I would put Harden in the Lillard, Kyrie, Westbrook category. The are franchise players who put fans in the seats but dont have the defensive games and/or size to be as valuable as most of the players in my top 5. Curry makes the list because he is such a great 3pt shooter and offensive weapon that he makes his teammates better just being on the floor. That is the why Giannis is so valuable. He draws double and triple teams which opens up the floor for his teammates. Curry is slightly better on defense the Harden but Harden size, strength, and athletic ability are superior to Curry. Steph plays harder on the defensive end though and plays better team defense.

The media doesnt really take defense into consideration and that’s a tragedy in the NBA. If defense and true value to a team were the criteria Tim Duncan would’ve won 5 MVP’s in a row. Kawhi Leonard and Giannis are the most valuable players to their respective teams in the NBA right now and it’s not even close. During the regular season I would’ve said Giannis, but through game 3 of the ECF and the sweep of Portland by GS it’s clear to me that KD isn’t nearly as valuable as most fans thought. While Curry is very valuable you argue than Draymond is just as if not more valuable. He’s not only the teams heart and soul, but he instills confidence in every player on that team. He is by far their best defender and facilitator. They lost KD , Cousins, and Iguodala and still swept Portland. The Blazers were never a serious threat, Watching how GS wins should make it very clear why isolation, one player scoring a ton of points, and drawing tons a fouls isn’t a recipe for success. It takes your teammates out of the game and makes it hard to go on runs and gain momentum. Look how fast GS erases 17 and 18 point deficits without going to the line and only one player scoring all the points. It’s so important for a valuable player to get his teammates involved offensively so the are more engaged in the game on both ends of the floor. NBA teams are at their best when everyone is involved at both ends of the floor and its up to the best player on the team to make that happen. Harden is NOT that type of player. He is a great regular season offensive player, arguably the best since MJ. But he is FAR from the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER in the NBA. That trophy will go to Giannis and deservedly so. Numbers and metrics are a good way to determine what happened in a given game but games are won with intangibles and heart that can’t be measured with statistics.

We know that teams averaged 107.7 field goal attempts per game in 1962. Each field goal attempt is a possession. Using this, the pace factor in 1962 was approximately 108 compared to 100 this year. Of course, we can’t stop there. A play in which a team does not attempt a shot is still a possession. For example, a steal implies that a field goal was not attempted, but the team that gave the ball away still held possession of the ball prior to the steal. Turnovers were not tracked until 1974, though. There were 20.8 turnovers per game for each team compared to 93.9 field goal attempts per game. Because 1962 had far more field goal attempts, we can assume that it had more turnovers as well. A fair estimate would be that there were 23.86 turnovers per game for each team based on basic proportions.

This calculation yields a pace factor of 131.56.