James Harden’s MVP campaign has been anything but a walk in the park.

It officially started during the 2014-2015 season when he carried the injury-ridden Rockets to the Western Conference Finals. Harden averaged 27 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds over the season, compared to MVP winner Stephen Curry with 24/8/4. No knock on Curry’s season – he was the best player on the best team, draining a boggling 44% of three pointers taken. But he also had an absolutely all-star cast, while Harden nabbed the second seed in the West with a team whose second best player was Trevor Ariza (Dwight Howard missed 41 games). Golden State finished the season strong with 67 wins, and that separation was cited as the reason to hand Curry the trophy.

After a disastrous 2015-2016 season under J.B. Bickerstaff (and the Kardashian curse), the Rockets in 2016-2017 made a few offseason changes and geared up for a 55 win season – finishing third in the western conference. Harden made the switch to point guard, and ended the season averaging 29 points, league-high 11 assists, and 8 rebounds a game. It was a sight to behold – defenders forced to choose between a step-back jumper, lefty lay-up, lob to the big man, or dish to the corner for three. Not enough beardy; a man named Russell Westbrook made history by averaging a triple double over the entire season. 10 assists and 10 rebounds a game sounds better than 11 and 8 a game, and joining Oscar Robertson’s rare company was enough to take it home.

Both players boasted staggeringly high usage rates and win shares, while also committing record high turnovers. Both players put up ungodly numbers on a nightly basis. But Harden’s shooting efficiency is where he really stood out, earning his points by taking 400 less total shots than Westbrook (61% true shooting percentage vs. 55%). And for the first time in recent memory, getting more wins was simply not a factor in the MVP decision.

And here we are, about a month into the new season, and The Beard is on the campaign trail once again. He’s averaging 30.7 points and 10 assists a game so far, with a true shooting percentage of 61% and PER of 29.3. And most importantly, winning lots of games.

Westbrook and the new-look Thunder, on the other hand, are struggling to get things going. The narrative last season was that Westbrook just didn’t have the kind of help that Harden had – but the additions of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony takes that excuse out of the equation. Meanwhile ex-teammates Oladipo and Sabonis are now thriving in Indiana, indicating Brodie’s ball hogging may have been hurting his teammates more than helping.

It appears the media has anointed Giannis Antetokounmpo as their early MVP frontrunner. He’s having an incredible season as well (league-high PER of 32), absolutely unstoppable around the rim and immovable on the other side of the court. But the Bucks are still losing games, making it tough to give Giannis the early lead.

Kyrie’s performance is worth a mention in the early race, but he’s not quite putting up the kinds of numbers necessary for real consideration. And no MVP discussion is quite complete without a mention of Lebron – but the Cavaliers are currently 9th place in the East and there is work to be done.

Barring a Chris Paul takeover when he returns, this could finally be the season of destiny for The Beard.