2016-17 NBA Awards Season: Ranking The Top 4 MVP Candidates

History And Accolades

Before everyone gets swept up in the obvious triple-double thing, it needs to be noted that both Harden and Russ had historic seasons. While Oscar Robertson was the last player to match Russ’ 2016-17 stat line, Harden’s 29-11-8 line was also only matched by the Big O in NBA history.

That should matter, since the whole “The dude AVERAGED a triple-double, he should automatically be MVP!” operates around a pretty arbitrary 10-10-10 cutoff. Would Russ’ season have been any less historic if he had averaged 31 points, 10 rebounds and 9.9 assists per game? The answer should be no.

However, there’s no question it was a historic achievement, especially since Westbrook also broke Oscar’s single-season triple-double record (41) with 42. He posted seven straight triple-doubles in November and December, matching the longest such streak since Michael Jordan in 1989.

He climbed all the way to third on the NBA’s all-time triple-double list, passing Larry Bird and Wilt Chamberlain in the process. His three 50-point triple-doubles — all of which came this season — are the most 50-point triple-doubles in NBA history.

And all this is without mentioning his three game-winners, leading the league in scoring and single-handedly fueling so many fourth quarter comebacks.

If there were ever a time to select an MVP whose team didn’t finish with 50+ wins or make the top three in its conference standings, Russell Westbrook feels like an appropriate time to break the mold. It’s been 35 years since someone outside the top-three won MVP, but it’s been 55 years since we’ve seen a triple-double average.

However, as much as that 20-game gap in triple-doubles matters, Harden’s 22 triple-doubles this season shouldn’t just be swept under the rug because of what Russ did. If Westbrook’s season never existed, we’d be deifying how the Beard’s 22 triple-doubles were the fifth-most in a single season in NBA history — trailing only seasons from Oscar and Wilt.

Doing all this in his first season at point guard makes it even more impressive. While Russ dominated the 50-point triple-double category, Harden actually had as many 40-point triple-doubles as Russ, per StatMuse:

In January, Harden became the fourth player in NBA history to post back-to-back 40-point triple-double, joining Michael Jordan, Pete Maravich and, of course, Russell Westbrook.

Harden also probably had the game of the year, with his 53-point, 17-assist, 16-rebound triple-double on New Year’s Eve going down as one of the greatest stat lines in NBA history.

His 53 points in that performance tied Wilt Chamberlain for the most points scored in a triple-double in NBA history…until Russ broke it a few months later with 57 points against the Orlando Magic. Unlike Westbrook’s 57-point triple-double on 40 shots, however, it only took Harden 26 shots to get his 53-point triple-double.

Harden is the first player in NBA history to finish a season with 2,000 points, 900 assists and 600 rebounds. He’s also the only player other than Tiny Archibald to score 2,000 points and create 2,000 points off of assists in a single season, though Archibald’s feat was more impressive since the three-point line wasn’t around when he did it.

The Beard also narrowly missed out on breaking Archibald’s record of most points accounted for in a single season:

Russ won four Western Conference Player of the Week awards; Harden won four Western Conference Player of the Week awards. Russ won two Western Conference Player of the Month awards; Harden won one Western Conference Player of the Month award.

Minus the vast difference in triple-doubles, this is almost a dead heat. However, sometimes we get so caught up in all these various accolades we lose sight of the truth and overthink things. Russell Westbrook became the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season. Arbitrary cutoff or not, he wins this round.

Advantage: Westbrook