NBA MVP Discussion 20/21 (Fresh poll ➥ Vote)

[Packbuckman]

I mean Bird won 3 in a row because he was the best player in the league (a league with Jordan/Magic/Hakeem/Malone(s),Kareem, etc) and proved it in the playoffs during that span, culminating in 3 Finals for the Celtics and 2 ships/Finals MVP's in those seasons. That's a sliiiight difference between the two. Realistically, Giannis' only chance (and it would have still been very tough) would have been if he and the Bucks somehow just blew the league out of the water and both improved their level of play from last year. But, both he and the Bucks have regressed this season. He has zero chance despite having a borderline MVP level case.

Harden, for different reasons also has zero chance this year. He has zero statistical case as the best player, he has proven to struggle in the post-season (matters for narrative, and it's why Lebron is still seen as a front-runner right now), and a majority of voters would never give him the benefit of the doubt after what happened in Houston. People can argue his merits in a vacuum all they want, but he has zero chance to win (and hell, even the objective/statistical BBREF Award Tracker does not have him among their top 10 choices. He's a moot point).

Giannis and the bucks definitely have a chance to have the best record in the East again. Giannis first 19 gms 59% from the free throw line the last 11 games 75% and 6-8 so far this gm and 23 pts at the half. His stroke looks so much smoother and he is just more confident he continues this look out league! Plus jrue has been out for 9 games and counting for health protocols he was playing great for us.

They're PRO-gressing to the mean for sure, and they should finish with the 1st or 2nd best record in the East. But there's a very, very low probability of both the Bucks and Giannis outperforming last season, which is the bare minimum that he'd need for a shot at voters giving him b2b2b after the underwhelming playoffs both years. I'm a Giannis fan, but it's not happening for him (and shouldn't).

Which is cool with me if he didn’t I rather settle for Giannis keep hitting those free throws to get ready for the playoffs.

[BoatsNZones]

Bruce Brown with 24 on a 120% TS for the Nets tonight. Who needs KD?

[DCasey91]

Bruce Brown with 24 on a 120% TS for the Nets tonight. Who needs KD?

Thanks to Point God. James Harden . He’s a basically a Bigger/Better Scoring version of Peak NOP Chris Paul (I love Chris Paul btw).
New Point God!!! Cool if he doesn’t win it. But no one should ever put a 0% chance next to Harden as a credible MVP candidate again lol.

[kuclas]

Embiid had another bad shooting night. Raptors frustrated him again. Double teaming him almost immediately.

18/12 on 3 for 13 shooting. The last two shots went in were pure luck. Step back 3 and just hitting the rebound with his palm and the ball accidentally went. He very well could have gone 1-13 shooting

Threw the ball away during critical point.

He still doesn’t handle the double team well. He’s been better at double teams. But still not even average.

Makes some passes. But doc rivers needs to have more cutters when the double team comes from high up. The opportunities are there for east layups if teams want to double Embiid from 20 feet out.

[Big J]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

[DCasey91]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

Last post on Harden. But he’s going to cut through the East like it’s nothing to him lol.

[Basileus777]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

Nah, the voters won't even give him a chance after last postseason. They will not make him the first threepeat MVP since Larry Bird. He's in that 2011 LeBron zone where it doesn't even matter what he does in the regular season, he's not a candidate.

[BoatsNZones]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

Lol no, he's not in the discussion and putting up a great stat-line against the worst team in the NBA (where your bench absolutely murders Minny) does not move the needle.

[Dnt hate]

If I am being absolutely honest, Harden is the only one that has a case for most valuable player in the sense that his transformation into quite an exceptional playmaker solved any role/chemistry issues immediately and has the Nets working on improving in a speedy fashion. Curry, Lillard, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, Kawhi are all good too, but owing to their team records or the absence from many games, I cant say any single on of them stands out to get an award. Lebron is dead meat without Davis.

LOL what? Philly still has the best record in the East. Let's not put a nail in the coffin just yet LMAO! The nets are good, and may over take, but it's not happened yet.

I’m 76ers fan we are going to drop and drop hard lol. Our srs rating suck even when we had a real easy first 20 games. Basically we are the same with a higher ceiling with Embiid/Ben. But our roster construction is arguably the worst in the league.

Deeply flawed.

2nd rd/EF at the absolute best. Even that’s stretching it. Can’t bring a substandard backcourt into the playoffs or a score creator. Let alone regular season games.

Wouldn’t surprise me to end up being the 3/4 seed. Nets and Bucks will overtake for sure sooner rather than later. Embiid will miss too many games and Jokic has a poor team record. This same problem will occur for Lebron if Davis misses a month.

Hence Giannis/Harden or Lillard I mentioned earlier is the value horse if one was to come from behind (honestly they weren’t even that far away to begin with).

Your a Philly fan and don't think Embiid deserves the mvp right now are u kidding?

[BoatsNZones]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

Last post on Harden. But he’s going to cut through the East like it’s nothing to him lol.

Would be a super interesting post/position if they did not have a player better than him joining in for the close of the regular season and playoffs.

[RB34]

Harden will most definitely have the numbers and team record.

Can’t see him getting the media away though

[BoatsNZones]

Harden will most definitely have the numbers and team record.

Can’t see him getting the media away though

We spent the first quarter of the season talking about KD as a candidate with absolutely zero mention of Harden even when they were playing together. Rest assure, no, he won't get the media on board.

The East is horrendous and they have two of the top ten offensive players in the game with an elite cast. They SHOULD be dominating with or without 1 of the big 3 in this conference. This is what happens when Superstars from the West join this conference (the 6 seed has a losing record ffs).

[Basileus777]

Giannis is starting to look more and more likely. Remember this is a regular season award and is supposed to have absolutely nothing to do with post season performance. Based on that he should take this.

Last post on Harden. But he’s going to cut through the East like it’s nothing to him lol.

Would be a super interesting post/position if they did not have a player better than him joining in for the close of the regular season and playoffs.

Harden has been the Nets clear best player this season. And Durant has missed too many games to get serious consideration.

[BoatsNZones]

Last post on Harden. But he’s going to cut through the East like it’s nothing to him lol.

Would be a super interesting post/position if they did not have a player better than him joining in for the close of the regular season and playoffs.

Harden has been the Nets clear best player this season. And Durant has missed too many games to get serious consideration.

And he will be your clear best player, until their best player rejoins the team. I'm not seeing your point. Harden had an entire adventure on a whole 'nother team that he sabotaged before joining the superstars in Brooklyn. He's not getting MVP consideration. I wish I could bet you guys on this.

[Basileus777]

Would be a super interesting post/position if they did not have a player better than him joining in for the close of the regular season and playoffs.

Harden has been the Nets clear best player this season. And Durant has missed too many games to get serious consideration.

And he will be your clear best player, until their best player rejoins the team. I'm not seeing your point. Harden had an entire adventure on a whole 'nother team that he sabotaged before joining the superstars in Brooklyn. He's not getting MVP consideration. I wish I could bet you guys on this.

The point was that Harden has been better than Durant and there is no player better than him joining the Nets.

[BoatsNZones]

Harden has been the Nets clear best player this season. And Durant has missed too many games to get serious consideration.

And he will be your clear best player, until their best player rejoins the team. I'm not seeing your point. Harden had an entire adventure on a whole 'nother team that he sabotaged before joining the superstars in Brooklyn. He's not getting MVP consideration. I wish I could bet you guys on this.

The point was that Harden has been better than Durant and there is no player better than him joining the Nets.

I'm going to enjoy this internal discourse from Nets fans.

But again, Harden has zero case as the best player in the game, and his team is far too stacked in far too weak of a conference to garner him MVP consideration given that he sabotaged a team this very season. You can reconcile with that however you like, but that is how it will play out.

[DCasey91]

LOL what? Philly still has the best record in the East. Let's not put a nail in the coffin just yet LMAO! The nets are good, and may over take, but it's not happened yet.

I’m 76ers fan we are going to drop and drop hard lol. Our srs rating suck even when we had a real easy first 20 games. Basically we are the same with a higher ceiling with Embiid/Ben. But our roster construction is arguably the worst in the league.

Deeply flawed.

2nd rd/EF at the absolute best. Even that’s stretching it. Can’t bring a substandard backcourt into the playoffs or a score creator. Let alone regular season games.

Wouldn’t surprise me to end up being the 3/4 seed. Nets and Bucks will overtake for sure sooner rather than later. Embiid will miss too many games and Jokic has a poor team record. This same problem will occur for Lebron if Davis misses a month.

Hence Giannis/Harden or Lillard I mentioned earlier is the value horse if one was to come from behind (honestly they weren’t even that far away to begin with).

Your a Philly fan and don't think Embiid deserves the mvp right now are u kidding?

Health my man. Was it like 40 years or something when the MVP didn’t play like over 90% of games besides Iverson?
But yes I have Embiid/Jokic at the top but they are in the firing line to be overtaken for obv reasons.

[Basileus777]

And he will be your clear best player, until their best player rejoins the team. I'm not seeing your point. Harden had an entire adventure on a whole 'nother team that he sabotaged before joining the superstars in Brooklyn. He's not getting MVP consideration. I wish I could bet you guys on this.

The point was that Harden has been better than Durant and there is no player better than him joining the Nets.

I'm going to enjoy this internal discourse from Nets fans.

But again, Harden has zero case as the best player in the game, and his team is far too stacked in far too weak of a conference to garner him MVP consideration given that he sabotaged a team this very season. You can reconcile with that however you like, but that is how it will play out.

Oh I don't think he will MVP (and never said anything remotely to that effect), you've largely been arguing against a projection here.

[BoatsNZones]

The point was that Harden has been better than Durant and there is no player better than him joining the Nets.

I'm going to enjoy this internal discourse from Nets fans.

But again, Harden has zero case as the best player in the game, and his team is far too stacked in far too weak of a conference to garner him MVP consideration given that he sabotaged a team this very season. You can reconcile with that however you like, but that is how it will play out.

Oh I don't think he will MVP (and never said anything remotely to that effect), you've largely been arguing against a projection here.

Oh I've seen plenty of Harden MVP mentions in the past week or so. But good, this KD VS Harden Debate is much more fun and based in reality. Would be more fun if both were not mercenaries and someone in the discussion was actually a Nets product, but we'll take what we can get.

[Big J]

Bron is looking like he needs to take a 2 week break in Miami and get a new cycle of PEDs. He’s fallen off the radar rapidly.