The 2017 NBA season brought about passionate debate among NBA pundits when it came to the coveted MVP award. When it was all said and done the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook won the award with a historical season averaging a triple double (31.6 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 10.4 APG) over Rockets superstar James Harden. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in a recent interview with The Crossover not only expressed his displeasure on the result but took it a step further by stating the NBA should do away with all awards.
“I don’t know if this is a good process,” Morey told The Crossover. “The ones that are decided by players or executives or media, they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I honestly don’t think there’s a good process. You could argue for eliminating the awards altogether. I don’t really see a good way to do it that doesn’t have major issues. I like clean answers. If there’s not going to be a set criteria and there’s going to be issues with how it’s structured, for me it might be better to not have it.”
Daryl Morey bringing up the criteria issue stems from Harden being told he was not worthy of the 2015 MVP honor, which was won by Warriors guard Steph Curry, due to the Warriors having a better win loss record than the Rockets. Fast forward to the 2017 season and Harden with comparable stats (29.1 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 10.4 APG) to Russell Westbrook and a better record fell short again. Morey did acknowledge that there were plenty of great candidates however the history of the award involves overall team success.
“I didn’t like how a different MVP criteria was used this year, compared to the last 55 years, to fit more of a marketing slogan. People thought a different criteria for selecting the MVP this year was the way to go.”
On June 28 the Rockets made another bold move by acquiring All-Star point guard Chris Paul from the Los Angeles Clippers. Morey spoke to how that move will probably effect his superstar in terms of ever winning the MVP award.
“Given that the criteria seems to be shifting away from winning, I would guess that [adding Paul] probably doesn’t help anyone’s chances on our team,” Morey acknowledged. “That said, I don’t think anybody really cares [going forward]. James definitely cared and I think we all cared [about the 2017 MVP]. But we’ve moved on since the award isn’t focused on winning any more. Let’s just win and not worry about it.”
Morey is no stranger to make bold moves to improve the Houston Rocket franchise. The continued rumors of the Rockets acquiring Knicks All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony are still strong and once again shows the NBA that the Rockets are going after a title by any means necessary.