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One-on-one: NBA MVP

LeBron James

BY NATHAN NUNEZ

As the NBA season wraps up, media members will cast their vote to select the 2017/2018 NBA regular season’s Most Valuable Player award.

As I look over stats, two players come to mind: LeBron James and James Harden. These two players have been dominant, but if I were to choose one of the two, LeBron is the easy choice.

Already a four-time MVP winner, James has not lost a step in his 15th season in the league. James has tallied 27.5 points per game, shooting 54 percent from the field and averaging 9.2 assists per game. Harden’s 30.6 points per game leads James, but James leads Harden in field-goal percentage and assists per game, also playing in nine more games than Harden this season.

What is most impressive with LeBron’s season is that he has led the Cavaliers to a four seed in the East, despite having huge personnel turnover throughout the season. The Cavaliers made a swap with the Celtics before the season started, trading Kyrie Irving to the Celtics in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, and then traded Isaiah Thomas to the Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. during the trade deadline. Kevin Love has also missed time due to injuries, so James has not only been putting up fantastic stats this season, but he has done so with new teammates and injuries from key players.

Voters may opt for a new face to represent the MVP, in which case Harden would be a perfect fit. Considering LeBron has asserted his squad as one of the top teams in the league with such high turnover, expect LeBron to add fifth MVP selection to his collection.

 

James Harden

JACK SIMZYK

 

The 2017-2018 NBA season drew to a close this week, and this is James Harden’s year to finally win MVP. He has led the Houston Rockets to the best record in the league while also having the best year of his career.

Harden is having one of the best scoring seasons in the history of the NBA, especially in efficiency. He is averaging 30.6 points a game, but is doing so with a 62 true shooting percentage. Not only does he lead his team in points per game, but he leads the league in that category, as well. Usually, when a player is scoring that much, their efficiency isn’t that high, but Harden is having a special type of year, proving to be the one of the most efficient players in the league.

Harden had a great season last year in 2016-2017, but this year’s addition of Chris Paul to run the point has allowed Harden to return to his true scoring guard form leading the league in threes made with 262.

Another huge factor in Harden’s scoring productivity is his ability to draw fouls and get to the free throw line. Harden is one of two players this season to draw more than 100 fouls. When a player can get to the free throw line that many times in a season, it is only going to help him score even more.

The Rockets have had one of the best offenses in history, scoring the second most points per game in the league and Harden is the ring-leader. According to Basketball-Reference.com Harden is only the fourth player in league history to average at least 30 points, 8.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game. The others … Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook.

Harden has helped the Rockets to a franchise record in wins, and they’ve had the top seed in the West locked up for weeks. Lebron James and the Cavaliers, on the other hand, sit fourth in the East.

How Harden will perform in the playoffs is to be determined, but the MVP is for the regular season, and there has been no player better or more efficient than James Harden.

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