Harden vs Giannis
Yes, I know that technically there are other candidates such as Paul George, Steph Curry, and Nikola Jokic. But to be 100% honest this has been a two man race since Paul Georges run ended when he suffered that nagging shoulder injury. While it remains unfair that he suffered this injury we just have to move on. Back to Harden and Giannis, as they are our only real MVP candidates. I will address why I think each should win, reveal who SportSense thinks should win, and then who I think should win it.
James Harden
36.1 PTS, 6.6 REB, 7.5 AST, 2.0 STL, 0.7 BLK, 30.62 PER
James Harden led the league in points per game (PPG), was 7th in the league in assists (AST), 2nd in steals (STL), and was 2nd in player efficiency rating (PER). Statistically Harden had a great year as you saw his ability to score sky rocket as he was the first player to average 36 points a game since Jordan averaged 37 a game in 1986. This season marks Harden as the 7th highest single scoring season in NBA history, and he sits behind 2 greats in Wilt Chamberlain who makes up 5 of the seasons ahead of him, and MJ who makes up the other one. He also had a streak of 32 straight games in which he had 30 points or higher. Only Wilt Chamberlain had more consecutive games with 30 or more points. Historic season scoring the basketball. You also saw a player who is typically known for being a lazy defender become 2nd in the league in steals. Now most harden haters will talk about him sitting in the lane and just taking lazy passes the other way, and that holds validity as we see players do that all the time. But Harden was 103rd in Defensive win shares, and I know that doesn’t seem high, but out of 530 possible players it would mean Harden is the top 20% of the league in defense. So we saw a historical uptick in the amount of scoring a player typically does, and we also saw a pretty terrible defender take his defense to the next level. Normally when you see this kind of season you would say that he should run away with the MVP, but sadly this race is closer than it has been in a long time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
27.7 PTS, 12.5 REB, 5.9 AST, 1.2 STL, 1.3 BLK, 30.91 PER
Giannis Antetokounmpo was 3rd in the league in PPG, was 6th in the league in REB, was 10th in the league in BLK, and led the NBA in PER. There is a chance this year that Giannis could win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY), and Most Improved Player, which if he were to win would be his second in a row. Giannis was also the focal point of the best team in the NBA, as he led the Bucks to a league high 60 wins. Under Mike Budenholzer we saw Giannis make huge strides in every major statistical area, as he scored, rebounded, and assisted at a career high rate. He also was 3rd in defensive Win shares, and offensive win shares. He definitely stepped up at both ends of the court, and we notice as the Bucks are the best team they have been in a while. He did all of this while averaging a career low in minutes, sans his rookie season. A great athlete, averaging career low in minutes was top 20 in every major category besides blocks. That’s historical in its own right as the only other player to do this… was Giannis two seasons ago. Giannis Antetokounmpo had another great season, and has made this MVP race very exciting.
Now when doing this article I wanted to see how SportSense felt about the MVP, and while it was a close vote, Giannis came out on top. Many reasons came such as, you don’t usually give the MVP to the same person, Giannis had the most wins, and if you swapped them who benefits more. Great reasons, and ultimately these are things I thought of as well when deciding that Giannis should win MVP. I think that Harden had a historic season, but Giannis was the driving force behind the best team in the NBA. He lead them to 60 wins, and winning is respected most above anything. Giannis should take home the MVP award.