Houston Rockets: Daryl Morey unhappy with NBA Awards voting process

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey expressed his displeasure with the voting process for MVP this past season in an interview with the Crossover on Monday.

The Houston Rockets all-star guard James Harden has now finished as runner up for the MVP award in two of the past three years. But the reasoning for Harden’s second place finishes is what has Daryl Morey so hot and bothered.

At the core of his argument is that in 2015, Steph Curry won the MVP award over Harden because his team (the Golden State Warriors) had more wins than the Rockets did, even though you could certainly make the argument that Harden was more valuable as he took on more of the offensive load for his team than Curry had to with Klay Thompson and Draymond Green by his side.

Then in 2017, when Harden’s team had a superior record to Russell Westbrook‘s Oklahoma City Thunder, the award went to Westbrook because he carried more of an offensive load for the team and Harden had more firepower by his side in the form of Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and later Lou Williams. Here’s an excerpt from the interview to further clarify his position

"I didn’t like how a different MVP criteria was used this year, compared to the last 55 years, to fit more of a marketing slogan. People thought a different criteria for selecting the MVP this year was the way to go."

Morey definitely has a point here. Is it who was most valuable to their team in general? Who was most valuable to their team succeeding at a higher level? We’ve seen how in baseball MVP can mean just best player as evidenced by Mike Trout‘s win last year or the year Alex Rodriguez won on a last place Texas Rangers team.

The criteria needs to be more clear than just “Most Valuable” since that definition is subjective. Here’s where I disagreed with Morey, if only from a marketing perspective on the NBA’s behalf:

"I don’t know if this is a good process…The ones that are decided by players or executives or media, they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I honestly don’t think there’s a good process. You could argue for eliminating the awards altogether. I don’t really see a good way to do it that doesn’t have major issues. I like clean answers. If there’s not going to be a set criteria and there’s going to be issues with how it’s structured, for me, it might be better to not have it."

Morey loses me here with the doing away with the awards. Yes it is frustrating that the MVP vote seems to fluctuate as people determine who is more valuable to their team than another player, but that’s kind of the point.

These awards are designed to cause controversy and increase interest in the league by fans interacting and arguing over who should have won and why. At the end of the day, they are just superfluous awards and have no bearing on the season.

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They are nice to have for recognition of what you did for your team during the course of a season, but really a championship is what matters most. The awards are for added entertainment value when the season isn’t in play and fans can voice their displeasure or support for choices.

Either way, this is something Morey does quite frequently which is go to bat for his players and coaches which to me seems like a move that isn’t purely motivated by his love for his staff, but also to make Houston seem like a more desirable landing spot. If the general manager is willing to tout you for MVP publicly, that’s appealing to a super star I’m sure.

I don’t disagree with Morey that there should be a list of criteria rather than a vague idea of what value means to each individual sports writer. Put in weighted factors. When considering a vote does individual accomplishments outweigh team record? How outstanding do those individual accomplishments have to be to overcome a rather mediocre record? Is it what record you think the team would have without said player?

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That said, the reason it’s fun is because it’s all subjective and up to what you value individually. The awards are meant to create a stir once the season is over to keep interest in the league. But still, it has to be appreciated by a star player when your GM goes to bat for you like this. Keep Harden happy Daryl. If this is what it takes, then keep up the good work.

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