Let’s argue about Harden
No award in professional sports generates the level of debate that the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award does.
And no player in recent memory has consistently forced voters to reconsider what the “most valuable” aspect of MVP means like James Harden has over the past six seasons.
His playing style has alienated some. His lifestyle has made him a target of scrutiny over the past year.
But his production has him in the mix for his second MVP award. So can he actually win this thing or will he become a four-time runner up?
We tapped two of our NBA analysts to make the case for and against Harden for MVP.
THE CASE FOR HARDEN
Raheem Palmer: You’d be hard pressed to find too many NBA players who have put together the run James Harden has over the past eight seasons.
Since being traded from Oklahoma City to Houston before the 2012-13 season, Harden has averaged 29.4 points, 7.9 assists and 6.2 rebounds, was named to the All-NBA Team seven times (six first team selections), made the All-Star game eight times and has finished top-three in voting for league MVP five times, winning the award in 2018.
Outside of LeBron James -- arguably the greatest basketball player ever -- Harden has exhibited the best blend of scoring and playmaking we’ve seen in the modern era of the NBA.
His floor-raising ability is legendary. He turned the Houston Rockets into a legitimate championship contender, leading them to 50 wins in five of the past eight seasons.
He reached the Western Conference Finals twice and pushed the seemingly unbeatable Warriors to the brink before bowing out in seven games (a series in which Chris Paul missed the final two games due to injury).
Harden is essentially this generation’s version of Wilt Chamberlain: a score-first player with video-game numbers who is addicted to partying and wasn’t universally seen as a winner for most of his career (until he won). Harden has his best shot at shedding the latter characterization since 2012.
Despite playing alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, this season hasn’t been any different for Harden as he once again finds himself at the top of the MVP race with oddsmakers listing him as low as +550 to win the award behind Joel Embiid (+500) and Nikola Jokic (-145).
Outside of his recent hamstring strain, which will be re-evaluated in 10 days, Harden has been one of the most durable NBA stars, rarely missing time despite shouldering both the scoring and playmaking load for most of his career, especially this season where we expected his individual play to take a step back given the top-end talent on this roster.
Although it’s certainly reasonable to disqualify a player from winning MVP on a team with Durant and Irving, Durant missed 23 games with a right hamstring strain and Irving has missed time due to injuries and personal matters. Meanwhile, Harden was thrust back into the same high-usage role he played in Houston. The Nets never skipped a beat amassing a 27-7 record in his 34 games of action.
I have trouble believing he’s not the most worthy candidate for the award considering his impressive numbers — 25.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and a league-leading 10.9 assists per game — are the biggest reason the Nets are tied for the top seed in the East.
THE CASE AGAINST HARDEN
Matt Moore: Look, it’s awesome that once again James Harden has put up regular season numbers for a top-two seed, even if it is the East. It’s great that he’s held a team up with his heliocentric style, acting as both engine and tip of the spear. No one is debating that Harden is an incredible player.
Harden came in out of shape. My colleague will stress that after all that, he still came in and dropped 44 points and 17 assists in his first game back, and that’s awesome, the kind of incredible performance we’ve come to know Harden for.
However, in Houston, he played eight games. He scored his lowest per-game average since he left OKC, with his lowest effective field goal percentage since 2017 when his usage rate was out of this world. He shot 44% from the field and grabbed his fewest rebounds since he left OKC.
These games all matter. The games he missed getting back in shape matter. The games he missed sitting out waiting for Houston to trade him matter.
And with all that, Harden is averaging the fewest points of the six top MVP candidates (Harden, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo). He also has the lowest eFG% of that group. He is averaging the second lowest 3-point percentage, the lowest PER, the second-lowest VORP and the second lowest Box Plus-Minus.
Harden isn’t a real contender for the MVP, but it’s not because of some moralist crusade. It’s because Harden’s actions had tangible impacts on the performance of his old team, and his on-court production in both those games and since in Brooklyn simply do not match up with the other contenders.