If the Blazers get the #2 seed could Lillard win the MVP? His team would finish above Houston and that's more impressive in the West than Bucks in East. With no CJ or Nurk he doesn't have the support of Gianni's or Harden's teammates.
No. Giannis is by far the best player on the team that has the best record, conference notwithstanding. Harden is leading the league in scoring by a mile. Dame doesn't have a singular argument that can compete with either of those.
Excellent points that I agree with. Who would your vote go towards? Myself, I'd go with Giannis. I may be biased though since I dislike Harden's game because of his flopping.
I'd go with Giannis too, if for no other reason than the fact that he's also an excellent defensive player, as well as an unstoppable offensive force, despite having a suspect (at best) jumpshot.
No. Especially considering that Harden didn't have Chris Paul for a chunk of the season. AND what Harden is doing is something historical. And Giannis is having an absolutely awesome season.
Really--PG13 ahead of Giannis? Despite his dropoff since his shoulder injury, and the Thunder dropping to 7th in the west race?
Yes because he's in the east. I also really dislike watching Giannis play basketball. So, it's my list and I'll cry if I want too. heh.
I do think Dame deserves to be 3rd IF after being left for dead after the Nurk and CJ injuries that he goes on a magical run over the next couple weeks that results in getting the 2nd seed. There are two factors at play though that conflict one another. One is the appearance that he would will this team basically by himself would boost his votes. Second is that his playoff performance after finishing 4th in the voting last year might subconsciously weigh on voters to not give him votes even though it's a regular season award and previous years shouldn't factor in.
A very valid point. We saw the greatest player of his generation, who people were comparing to Jordan, mostly dominate in the Eastern Conference and when he finally came to play in the big boy league he suddenly wasn't nearly as dominant. So yeah, I would definitely take what Giannis is doing with a giant helping of salt.
Against the west, he is averaging: 26.6 pts, 12.7 rebs, 5.5 asts. 1.3 stl, 1 blk in only 32 mpg. His team is also 22-9 against the west, which would be #1 in the conference. So, I'm not sure why you need salt.
Does not matter. Playing in the east means you play a lot fewer teams you have to get up for, which means when you play the teams in the west you have to get up for you have more energy to do it. Fact is playing out east is way softer then playing out west where even the non playoff teams have really good players, or stars.
Agreed. Not sure why Harden is even in this discussion. His team might lose 30+ games this year, and for all the credit he gets for pulling that team out of its funk, he never gets the blame for contributing to them being awful early in the year. The only MVP who has lost that many games in recent history was Westbrook and that was a mistake.
