The Great MVP Debate Isn't A Debate...It's Harden
This past semester (the last one of my collegiate career, hollaaa), I took an argumentation and advocacy class. A large part of our final grade was writing a research paper that made a persuasive argument. So, naturally, instead of choosing a topic that I would have to start from scratch on and research, I chose something that I’ve already been arguing with my buddies about for the past 6 months: that James Harden *ducks to avoid the tomatoes and boos about to be hurled at me* should be named the NBA MVP.
What follows is a portion of my paper arguing my well-informed and INDISPUTABLY CORRECT position on the topic. Disclaimer: it was originally written for a non-basketball-savvy audience; I tried to pare out those parts, but I apologize if some parts still seem self-explanatory. I just graduated and I’m really digging this whole no-homework deal, so I don’t really feel like editing a paper right now. Also, it’s written in present tense because I started writing it at the end of the regular season, and didn’t feel like going back and changing the conjugation of every verb. Sorry not sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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So, who deserves the MVP award for the 2016-17 season, Harden or Westbrook? The answer is hotly contested. Both have averaged incredible individual numbers, led their teams to the playoffs, and cemented their places in history with their performances. While most people believe Westbrook should win because of his historic triple-double average on the season, I believe James Harden should be voted the MVP of the 2016-17 NBA regular season over Russell Westbrook due to his near-identical statistical performance paired with player efficiency, ability to make teammates better, and historical precedence.
First things first: to be fair, Russell Westbrook has been doing things this season that we haven’t seen in 55 years. He averaged a triple-double over the course of an entire season. Like, an entire season. He put up 31.6 points (league leader), 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists a game. Crazy good. The last – and only – time that was achieved was in 1962, when Oscar Robertson averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists a game.
High individual stats – check. Historical performance – check. But what about team performance? The OKC Thunder went 47-35 – good for 6th place in their conference. Westbrook was surrounded by several good role players. Steven Adams, a 7-foot big man who most pundits consider to be one of the NBA’s next-best centers. Victor Oladipo, a young shooting guard acquired from Orlando this season who was on the NBA’s all-rookie team his first year. Enes Kanter, another 7-footer who was the 3rd overall pick in 2011. Taj Gibson, a valued veteran and role player. The team was picked by many to make the playoffs and push for a spot in the Western Conference Finals; indeed, the main reason so much vitriol was thrown in Kevin Durant’s direction was because he left a team many considered poised to make a Finals run. Instead, the Thunder were eliminated in the first round by none other thaaaaan…. Harden and the Houston Rockets. 47 wins (which would be the lowest ever for an MVP; no one has won less than 50 and been named MVP) and a first round playoff exit is not something expected from an MVP, let alone one averaging such incredible numbers and surrounded by good talent. So what happened?
It boils down to efficiency. Westbrook is shooting 42.5% from the field – if he were to win, that would be the second-lowest percentage of any MVP in history (Allen Iverson, 42.0, 2001). He’s taking 24 shots a game, four more than the next closest player and five more than James Harden, and he’s only averaging two more points a game than Harden. Westbrook’s usage rate (a percentage that reflects the number of times a possession ends because of a certain player) is 42.5%, a mark that’s set to obliterate the record set by Kobe Bryant in 2006 (38.7%, when he averaged 35.4 points/game). And, Harden’s usage rate is more than 7 points lower than Westbrook’s. So while Russell’s statistics are impressive, his usage rate is unreasonably high given the untapped talent that’s around him.
James Harden is playing point guard for the first time in his career this season, and is putting up historic figures because of it. He is averaging 29.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 11.2 assists (league leader) per game. He’s either scoring or assisting on 56.4 points per game this season – the second highest in history behind Nate Archibald in 1973 (56.8). Thanks to this absurd scoring + assisting output, he’s conducting the 10th most efficient offense in NBA history – they’re averaging 114.7 points per 100 possessions every game. The Thunder didn’t crack the top 100.
Not only is Harden recording individual and team stats that are competing for the best spots in history, but he’s elevating his team around him. His two (arguably) best teammates this season, Ryan Anderson and Lou Williams, were both acquired within the last season from other teams where they weren’t in the starting lineup. The key to the team’s success is Harden’s efficiency, the very same reason Westbrook’s Thunder struggled to reach the playoffs with a talented team. Harden became the first guard in history to average 29+ points while attempting less than 20 shots per game. That’s efficiency. Along with that, Harden’s 11.2 assists a night are leading to 27 points a game, the top mark in the league this year. The Rockets were not supposed to make the playoffs this year, let alone compete for a championship.
The final point to be made for Harden over Westbrook are their Win-Share totals – basically, the number of wins that can be credited to one player. James Harden earned 15.0 win shares this season, leading the league. Though Russell Westbrook averaged an astonishing and ever-elusive triple-double, he placed fifth in the league, at 13.1. How is it possible that a player that has ‘better’ stats isn’t responsible for more wins for his team than one with ‘worse’ stats? Efficiency. For every shot that Westbrook took and missed, he took away a shot that a teammate could have taken and made. Eight Thunder players averaged more than twenty minutes played/game – of those eight, only three averaged less than the league field goal average of 44.2%. Westbrook was one of them. That means five of his teammates shoot better than average; his teammates were making baskets, Westbrook just wasn’t facilitating enough to get them enough shots. Of the eight Rockets players averaging more than twenty minutes played/game, six were below the league field goal average. Yet, Harden averaged more assists and points-off-assists per game – he made more of the possessions he was given than Westbrook did.
Don’t get me wrong, Russ is a great player. Top 6 in the league, easy. (In no particular order, the rest is: LeBron, KD, Steph, Kawhi and – obviously – the Beard). Many people – experts and fans alike – say that Westbrook should win the MVP because he averaged a triple-double. I admit the triple-double average is an incredible feat, but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Harden was 1.9 rebounds a game away from doing the same thing, and the fact that he facilitated scoring at a rate that hasn’t been seen in nearly 40 years should be valued much higher. Not only that, but the only other time someone averaged this fabled triple-double (Oscar Robertson), he not only didn’t win the MVP himself… he got third! Second place went to some dude named Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 25 rebounds (!) and 50 points (!!!) a game. And who won it? My boy Bill Russell, a man that didn’t even average 20 points a game, but won more games, elevated his team to compete for a championship, and took on the role of facilitator rather than stat-stuffer. Sound familiar?
James Harden should be voted MVP over Russell Westbrook because he worked to find the best shot for the team, not for himself. He took a team that wasn’t supposed to be in the playoffs to a team that won the third-most games in the league. He scored more points than anyone else who has taken less than 20 shots a game in NBA history. He dispersed and scored the ball in a way that elevated his team at such an alarming rate, that his performance has only been bested by one other player in NBA history. Russell Westbrook did none of these things, and that’s why Harden deserves the Podoloff trophy.
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So there it is. Did I convince you? I sure hope so. And hopefully, when we watch the (incredibly stupid) NBA awards show in a month’s time, the various NBA pundits around league will have made the right choice.
Got a bone to pick with me? Drop it in the comments. I’ll probably have time to respond to it, thanks to all this newfound post-grad freedom.