LeBron James: One of two Lakers ranked in the “Too Early” race for MVP?
By Ronald Agers
James Harden is a scoring machine that no one can stop at this point. Double team maybe?
When you have two seasons of being a runner-up sandwiching an MVP season, more than likely your name will be on an MVP list somewhere. James Harden definitely qualifies. He leads the NBA in scoring (Like again!) and does it ways people only dream of.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1198119784702971904
James Harden goes into his bag of tricks against the Clippers and hits Laker Nation’s all-time favorite player, Patrick Beverley, with a crossover so sick that it became a meme on Twitter. He dropped Beverley and Paul George with the move and hit nothing but net. This might not get Harden the MVP but it may get him an ESPY next summer.
It was hard to see what James Harden would do for an encore, but he’s doing his best. After leading the NBA in scoring at 36 points a contest, he is averaging, even more, this season. He is averaging a shade under 38 points per game. Some believe he could make 40 if he tries hard enough.
There is a saying, “What makes you laugh can make you cry.” This applies in a sense to Harden. His offensive repertoire is larger than anyone in the NBA. However, he brings a ton of controversy with his ways of drawing fouls.
James Harden averages 14.4 attempts per game, far and away the best mark in the NBA. In contrast, LeBron James averages 5.6 attempts.
What gets Harden in trouble when it comes to changing the narrative in the media. He made it known that he felt that he should have won the MVP last year instead of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
If he loses out on the MVP this year, comments like this will haunt him.
Rockets’ James Harden on the attention he’s seeing: “The whole season they’re running doubles teams at me. I’ve never seen that in an NBA game where you’ve got really good defenders & someone else running at the top of the key. Y’all let me know the last time you’ve seen that.” pic.twitter.com/eVxRUgds76
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) November 23, 2019
Against Denver, the Rockets lost a game when Harden only scored 27 points. For most players, it would be a good game, right? But a clearly frustrated scoring leader makes a quote Devin Booker can relate to. Double teams. Only in this case, it’s worse. One, it’s during the NBA season and two, this quote is recent.
James Harden is well-known for being a great scorer but never showing up in the playoffs when needed. His votes will be collected in the spring.