lhslep134;1718067 wrote:If you want to argue who the best player is, or where players rank, then the postseason absolutely matters. But that's not what this is about, this is about James Harden's MVP candidacy, for which the postseason has 0 impact. If you want to use the post-season as a reason why you don't think he's a top 5 player, by all means go ahead. But don't conflate evidence of a player's overall rank with evidence of their regular season MVP worthiness in a particular season.
What I don't get is why I've had to repeat myself so many times on this specific topic. Not James Harden, but the irrelevancy of the post-season to the MVP discussion.
I think Post Season success reflects how good a player is, hence why a a player a shit team shouldn't win MVP. You think McGrady ever deserved to win MVP? I sure as hell don't. Harden's "Ability" ( I would say QQing and throwing up trash to get calls) is more of a reflection of playing shitty def, reg season ref-ing. Take away his inflated FT% you're left with a with a play who shoots a terrible %, who plays marginal defense, and gets a lot of stats filling up the stat sheet on a mediocre team. When he starts to shoot around 50%, plays a + def, and scoring isn't dependent on getting to the stripe for 10 pts a night I'll be a believer. Until then, nope. He wouldn't make my top 10 MVP candidate list, but the media is the media and he fills out the stat sheet, thus getting the avg NBA in to tune in so he's getting votes.
