When you’re a candidate for the MVP award for a good part of the season but your team isn’t in the playoffs, you can just about assume you’re not in the conversation for the award at the end. It’s unfortunate that New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis is all but eliminated from any consideration for the award because he has played terrific all season long.
Now that he’s out of the MVP talk (and his team is all but out of playoff contention) it appears that he now has a pick for the award.
‘The Brow’ said the following on the Dan Patrick show.
“It’s tough, a lot of guys are playing out of their mind. James Harden, Russ [Westbrook], Steph [Curry], LeBron [James].”
Davis paused for a few seconds and repeated that its tough to choose before settling on Harden.
“He’s out of his mind,” Davis continued. “He’s definitely playing out of his mind. We talk about this on my team every day. It’s like every day. I think with him not having Dwight [Howard] for as much as he did, and he still competed and is still winning games for them, it’s unreal.”
Patrick asked Davis if he’d prefer to have the game of Harden, Westbrook or Curry.
“I’d have to go with Westbrook, the way he plays,” Davis responded. “His motor is unreal, and he’s shooting the ball a lot better from 3, midrange is unstoppable and he gets to the basket whenever he wants. I think if you’ve got all three factors of the game, and his defense is unreal — high-energy — so I’ll definitely have to take the game of Westbrook, for sure.”
Harden and Curry seem to be in the top-tier of MVP candidates this season with LeBron and Westbrook in that second wave of guys. At the end of the day, the award will come down to those 2 guys exclusively and it might make it the tightest vote of all-time.
If I had to pick, going off what the award actually means, I would go with Harden. It is the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER award. MOST. VALUABLE. PLAYER. What value does that player have to that team?
It’s simple to me. Beyond the stats, big performances and records of the team if you take James Harden off the Rockets or Stephen Curry off the Warriors, who falls off more.
Just imagine the Rockets with out James Harden ALL of this season and Dwight Howard for a big chunk of it. They are in full tank mode by the All-Star break.
Good call, Brow.
