D’Antoni makes his case for Harden
The MVP award may be slipping out of James Harden’s grips.
Blame the left wrist injury that clearly affected the Houston Rockets star’s recent play, or Russell Westbrook’s electrifying surge to the regular-season finish line, or Kawhi Leonard’s sustained excellence, or the justifiable reverence for LeBron James. But any way you slice it, Harden — who just weeks ago seemed to be pulling away — is no shoo-in here. The painful part, of course, is that we won’t know the results until the NBA awards show in Las Vegas on June 26.
With media ballots due Friday and Houston set to conclude its schedule on Wednesday, the timing was right to check in with a man whose perspective matters: Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni. He’s the guy who sparked their turnaround, convincing the 27year-old franchise centerpiece to move from shooting guard to point guard, which unleashed Harden’s best self: 29.1 points, 11.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds per game, marks that only Oscar Robertson previously reached. He’s the guy whose spread-the-floor system has been such a perfect fit for Harden’s skills, allowing Houston to shatter the single-season record for three-pointers attempted and made while securing the third spot in the Western Conference (54-27).
Yet as D’Antoni told USA TODAY Sports, he’s also the man who doesn’t believe any of it was possible without Harden. Even with Harden’s recent struggles — an eight-game stretch going into Wednesday in which he is 16th in the NBA in scoring (25.8 points per on 36.3 percent shooting overall and 27.6 percent from three-point range) with 10 assists and 8.8 rebounds a game as the Rockets have dropped five games — D’Antoni hopes voters remember everything that came before.
“Well a lot of times that (bias) happens,” D’Antoni said by phone. “Out of sight out of mind, and we’ve been locked in the third spot, so there hasn’t been any drama for us the last month. And sometimes it is tough to chase stats, (or) whatever you want to say. But when you’re just trying to hang in there and try to win as many games as you can without the motivation of moving up in the standings, it’s a tougher spot.”
In the interest of full disclosure, the conversation with D’Antoni was the latest PR move driven by team officials who want their star player to win the award. This is standard procedure this time of year, with politicking until all the votes are in. Rockets CEO Tad Brown noticed a recent USA TODAY Sports interview with Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan, then recommended D’Antoni join the conversation as well.
Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with any of it — especially this season. All four players have compelling MVP cases, with distinct differences in their games and varying versions of history being made.
To D’Antoni’s credit, he’s as measured and anti-political as they come. His main point is Harden’s entire body of work should be considered.
“The only thing I know about James is it started off in the summertime, where he really took over the leadership role, and he changed that image and changed the culture of the team, where I was able to go to him and say, ‘You know what? We’re going to make you a point guard,’ ” D’Antoni said. “And without batting an eye he took on the challenge that made us very successful. He controls (the game) in every facet, and it looks — you know, he plays with an understated kind of athleticism and speed (that’s) unique. It’s like, ‘Gosh, it looks like he’s stumbling around and you look up and he’s got a triple-double.’
“He does it in a different way, and maybe not as sexy as somebody barreling up and down the floor, so everybody has their qualities. How you can say that somebody is better, or not better? I don’t envy you guys picking.”
There are some voters who see D’Antoni’s impact as a reason to take credit from Harden when it comes to collective success. Ditto for Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who last summer surrounded Harden with shooters like Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson who have had everything to do with his league-leading (and careerhigh) assist total. But none of this happens without the bearded man in the middle.
“The only thing I know is that the Coach of the Year gets (that award) because they have the best players, or those players outperformed everybody’s imagination,” D’Antoni said. “Every coach is very good in this league, and (does) their jobs in an incredible manner. Look, when we got Steve Nash (in Phoenix) I got really smart. We got James Harden moved over to point guard, and I got really smart. There have been years where I wasn’t real smart.”
Knicks and Lakers fans nod in agreement.
“We’re a product of the players, and like I said I don’t think we’d trade (Harden) for anybody,” he continued. “We’ve got the best, or one of the best, players in the league, and that’s all I know. It’s a hard question to answer. I don’t want to detract from James, because I’m telling you everything that’s happened with us is because of him.”