James Harden

The front-runner in the MVP race right now, baring any injury is James Harden. He finished second place last year to Russell Westbrook who had one of the best seasons that the NBA has ever seen. Harden had a breakout season last year averaging slightly over 11 assists per game to go along with 29 points and 8 rebounds per game. Usually numbers like this would be good enough to win MVP especially with how the Rockets finished as  a team last year. The main reason why I think the Harden deserves to win the MVP this year is because his minutes per game has decreased from 36 down to 35 minutes while raising his points per game to 31. This is coming while the Rockets added Chris Paul over the summer, and many analysts wondering how Harden and CP3 would mesh together. This duo has worked out perfectly for the Rockets as they are in first place in a loaded western conference. This is a huge factor in why Harden should win MVP this year since he is leading this team to do better than the Golden State Warriors.