Houston Rockets: Why Ric Flair is Right About James Harden’s MVP Snub

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Another thing to compare is the usage rate and the Player Efficiency Rating of each player. Player efficiency rating was introduced by John Hollinger of ESPN and measures all of a player contributions into one single number. Essentially this takes into account every statistical category. Per ESPN.com, Giannis had a PER of 30.95 while Harden had a 30.62, and both players finished first and second in the league in that category.

On the flip side, the usage rate told a much different story. To be clear, the usage rate is the percentage of team plays used by a player while he’s on the court. Harden had a usage rate of 40.8, which was first in the league, while Giannis had a usage rate of 32.3 which was 8th in the league. Khris Middleton was also in the top 50 in this category, while Harden was the only Rockets player in the top 50. This means Harden was used more while on the floor than Giannis, thus why I say he was more deserving of the MVP than Giannis.