This year’s MVP race has dominated the headlines in the NBA since the trade deadline as the competition between the four contenders for the award — Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James — have each produced incredible seasons in their own way.
On Sunday night, there were many that felt Westbrook (who has guaranteed that he will average a triple-double for the season) had taken the lead in the MVP race after he set a new NBA record for triple-doubles with his 42nd of the season in a 50-point performance that was capped off with a buzzer-beater from way out to beat the Nuggets. It was a dazzling performance as he seemingly willed the Thunder to victory late in the game.
For most, Westbrook’s biggest competition is James Harden, who is having an historic season of his own for the Rockets with his production coupled with his scoring efficiency and leading the Rockets to the 3-seed in the Western Conference.
After Sunday night’s win over the Kings where Harden had 35 points, 15 assists, and 11 rebounds, he was asked how much winning should factor into the MVP race, considering the Rockets are the 3-seed and the Thunder are the 6-seed (via ESPN).
“I think that’s the most important thing,” Harden said. “I thought winning was what it’s all about. I’m not going to get into depth with all that, but I thought winning was the most important thing and if you set your team up in a position to have a chance at the ultimate goal, then that’s the most important thing.”
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This has been a common refrain from those supporting Harden, that he’s led the Rockets to a 54-win season so far, while Westbrook has been busy compiling ridiculous stats on a team that’s only managed 46 wins. There are two problems with Harden using this argument. The first is that, if you consider the Thunder won 55 games in 2015-16 and lost Kevin Durant this offseason and Westbrook managed to drag them to the 6-seed and within at least nine wins of last year’s total, that’s insanely impressive.
That’s not to say the Rockets taking a 13-win leap (at least) from a 41-41 campaign a year ago isn’t impressive as well, but to act as though Westbrook hasn’t been leading his team to wins is a bit silly.
Then there’s the issue of Kawhi Leonard. If winning is the most important thing, then does that mean the candidate that’s led his team to the most wins (and the Spurs currently have seven wins more than the Rockets) should win? Or do we have to go find the best candidate from the Warriors and give it to him? Leonard is averaging 25.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game on the league’s second-best team, while playing vastly superior defense compared to either Harden or Westbrook.
While I don’t personally subscribe to the theory that Kawhi should be the MVP, if you want to make winning the most important thing, you seem to be making a better case for him than anyone else. My biggest issue with the MVP race this season is that we’ve become a bunch of rabid animals, insistent on tearing apart each of these seasons to figure out which is best rather than take a step back and marvel at the absurdity of having all of these incredible individual performances happening in one season.
There are people yelling about how a triple-double is just a group of arbitrary numbers instead of going “damn, that’s crazy what Westbrook is doing.” There are people discounting Harden’s insane season because he isn’t grabbing two more rebounds per game, despite the fact that he’s made this Rockets team into an unstoppable offensive force.
No matter who your personal MVP pick is this season, I hope you can at least appreciate what we’ve seen this season in the Association.
