NBA Awards Watch: Final MVP Pick For 2014-15
The “Valuable” Aspect
Technically speaking, if we’re going by the exact definition of the phrase “Most Valuable Player,” it’s hard to choose anyone other than Harden. The term often gives way to a common measure used to examine MVP candidates: If you were to take a certain player off their team, how bad would that team be without him?
In the Warriors case, they’d be fine. They wouldn’t be the world-beating contender they are now, obviously, but they’d still be an elite defense. They’d still be a decent offense based on their impressive ball movement. They’d still have a star in Klay Thompson, a guy who can drop 37 points in a half…or in a quarter, even.
With the improvement of Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes, the defense of Andrew Bogut and the strengthening of the bench, the Warriors would probably still be in the running for a playoff spot without Curry in the wild West. The Rockets? Not so much.
Rockets with Harden off the floor make nearly as strong a case for Harden as MVP as he does when he's on the court. Just lost without him.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) April 3, 2015
Golden State’s second-leading scorer after Curry (23.9 PPG) is his fellow Splash Brother Thompson, who is averaging 21.6 points per game. The Rockets’ second-leading scorer after Harden (27.5 PPG)? Trevor Ariza, who averages a meager 12.9 points per game. (Yes, Dwight Howard averages 15.8 PPG, but the guy has played 40 games this season. Cut me some slack.)
That’s a simplistic way to measure value. Curry’s point differential of +11.5 dwarfs Harden’s +3.8, indicating that the Dubs would be a very different team without Chef Curry. But there’s no way in hell anyone could take that statistic at face value when comparing Curry’s supporting cast and Harden’s.
Harden is the NBA leader in assists leading to a three-point shot, and the manner in which he produces such shots is masterful, as Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry explored a few weeks ago.
Harden MVP case: Only players to average same pts/ast/reb/stl as Beard has this year are Jordan (1989) Bird (1987) LeBron (2008)
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) April 5, 2015
Harden’s usage percentage of 31.3 percent is sixth in the league, compared to Curry’s 28.4 percent (eighth) — and that gap grows wider when you consider that Curry, a point guard, has the ball in his hands more often due to his position. Harden has the ball in his hands more because his team needs him to make things happen on offense.
Saying that Curry’s skills wouldn’t translate elsewhere or basing the MVP race on a hypothetical argument about what would happen if you swapped the two stars is ignorant. But without Curry, the Dubs would have had enough talent to still be competitive. Without Harden this season, the Rockets probably would’ve been a lottery team.
Advantage: Harden
Next: Defense