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James Harden thinks he's the NBA's MVP, and the man has a case

Dan Devine
Senior NBA writer
James Harden's enjoying himself quite a bit these days. (AP)
James Harden’s enjoying himself quite a bit these days. (AP)

The Houston Rockets’ tremendous season continued apace on Wednesday night, as they drilled 20 more 3-pointers to breeze past the Los Angeles Clippers, 122-103, in a rarely close contest at Staples Center. Rockets superstar James Harden led six Rockets in double figures with 26 points on 7-for-15 shooting to go with nine assists … and that hurt his season averages.

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“The Beard” has been balling all season long, leading the league in assists since his move to full-time point guard in Mike D’Antoni’s spread pick-and-roll system while continuing to bring buckets in bunches, ranking third in the league in scoring. He’s on pace to be the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1965 to average better than 28 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds per game over the course of a full season, and he’s got the Rockets on pace for 57 wins after a disappointing .500 finish last year.

It’s been a season for the ages for the 27-year-old All-Star, and during a visit to ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” prior to Wednesday’s game, he made it clear that he believes it’s one worthy of recognition with the NBA’s premier individual award come year’s end:

“You have like 48 double-doubles this year, which is astonishing, really. Do you feel like you are the MVP, the Most Valuable Player of the league?” Kimmel asked, as the studio audience cheered and applauded Harden. “Do you, inside yourself, feel like you are the Most Valuable Player?”

“Yeah. Yes,” Harden replied. “Because preseason, or before the season started, they predicted us to be, like, 10th. And now we’re third, the third-best record overall in the NBA, and just, from last year, we barely made the playoffs, and now we have an opportunity to contend for a title.”

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This isn’t the first time the ever-confident Harden has plainly stated his MVP case. From a November chat with Michael Lee of The Vertical:

Now that Harden is setting up teammates better than anyone else and currently leads the league in assists, who is the league’s best player at his position?

“Best point guard or best player?” Harden responded when asked.

Either one.

“I am,” Harden told The Vertical.

And from a December talk with Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:

Harden didn’t pause or blink when asked for his own MVP pick. He simply nominated himself.

“The Beard,” Harden told SI.com, before making his case. “Look at our record. Obviously the numbers, historic numbers. Just my performance overall.”

That kind of talk might sound misplaced coming out of the mouth of a lesser player, but Harden’s ludicrous production gives him a pretty strong case.

Nobody in the league produces more points per game via direct assist than Harden’s 27.5. When you factor in the 28.8 points he scores himself per game, Harden produces 56.3 of the Rockets’ 115.1 points per game — more than fellow MVP candidates Russell Westbrook (54.7), LeBron James (48.3), Isaiah Thomas (44.8), Stephen Curry (39.5), Kevin Durant (37.4) and Kawhi Leonard (34.2). He is directly, personally responsible just under 49 percent of the total per-game scoring output of the league’s No. 2-ranked offense.

His production is flat-out bonkers, especially considering he’s leading the league in total minutes — among likely MVP candidates, only LeBron (37.6 minutes per game) shoulders a greater in-game load than Harden (36.5). And while Harden’s field-goal and 3-point percentages don’t pop off the page, his overall efficiency remains remarkable considering how large a role he occupies in the Rockets’ offensive ecosystem.

Before this season, only four players in NBA history had finished more than one-third of their team’s offensive possessions with a shot, foul drawn or turnover while posting a True Shooting percentage (which takes into account 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) of 60 percent or better. Three of those four players — Michael Jordan in 1987-88, LeBron in 2009-10, Durant in 2013-14 — won MVP, with MJ’s ’89-’90 campaign earning him just a third-place finish behind Magic Johnson (who averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 assists, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game for a 63-19 Lakers team) and Charles Barkley (who put up 25.2 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 60 percent from the field for the 53-29 76ers). Harden’s on pace to make that list this year.

So is Thomas, the Boston Celtics maestro who ranks second in the NBA in scoring, tops in fourth-quarter scoring, and has been so instrumental in their rise to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. That helps point to just how complicated this year’s MVP vote promises to be: we’re seeing a staggering amount of remarkable performances that aren’t just empty-calorie stat padding, but that have had a significant, tangible impact on teams’ win-loss records.

Not only is Westbrook on pace to become the first player in 55 years to average a triple-double, but he’s got freaking 30 of them this season, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are 24-6 in those games. He’s been the most productive “clutch” player in the league this season, and he has led an Oklahoma City Thunder team all but devoid of secondary playmakers that craters without him — OKC’s been nearly 14 points per 100 possessions better with Russ on the court than off it — to a shot at the West’s No. 4 seed.

LeBron’s averaging a shade under 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds a night while shooting 54 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point land, a level of shooting efficiency approaching his Miami peak, while leading the league in minutes per game for a Cavs squad that, again, struggles mightily when he sits; Cleveland’s been 12.5 points-per-100 better with LeBron on the court than when he rests. (Which is why he barely rests.) Leonard, last year’s MVP runner-up, has continued to produce at that level, averaging nearly 26 points, six rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 49/39/89 shooting splits while remaining the league’s premier defensive ace for a Spurs team that boasts the NBA’s second-best record.

Maybe Durant and Curry will wind up splitting votes, but both have been excellent for the league-leading Warriors, with KD averaging just under 26 points, 8.5 rebounds, five assists and three combined blocks/steals per contest while emerging as a legitimate defensive force in the middle, and Curry averaging nearly 25 points and 6.5 assists per game on 47/40/92 shooting splits. And with Durant sidelined for at least a month and Curry returning to his standing as the unquestioned focal point of the Warriors’ attack, those numbers could start to spike, which would figure to bolster Steph’s case.

There are a lot of really, really compelling arguments here, and you’d be hard-pressed to begrudge Harden his. Here’s hoping all the principals involved spend the last six weeks of the season engaged in the kind of game of “Can you top this?” that provides a fittingly ridiculous close to a remarkable season, and makes award voters’ choice all the more impossible.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!