Comparing MVP resumes of Giannis, LeBron and Harden

The NBA recently announced the three MVP finalists of Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and James Harden. The winner will be named sometime during the playoffs.

All three have won the award in the past, with Antetokounmpo claiming his first last season. It is arguably the three best players in the league and really, there would be no wrong choice among the three of them.

It is basically like picking your favorite ice cream flavor because there is no true wrong answer.

Here’s how their stats shake out from the regular season (pre-bubble):

Giannis Antetokounmpo

With Antetokounmpo making 54.7% of his shots, he is the most efficient scorer among these three – which is a high honor if you’re on the same list as James. Giannis grabs the most rebounds and is the best defensive player in the group, if not the league in general. The biggest weakness on Antetokounmpo’s resume is his free-throw shooting, but it isn’t that far off from LeBron’s, so he is not the only one leaving points on the board.

More fodder for Antetokounmpo’s MVP case: He averaged 0.96 points per minutes (0.97 including the bubble); the top-two PPM in NBA history are Wilt Chamberlain’s 1.04 in 1961-62 and Harden’s 0.98 in 2018-19. In addition, Giannis had a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 31.9 over the course of the full season – only Wilt (32.1 in that 1961-62 season) had a better PER in NBA history. It’s only the 12th time a player has had a 31+ PER and Chamberlain, Steph Curry James and Michael Jordan have reached that number. Harden was second this season with a 29.1 PER. James was eighth at 25.5.

LeBron James

James has been in the MVP discussion in most seasons in his career and this year is no exception. At this point he is so established that this resume speaks for itself.

He scored just under 26 points per game in one of the most efficient manners for a non-center type player and oh by the way he dished out a league-leading (bubble include) 10.2 assists per game.

It is frankly incredible the ways James has been able to morph is game over the years and at 35, he is aging like fine wine or a remarkably healthy tortoise. With the rise of Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard, James is no longer a hands-down pick as the best player in the league, but he can bring it when he needs to and is capable of matching any superstar’s performance on a given night. Aside from losing a step on the defensive end compared to his younger self, James’ only real flaw this season has come at the free-throw line, where he shot a good but not great 69.7% (69.3% including the bubble).

James Harden

Volume, volume, volume. That’s the name of the game for Harden. It clearly works though, even if his style isn’t always the most aesthetically pleasing. His field-goal percentage is much lower than Giannis and LeBron, but when you shoot 12.6 3-pointers per game at a 35.2% clip, it makes up for some of the other misses. While Harden shoots often, he also distributes, grabs his share of rebounds and even averaged 1.8 steals during the entire season.

Out of any of these three, Harden has the best chance to explode for a 60-point game. There is always the threat of him getting hot from long range and with the way the Rockets play he is more than encouraged to launch from deep. Even though Houston has the worst record of any of these teams, it will be a headache for any team it faces in the playoffs, making them a dark horse pick to win it all and Harden a worthy MVP candidate.