most underrated player on this Rockets team. He's gonna be a sleeper player on this team. He's like a poor man's Kenneth Faried on defense but is much better than Faried offensively. Rockets aren't in such a rush to sign D-Mo for a reason.

[MiseryCityTexas]

Ryan Anderson's gonna be a poor man's 7 foot Robert Horry. He's gonna get all kinds of wide open looks this season because of harden's penetrating and dishing.

[Gatorade Sax]

Blake at 29/1 and CP3 at 34/1..

Big odds but maybe they sneak a decent win count in.