Last year around the final stretch of the season, I published an article titled: “If Russell Westbrook Is Not Your NBA MVP, Then You Are Wrong.” While I still steadfastly stand by my pick for Westbrook as last season’s Most Valuable Player, many Houston Rockets fans and fans of James Harden in general felt slighted by the fact that the Beard was overlooked for the award. They felt as though he was the more deserving candidate and asserted that, while Westbrook had the flashy season-long triple-double in his favor, Harden was the more impactful player; plus, his team was the far superior one.
While all those arguments were valid, there is something to be said for what Westbrook did with the talent around him, because there was barely any. Westbrook took his team to 47 wins through sheer force of will and played with a swagger so palpable you could almost feel his thunderous dunks through your television set. It felt as if Westbrook was playing every minute of the season out to prove something, to silence his doubters, and to make Kevin Durant regret his move to the Bay Area.
The same can be said for Harden this season. Beyond his magnificent numbers, he has taken the Rockets to even greater heights than last season, and along with new teammate Chris Paul, he has Houston looking like they could actually challenge Golden State in a playoff series (even though, c’mon, we all know that won’t happen). For this reason, all Houston and Beard fans alike should take solace in the fact that their favorite player should finally win his elusive NBA MVP trophy this spring.
That being said, Houston might not want to plan the celebratory press conference just yet, as, in New Orleans, Anthony Davis is looking to dash the hopes and dreams of Harden fans once again and claim the MVP trophy for himself.
As it stands, the New Orleans Pelicans are sitting at the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference with a record of 34-26. While they will not catch up to the top-seeded Warriors or Harden’s Rockets, both of whom have 13 more wins than the Pelicans with only 22 games to go, the Pelicans are in striking distance of the Conferences No. 3 seed. Currently, the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs are the only teams standing between New Orleans and the No. 3 seed, and both of those team’s best players received devastating injuries this past week.
New Orleans was supposed to be dead in the water before the All-Star break, when their world class big man, the David Robinson to Anthony Davis’s Tim Duncan, Demarcus Cousins, went down with a season-ending and possibly career-changing Achilles injury. The Pelicans’ entire style was built around their duo of star big men, with not much other talent to be found on the roster. With Cousins going down, it appeared like the burden on Davis would be too big to keep the team’s playoff hopes alive and well. But, as great players tend to do when faced with adversity, Davis has elevated his game to a new level and has kept the Pelicans’ playoff aspirations very much alive to the tune of some of the best games of his entire career.
Since Cousins went down, the Pelicans are yet to lose a single game, and during their six-game win streak, Davis has put up numbers that make it look like he has morphed into one of the “Monstars” from the 1997’s Space Jam. Over the stretch, he has been averaging 41.5 points per game, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals. Plain and simple, those are some of the most incredible stats I have ever seen. While the sample size is small, if Davis can maintain anywhere near this level of production throughout the season’s remaining 22 games, I don’t know how you can deny him the award, regardless of how great Harden’s season has been.
It will require the Pelicans to win the vast majority of their final games, and Anthony Davis will have to maintain his current level of production, resembling some sort of divine basketball god. However, if the Pelicans can finish the season near the top of the West, despite the adversity Davis has had to weather and his incredible production in the process, James Harden will have to wait yet another year to add an MVP to his trophy case. The award will be with the Brow rather than the Beard.