Giannis Antetokounmpo: Ranking top-5 MVP contenders after one month
By Adam McGee
3. James Harden
The MVP ever-present, himself, it would be a true shock at this point if James Harden wasn’t in the mix for the NBA’s most prestigious individual award.
For his consistency of play in recent years, Harden can understandably feel aggrieved at having just one MVP win to show for it, although in spending the summer claiming he should have been last year’s winner, he demonstrated that he may be focused on the wrong near-miss.
Still, that certainly hasn’t done anything to put Harden off launching his new campaign with more absurd numbers than ever.
Through 13 games, Harden is averaging 39.5 points, 7.8 assists, and 5.6 rebounds per game. He may well finish the year averaging 40 points per game, but there are enough drawbacks to his play at present to mean it isn’t even remotely controversial to say he’s outside the top-2 at present.
Harden’s defense has been considerably more lackadaisical than it has been for quite some time in the early running this year, while his shooting efficiency is way down, and his turnovers are up from the standards he’s set in the past couple of seasons.
The Rockets’ 10-3 record certainly works in his favor, but with the caliber of all-around candidates so high this year, Harden will need to clean up some of the messier elements of his play if his absurd offensive production is to get rewarded come the end of season awards show.