I answered.

I don't think past MVP trophies mandate who is in today's Top 5 NBA players.

Bron, Kawhi, Giannis, and AD were all Top 14 in offensive win shares and Top 12 in defensive win shares. They're all Top 10 in offensive plus-minus and all Top 20 in defensive plus-minus (Giannis, AD, and Kawhi are all Top 7 in defensive plus-minus). They're all Top 8 in VORP, and they all played for three of the four best teams in the NBA this year.

Giannis and AD are two of the five best defenders in the NBA today, if not the two best defenders in the NBA today, period. Even if Kawhi's D may have slipped a *little*, he's one of the ten best defenders of the decade and would still easily be in my Top 10 defenders today. Bron obviously takes games off on defense, but when he's locked in, he's absolutely one of the best 1v1 defenders in the league.

I think Harden merits strong consideration because of his value for Houston's system, because he does so much on offense for a team that was still a Top 10 squad. If we're removing KD from consideration due to injury concerns (and Steph for the same reason), then Harden's the obvious number 5 today... but the gap between his defense and the defense of the others on this list is larger than whatever gap exists between his offense and the offense of any of the others on this list.