5 Reasons Why James Harden Is The 2017-18 NBA MVP

Through seven weeks of the 2017-18 NBA regular season, the Houston Rockets are the owners of the best record in the West. Yes, the Rockets with an 18-4 record, hold a slim one-game lead over the reigning champions - the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the Conference. In addition, Houston trails the Boston Celtics by just one-game for the best record in the league.

Since the onset of the November, the Rockets have been on a tear. Other than dropping a game against the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 14, the team has been unbeaten. And they've been doing it without being challenged, blowing away teams by an average margin of 19.8 points. Not to mention, a majority of those wins came while Chris Paul was still recovering from his knee issues.

However, the Rockets have not been talked about that much with the all the noise that LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers have made in the East and the attention the Oklahoma City Thunder have garnered in the West.

It might be early with just around 22 games done but here are 5 reasons why James Harden is the MVP:

#5 Engine behind the Rockets' offense in Houston

Houston Rockets v Phoenix Suns — Houston Rockets

At the time of writing, the Rockets are second in the league for their offense with a rating of 112.5, second only to the Warriors. They are currently on a run where they've won 13 of their last 14 games and in 11 of those victories, they've scored more than 115 points. They have just dialed up what they did last year.

Just like last year, Houston is decimating the NBA records when it comes to three-pointers attempted and made. A lot of those open shots come because the management has assembled a roster of multiple shooters but the engine of the team's motor is James Harden.

Harden is not only a deadly threat himself but his offensive prowess allows him to create multiple open shots for multiple teammates over the course of a game. Through 22 games this season, he averages 31.7 points and 9.7 assists, which approximately contributes to around 50-60 points per game (depending on nature of assists) while the team averages 114.1 points per game.

#4 James Harden 2017 is an improved version from last year

Last year, Harden played almost 3000 minutes and was among the highest ranked players in the usage rate category. That might have caused his flameout in Game 6 against the San Antonio Spurs in the 2016 Conference Semifinals. His regular season performance last year, was high in terms of volume, not necessarily in efficiency though.

This year, however, a different Beard has taken the court. Although he still has the ball in his hands quite a bit, the important numbers that determine his efficiency have seen a huge change in the right direction.

While playing almost the same number of minutes (35.9 this year as compared to 36.4 last season), Harden averages 4.6 turnovers this season whereas he committed 5.7 last season. His three-point shooting numbers have gone up from 34.7% to 40.5% and even as a whole from the field, he is marginally shooting better at 45.8% (44.0 last year).

#3 Defense

Houston Rockets v Golden State Warriors — Harden vying for the ball against Draymond Green

With Paul and Harden expected to split their minutes on the floor other than crunch time, the pressure on "The Beard" is far lesser. That should and has resulted in more effort on Harden's part - more importantly on the defensive end of the floor - something he has been mocked for in recent years.

Effort is one thing but it has to translate to a positive impact on the team's results and going by the numbers so far, Harden's defense has improved and by quite the margin.

His defensive rating has moved the needle in the right direction by almost five points, which is from 107.3 last year to 102.3 this season. And with his offensive rating also jumping from 113.6 to 115.5, he is able to raise his net rating by that much more.

Are the above numbers too confusing?

How about this: How many memes of no defense has Harden appeared in this season?

#2 Two-time runner-up (2015, 17)

Houston Rockets v Golden State Warriors - Game Two — Harden lost out to Curry in 2015.

So the NBA MVP award is all about narratives. In 2015, he lost out to Stephen Curry because the Golden State Warriors had won more games because of his impact whereas Harden had his personal averages to show off. In 2017, he won more games than his MVP competitor Russell Westbrook but the Brodie's "triple-double" storyline helped him win it.

Harden has clearly not fallen off the radar and is undoubtedly in this year's MVP talks. So finishing runners-up twice in the past three years does ear him a lot of brownie points in the minds of the voters. They are bound to notice that he has put up yet another stellar season with league-leading numbers, which have resulted in wins for the team.

#1 Who's the competition?

Cleveland Cavaliers v Milwaukee Bucks — LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo do have MVP cases to their names as well.

If not Harden, then who?

LeBron James? - As talked about earlier, the MVP award is all about narratives. If the award was who's the best player then James is the recipient. In fact, he would have probably got it each year since 2010. This season, despite his numbers, the team hasn't done well enough (16-7) to put the King with a formidable case against the Beard.

Giannis Antetokounmpo? - Similar to James, Antetokounmpo case doesn't depend on his number but how many wins he can carry his team to. No doubt, the Greek Freak impacts the game on both ends of the floor but the Milwaukee Bucks are 12-9 and haven't been consistent, to say the least.

Kyrie Irving? - While Irving has led his Boston Celtics to the best record in the league, including a 16-game winning streak, his box score numbers don't stand out. He's no doubt the team's central piece but they have shown they can function and perform to a certain extent without him.