It was only the season before last that many people thought that Harden, not Curry, should have been MVP. In fact, Harden was awarded the first National Basketball Players Association MVP award in 2015, being voted by his peers as the league's most valuable player. The Rocket's superstar indeed had a rather convincing case, almost single-handedly willing his team to the West's number two spot in wake of star C Dwight Howard's persistent injuries. Harden averaged a ridiculous 27.4 points, 7.0 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game on efficient shooting splits of 44.0/37.5/86.8 while playing 81 games with a top-5 PER of 26.76. Alas, Harden was edged out by Stephen Curry that season, both for the MVP award and for a finals birth, as the Warriors trounced the Rockets 4-1 in the 2014-15 Western Conference Finals.
Yet this past season, Harden posted an equally spectacular, if not even better, stat line as compared to 2014-15: 29.0 points, 7.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game with shooting splits of 43.9/35.9/86.0 while playing all 82 games with a PER of 25.36, good for eighth best in the league. Now, if you'd been listening to social media chatter or talking heads on TV, you'd have thought that Harden completely choked all of last season. His critics claim that he plays lackluster defense -- which is true on occasion, but Harden has actually improved on that end of the court, and is at least an average defender now, although he certainly has more work to do in that department. The critics will also point to Harden's league-leading turnovers, but that can be forgiven to an extent by the fact that the 26-year-old has the third-highest Usage Percentage in the league, and is overall efficient on that end of the court -- ranking third in Offensive Win Shares. A more rudimentary claim is that Harden "flops", or that he "draws too many fouls". Indeed, Harden does rank first in both free throws made and free throws attempted. But drawing fouls is simply part of the game, and Harden does it well and does it efficiently; as for the "flopping claim", well, that can't exactly be quantified in numbers, but I'd have to say that I trust NBA referees to make the right calls over the long-run course of a season more than a few "keyboard warriors" on social media. However, the critics also claim that Harden is not a "winner", and to be honest, that claim is hard to dispute, at least thus far in the shooting guard's career.
Harden made the finals in 2012, back when he was Sixth Man of the Year on the Thunder at just 21 years old, but OKC was dominated in the finals by LeBron James' Miami Heat, and Harden has never returned to the finals since. Just last year, his Rockets finished a measly 41-41, snagging the eighth seed out west, before being handily crushed in the first round by (who else?) MVP Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, 4-1. And unfortunately for Harden, his team has hardly improved, adding difference-makers like SG Eric Gordon and PF Ryan Anderson this summer but losing Dwight Howard.
Harden's individual talent -- one that produces stat lines so jaw-dropping that they easily outweigh a couple of flaws in his game -- is so great that it would probably place him as top-five in the NBA. However, the team success -- an element so essential for any MVP -- just isn't there. Sure, Houston will probably actually make the playoffs as a middle seed, but that's just too far off from how the best teams' best players will be performing.
Yet this past season, Harden posted an equally spectacular, if not even better, stat line as compared to 2014-15: 29.0 points, 7.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game with shooting splits of 43.9/35.9/86.0 while playing all 82 games with a PER of 25.36, good for eighth best in the league. Now, if you'd been listening to social media chatter or talking heads on TV, you'd have thought that Harden completely choked all of last season. His critics claim that he plays lackluster defense -- which is true on occasion, but Harden has actually improved on that end of the court, and is at least an average defender now, although he certainly has more work to do in that department. The critics will also point to Harden's league-leading turnovers, but that can be forgiven to an extent by the fact that the 26-year-old has the third-highest Usage Percentage in the league, and is overall efficient on that end of the court -- ranking third in Offensive Win Shares. A more rudimentary claim is that Harden "flops", or that he "draws too many fouls". Indeed, Harden does rank first in both free throws made and free throws attempted. But drawing fouls is simply part of the game, and Harden does it well and does it efficiently; as for the "flopping claim", well, that can't exactly be quantified in numbers, but I'd have to say that I trust NBA referees to make the right calls over the long-run course of a season more than a few "keyboard warriors" on social media. However, the critics also claim that Harden is not a "winner", and to be honest, that claim is hard to dispute, at least thus far in the shooting guard's career.
Harden made the finals in 2012, back when he was Sixth Man of the Year on the Thunder at just 21 years old, but OKC was dominated in the finals by LeBron James' Miami Heat, and Harden has never returned to the finals since. Just last year, his Rockets finished a measly 41-41, snagging the eighth seed out west, before being handily crushed in the first round by (who else?) MVP Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, 4-1. And unfortunately for Harden, his team has hardly improved, adding difference-makers like SG Eric Gordon and PF Ryan Anderson this summer but losing Dwight Howard.
Harden's individual talent -- one that produces stat lines so jaw-dropping that they easily outweigh a couple of flaws in his game -- is so great that it would probably place him as top-five in the NBA. However, the team success -- an element so essential for any MVP -- just isn't there. Sure, Houston will probably actually make the playoffs as a middle seed, but that's just too far off from how the best teams' best players will be performing.
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