Nets' James Harden: 'I feel like I am the MVP'

When the Nets acquired James Harden in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Rockets in January, it’s hard to imagine even they couldn’t have predicted that Harden would have this much of an impact.

Harden dropped 44 points to go along with 14 rebounds and eight assists in Brooklyn’s 113-111 win over the Pistons Friday. In 31 games with the team, Harden has recorded 11 triple-doubles and is averaging 26.0 points, 11.4 assists, and 8.9 rebounds. Brooklyn has also gone 24-7 with Harden in the lineup.

After Friday’s win, Harden was asked if he felt like he belonged in the MVP conversations.

“Do I feel like I belong in it? I feel like I am the MVP,” Harden said. "It’s just that simple. I don’t want to speak individually of myself, but I’m just going to leave it at that.

“I just try to go out there every single night and give my teammates everything that I can bring to the game. Tonight, Detroit’s gameplan and schemes were to take away the lob pass and not let our bigs get lobs and our shooters get shots. That allowed me to get to the basket and shoot layups all night. Games are different, and I just take what the defense gives me … just play the game the right way and try to be efficient in doing it.”

For most of the season, the MVP conversation centered around Los Angeles’ LeBron James and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, though both players are currently injured and missing a significant amount of time will hurt their chances of taking home the award.

Now, Denver’s Nikola Jokic (averaging 27.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.5 assists) appears to be the frontrunner, with two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo right there as well, averaging 28.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.3 blocks.

But if Harden keeps up this rate of play and continues to push Brooklyn near the top of the Eastern Conference standings (currently 1.5 games behind Philadelphia for the first seed), the Nets’ guard could add a second MVP to his trophy case.