James Harden is not the MVP and Ben Simmons is not the ROY. That doesn’t sound too crazy, does it?
Of course, the league will probably pick them for their respective awards because that’s just what they do, but here’s why those are the wrong choices: Don’t get me wrong, Harden and Simmons both had incredible regular seasons and both so far led their teams to the second round of the playoffs. Those are incredible feats that very few players are able to do. MVP: Lebron James is the clear choice for the Most Valuable Player. If you take a closer look, rather than just looking at stats, James has every qualification over Harden. James said, “The body of work, how I’m doing it, what’s been happening with our team all year long, how we’ve got so many injuries and things of that nature, guys in and out, to be able to still keep this thing afloat, I definitely would vote me.” While he sounds a little full of himself, he’s not wrong; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded away a large portion of their team (including Kyrie Irving before the season…) and one of their main players, Kevin Love, rode the bench with an injury. James Harden is playing alongside Chris Paul and Trevor Ariza. The comparison from the strength of their teams clearly shows that LeBron is doing more than Harden has. LeBron has a larger impact. LeBron also played all 82 games, as opposed to harden’s mere 72. James also scored 2,251 points this year, while Harden scored only 2,191, James recorded 747 assists compared to Harden’s 630, and James had 709 rebounds over Harden’s 389. The crippled team and the stats show that LeBron is the most worthy of the 2017-18 NBA MVP (this would be his fifth). ROY: Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum are far more worthy of the Rookie of the Year Award than Ben Simmons is. Now, I won’t say who deserves it more, Mitchell or Tatum, but Julius Erving did say that, “Tatum probably should have been the first pick in the draft.” Think about what these players are working with: Ben Simmons has a potentially all-star lineup (when they’re all healthy) as he was accompanied by Joel Embiid, J.J. Redick, and eventually the first pick in the draft, Markelle Fultz. Mitchell had Rudy Gobert and then a relatively unknown lineup with Jae Crowder and Dante Exum. Tatum had Irving for half the year, Gordon Hayward for about five minutes, and then a rookie lineup with a bunch of injured backups… and of course an all-star in Al Horford. Mitchell definitely had the least to work with and he’s in the Western Conference Semifinals, tied with Harden’s championship-favorite Houston Rockets. Tatum played the least minutes, but to be fair, Brad Stevens likes to ration his players’ playing time (which has clearly worked!). In the meantime, Simmons has had an extra year to create chemistry with his teammates and an extra year to train and learn the ins and outs of the Philadelphia 76ers’ playbook. Simmons scored 15.2 points per game, recorded 8.2 assists per game, and got 8.1 rebounds per game. Clearly, he’s more of a team player, but he still doesn’t do enough himself. Mitchell scored 20.5 points per game, recorded 3.7 assists per game, and got 3.7 rebounds per game. Not bad numbers for a rookie in what is arguably the tougher conference. Tatum scored 13.9 points per game, recorded 1.0 assists per game, and got 5.0 rebounds per game. With Tatum, it’s important to remember how limited his minutes were when comparing him to Simmons or Mitchell. Another factor to note is that these men play different positions (Simmons is a point guard, Mitchell is a shooting guard, and Tatum is a small forward). You expect a point guard to rack up points and assists, but a shooting guard should solely be a point scorer. And a small forward is only expected to score and obtain rebounds, so you look at the numbers and the factors, and be the judge… (May the 4th be with you) Jesse A. Cook “James Harden Is Not The MVP And Ben Simmons Is Not The ROY” May 4, 2018
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