James Harden and Chris Paul among top 10 favorites to win MVP

After performing an MVP caliber season and getting snubbed, James Harden opens the season barely in the top 5 favorites. The more surprising bit of information is that new teammate Chris Paul ranks in at number 10 in the league to win MVP for the 2017-2018 season.

The frontrunners for next years’ MVP are Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James. All of these players were the frontrunners this past season and for some reason, people are thinking that surrounding James Harden and Chris Paul with more help on both sides of the ball will hurt their MVP chances.

Yeah, you read that right, a better team built around James Harden apparently hurts his MVP chances.

Those who ranked him this low are simply not fans of James Harden, the biggest offensive threat in the game of basketball. He needed more snipers from deep, and that is exactly what he got.

Losing Patrick Beverley, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell and gaining Chris Paul, P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute gives the team much better three-point shooting. James Harden proved himself as one of the best floor-runners in the game last season.

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Providing him with more lethal weapons on the offensive side of the ball will only improve his offensive stats.

Chris Paul has low MVP odds.

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The more surprising news is that Chris Paul is predicted to have just the tenth best shot of winning an MVP. Putting these two players on the same team will provide the Houston Rockets with a lethal backcourt duo and instill fear into opposing defenders’ eyes.

Chris Paul’s abilities to find the open shooter will be multiplied in Houston, a team that has a surplus of players who can knock down any given shot.

Having essentially two near MVP-caliber guards on the same team will give Mike D’Antoni another shot at one of the best offensive teams in the NBA.

James Harden will look to prove all of his doubters wrong in the upcoming season with the help of Chris Paul. If Harden or Paul were to get injured, the ship wouldn’t sink. Both stars are capable of shouldering the entire offensive load, as they’ve done in the past.

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