Jayson Tatum on Rockets’ James Harden: ‘He should have won MVP.’

Jayson Tatum was on Instagram Live Wednesday morning and talked about how Houston Rockets guard James Harden should have back-to-back MVPs.

Much has been debated about who was truly the MVP last season. While Giannis Antetokounmpo was certainly a deserving winner given his performance and Milwaukee’s record, the case for Houston Rockets guard James Harden is solid as well.

On Wednesday morning, another vote from a prominent NBA star went in favor of The Beard. Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum joined basketball skills coach and consultant Pep Stanciel on his Instagram Live channel to give his takes on the NBA.

Among the topics discussed was who was likely to win MVP this season, which shifted to who should have won last year.

Jayson Tatum on James Harden: “James Harden should have won MVP last year…He definitely should have won back-to-back MVPs.” #Rockets pic.twitter.com/OuTVFFYT9G

— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) April 8, 2020

In the clip, Tatum expresses how LeBron James deserved MVP this season, to which Stanciel maintains Giannis would have been given the award.

“James Harden should’ve won MVP last year,” replied Tatum. “He definitely should’ve won back-to-back MVPs.”

Looking at his past few seasons statistically, it’s hard to deny that Harden should probably at least have one more MVP award in his trophy case. Last season alone he put up 36.1 points per game to go along with 7.5 assists and 6.6 rebounds. That’s a 5.7 point increase from his MVP season.

Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, put up 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists. In looking at team records, Milwaukee finished first in the Eastern Conference with a record of 60-22 while the Rockets were fourth in the Western Conference with a 53-29 record.

Tatum, making his first of likely many All-Star appearances this season, appears to be on Team Harden when it comes to how the MVP voting should have broken down last season. The fact that he believes Giannis shouldn’t get this season’s MVP is interesting, however.

We’ve previously written about how this season’s MVP race should be coming down to who will be second behind The Greek Freak, who is having the best year of his career. I mean, he had the Bucks at 53-12 before the NBA was suspended, which is remarkable.

Could Jayson simply be biased against a star from a rival team in the East? Either way, we tend to agree with his take in this case.