James Harden's Convincing NBA MVP Candidacy Growing by the Day

Remember when the Houston Rockets' offseason losses of Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin had hoop heads worried about a potentially severe regression?

Well, MVP candidate James Harden was having none of that.

The bearded baller has the Rockets winning games at a better clip than they did last season (.694 winning percentage, up from .659) by shouldering the heaviest offensive burden for one of the NBA's top defensive teams.

Pick the offensive category, and Harden is more than likely leading Houston in it: points (26.8), assists (6.7), three-pointers made (90), free throws made (7.9 per game) and offensive rating (117, which ties for the team's best with Patrick Beverley). He's a whirlwind of production, who shines brightest not for the quantity or quality of those numbers, but rather the apparent ease with which he puts them up.

"Video game mode—that's what we call it," Beverley said, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "He goes into one of those modes to where he's making tough shots, step-backs, fadeaways, all that type of stuff, and it's fun to watch."

There is no right way to guard Harden.

Give him an inch of breathing room, and he'll torch a defense from deep. Take away his air space, and he's slippery enough to penetrate past the front line of attack. And once he's on the move, teams are helpless to stop what's next. He's athletic enough to finish above the rim, strong enough to bully his way through contact and intelligent enough to keep officials' whistles chirping with regularity.

Harden attacks the areas where the number-crunchers say every scorer should.

He practically pays rent at the foul line. He's made 283 shots from the charity stripe on the season. Chicago Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler is the only other player currently clearing the 200 mark, and he's only at 220.

Harden ranks sixth overall in made triples with 90 and sits a stone's throw away from the Golden State Warriors' Splash Brothers Stephen Curry (98) and Klay Thompson (96).

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

But here's what really gets Houston's analytically inclined general manager Daryl Morey excited: For all the scoring Harden does—he not only leads the Rockets but paces the entire league—almost none of it comes from the dead zone known as the mid-range. Harden averages just 3.6 mid-range attempts per game, slightly more than a third of what Kobe Bryant (9.2) and Carmelo Anthony (9.2) take.

When Harden isn't demolishing a defense on his own, he's putting his teammates in position to wreak havoc.

He ranks as the NBA's 11th-best setup man overall and is second to LeBron James among non-point guards. But even those numbers fail to capture his impact as the quarterback of this offense.

Harden doesn't simply create shots for his supporting cast; he sniffs out smart ones. On the season, his passes have led to 123 triples for Houston. Add his own 90 threes to the equation, and he's had a hand in more long-range looks than three different clubs have made as a team.

Harden has been equally effective when he has looked inside for Houston's bigs.

Dwight Howard, who has converted 59.4 percent of his field-goal attempts this year, is shooting a blistering 71.7 percent off passes from Harden. Josh Smith, a 41.4 percent shooter since the start of 2013-14, is knocking down 50.0 percent of his shots off Harden's feeds.

Last season, the Rockets overwhelmed their opposition with offense. Houston had the league's fourth-most efficient attack, piling up 108.6 points per 100 possessions.

Scoring has been much more of a struggle this season, no doubt the reflection of the defensive direction the Rockets took over the summer (namely, the arrival of perimeter stopper Trevor Ariza). Houston now checks in at No. 18 in offensive efficiency with only 102.7 points per 100 possessions.

But the Rockets have a simple solution to these offensive lulls—putting Harden on the floor. During his 1,315 minutes of action, Houston has a 106.6 offensive rating. That number would rank sixth overall.

If you're searching for quantifiable value, there it is, adorned with flashing lights and its own theme song.

Harden keeps constant pressure on a defense, which in turn simplifies the game for his teammates. As Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry explained, Harden's aggressiveness pays dividends even when he doesn't finish his attacks with a basket or an assist:

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As of January 1, Harden’s close-range field goal percentage ranked a mediocre 21st within a group of 27 NBA players who had attempted at least 200 shots within eight feet of the hoop. But a closer examination reveals that, incredibly, the Rockets retrieve a ridiculous 55 percent of Harden’s close-range misses, which is by far the highest share for any volume shooter in the league. Put another way: Harden converts only 54 percent of his interior chances, but when you consider that freakish offensive rebounding rate, a whopping 79 percent of his close-range attempts result in either a bucket or a fresh 24 for his team.

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Harden is an offensive superstar by any measure. Yet, it's foolish to put him in such a restrictive box.

He ranks fourth among all guards with 5.8 rebounds per game. His 1.9 steals per game are tied for ninth-most in the league. His 24-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double on Dec. 13 captured both his versatility and the do-it-all attitude he brings between the lines.

"It just means I'm all over the place in a good way," he said of the performance, per Feigen. "I'm rebounding the basketball and making plays for my teammates and scoring. That's my job every single night and that's what I try to go out there and do for the most part."

By rounding out his game, Harden has started to distance himself from his reputation as a one-way player. He's still not a stopper by any means, but he isn't looking like the sieve so many saw during that defensive lowlight reel that sent the Internet into a frenzy last season.

Harden is logging the second-most minutes on the NBA's second-ranked defense. That alone is a difficult stat to digest for those still subscribing to the theory that he drags down a defense.

But there's more. He ranks second in the league in defensive win shares with 2.3 and sits 12th with a 100.0 defensive rating. Opposing shooting guards have managed only a 13.4 player efficiency rating against him, per 82games.com.

It's still going to take some time for him to completely shed his reputation as a matador defender, but even his opponents have noticed a difference.

The MVP field is thick this season. There are compelling cases being made across the league, including the likes of Curry, Marc Gasol, Jimmy Butler and the single-browed statistical monster known as Anthony Davis.

With this level of competition, the smallest slight against a player could be enough to pull him out of the running. That's what makes Harden's defensive improvement so important.

Already, the league has officially recognized him as one its premier players. He was recently named Western Conference Player of the Month for December and has twice been honored with his conference's Player of the Week award, joining James and LaMarcus Aldridge as this season's only two-time winners.

It isn't hard to imagine this season ending with the ultimate individual award for Harden. He's on pace to become only the fifth player in NBA history to average 25 points and five assists with a 30-plus usage percentage and a 59-plus true shooting percentage. The other four players to have done that—James, Kevin Durant, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan—won a combined 13 MVP awards.

Between Harden's individual brilliance and undeniable impact on his team's unexpected success, his MVP candidacy looks as strong as any at this stage of the season.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.