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Once upon a time, I discouraged any and all MVP talk until a quarter of the season (at the very least) had been played. Nowadays, I am a reformed man — and I have Sam Presti, Clay Bennett, Daryl Morey and Rob Pelinka to thank. After slightly less than one week of the NBA season, we find ourselves in a situation no one could have envisioned in the waning days of October. The game of poker between James Harden (repped by