Holy **** Russ went for 57/13/11?

It's unbelievable how great Russ and Harden have been this year. Think about it; they were on the same ****ing team and neither was even the best young player on that team.

It's like if Kobe was on Toronto with Vince and TMac.

Just saw Bogdanovich stats with Wiz, pretty damn nice

Can I get a LOLThunder!?

Russ' 30 footer to send the game into OT finalized my Russ as MVP decision.

lol

So Nurk will be a positive asset at 35?

That was the first guy that came to mind for me as well though.

Jerami Grant was a +30 in 19 minutes with 0 points 3 rebounds and 2 assists. That seems...odd

Just looked at KCP's bbref numbers. He's really getting maxed?

Normally it would but consider that he probably just stood around while Godbrook scored all the points.

His last two games have been truly unreal. Looks like jwax is gonna take TZ for some $$

Thunder up to 29-9 when Westbrook triple doubles, right? At this point I really don't understand what it will take to explain that he isn't statwhoring to the detriment of his team and that they really do need him to do this kind of thing to win.

Starting to feel like Russ wins MVP. Between the triple double #'s and his clutch stats, think he will get the edge over Harden. MDA will probably win COY and is getting a lot of the credit for Houston's resurgence as well.

How often does a MVP have 0% chance at a ring?

Never really. Kobe/LeBron in '06 is the last time I can recall a legit candidate with that little equity. But Nash won.

Barkley in 1990 was on a pretty meh Philly team and people thought he should've won but Magic won.

100% of the time if last year is any indication. But then again, LeBron was the rightful MVP.

I think it has more to do with teams like Philly having a ton of cap space and a lack of wings available.

Jordan in 87-88? Maybe not 0% but <5% for sure.

yeah Jordan in 87-88 is the last one probably

KG was 2nd in voting in '03 before they got Sprewell/Cassel, was like a 50 win team but they had to play LAL round 1. Were probably 5th best team in conf, so similar to Russ situation but he didn't win.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...ards_2003.html

Lol at looking at some of this voting history. '06 Billups getting 15 first place votes probably the funniest 1 I've come across. Didn't know that.

His rebound whoring definitely affects the team negatively. Anyone who thinks otherwise isn't paying attention. At least half of his rebounds are him cheating off his guy. It's turned him into one of the worst defenders in the league which is pathetic for a guy with his skillset. IIRC he contests the lowest % of 3's of anyone in the league which is directly correlated to his stat whoring.

Epic season though, obv can't expect someone to do it all but I do think his rebound-whoring is getting as bad as Rondo's assist-whoring during his assist streak a few years ago. I do think Harden should still be MVP though.

This is all incredibly results oriented. Jordan is arguably the best player of all time and 1988 was the peak of his physical abilities. To say they had 0 title equity is crazy imo. Similar to LeBron in '06 who definitely could have won (they had a home game to beat Detroit 4-2 in the ECSF).

That's fine re: Jordan, obviously they were pretty big long shots though. And that was the last guy who actually won the award, which was the question re: Russ.

KG in '03, LeBron in '06 are good examples of MVP contenders but they didn't win.

If Russ wins he'll go into the playoffs with the lowest title equity of any MVP since maybe the 70's or something.

If RUSS is negatively affecting the team by rebounding then where the hell are the numbers to prove it and why do they lose more often when he rebounds less than when he rebounds more?

Sure contests are lower, but that isn't proof that the decrease in value from contesting isn't more than offset by the increase in value from the rebounding.

it's just logic? very few of his rebounds are high difficulty, a large majority is the rest of the team boxing out as he cheats off his guy to hunt the miss down. how the hell is that going to be more valuable than actually playing defense?

here they are

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comment...ll_westbrooks/

BUT THEY'RE 29-9 WHEN HE GETS A TRIPLE DOUBLE

What's their PPP when he gets a rebound?