Ahh, the joys of being defended by Jahlil Okafor.

Makes sense. That’s really my point: there are different ways to look at this question depending on how you define “most valuable”. I don’t think it’s obviously NOT Westbrook, but I also think the “GAHH look at those huge counting stats!!!! obviously Russ is MVP!!!” crowd aren’t putting enough thought into the…

Right now, Harden is averaging about three less points than Russ but 1.3 more assists. And a higher percentage of Harden’s assists lead to threes than do Westbrook’s. So, when you add the points Harden scores himself plus the points his teammates score off of his assists, that total is higher than Russ’s respective…

Fair enough. The flipside is that when you’re on the seventh seed, your team as a whole has much less value than the one seed. You may be responsible for creating a greater share of the pie, but your pie is smaller. Then, how do you measure that difference in value? I’m not sure.

So much this, as the kids say. I think it is awesome that we have 4 legitimate MVP candidates (5 before KD went down) who are all helping their respective teams in slightly different ways. Who you select depends on which of those ways are more important to you. And in a race for an award that has no agreed-upon…

The only question that should be asked is where are those teams now vs. without their respective MVPs?

You would take Pau Gasol over Steven Adams? Like right now, this year? Please, let’s make a trade of any kind. I have a car that doesn’t run very well anymore, but it was super nice in 2010. What’ll ya’ gimme?

Take away every single one of his rebounds and he’ s still the MVP.

Very true. It is beneficial for the Thunder to have Russ get the rebound and scream like a banshee down the court. Thus all of the players work together to try to get Russ more rebounds, including letting him get uncontested rebounds on missed free throws. This is a smart strategy and shouldn’t be seen as stat…

I guess the question would be: Which team would be better if you traded Leonard for Westbrook? Do you have a lot of confidence in the Thunder even being at 35 wins now? Meanwhile, where would the Spurs be with Russ?

Actually, the law around here says that you can only use chicken grease for that purpose, just to avoid confusion.

All that being said, I also hope you guys flame out spectacularly and lose to NKU or some other directional school in the first round.

How is taking an otherwise mediocre team to the playoffs on the strength of a triple-double season average suddenly NOT grounds for Most Valuable Player?

Possibly some revisionist history here from Dirk, but he’s on record saying that he would’ve likely gone to Kentucky over Cal or Stanford, the other two schools he was considering:

Hell no, you’re not the only one who remembers those. I honestly credit them to some degree for my firm belief that people who fight for justice and change are the heroes of our society. And Will Rogers’ Larry Ett was f’in hilarious.

I don’t get it.

Yikes. One of the side benefits of being kind of gross is that I assume other people are close to, if not equally gross, but more interested in hiding it. Thus I always assume that public water or surfaces are tainted and so avoid things that do actually make me queasy, like gargling with hot tub piss water.
Also, for…

I am a relatively gross person and will freely admit that I have no compunction about peeing in a pool. I do however draw a line at peeing in hot tubs. And I honestly feel a little bad when I cross that line, like if I’m having drinks in the hot tub and it’s super cold outside and I’m not in a place where I can just…

And they must make sure that none of them are reliable shooters.

I sure as hell enjoy the quiet, the stars, and the solitude. And the peeing outside without having to worry about neighbors. The damned deer getting into my garden are another story.