@Unknown Pleasures you’re right about the media trying to make Shai into Mahomes. Shai is a lot more preferable as a personality than Mahomo but man I hope they don’t rob Jokic.
I don’t have a favorite team, I just pay attention to the Thunder because of the “aura” meme and it’s funny how much it has grown. But man I fear the media will ruin the humor and make them unbearable.
Nick Wright is an absolute can. He said (before Jokic first MVP) that he'd go down in history as the worst MVP since Dave Cowens. LOL.
His "analysis" is completely off as to why Jokic won last year. It's because Jokic's tremendous lines are with much higher efficiency; not team record.
People really seem to fail to understand that outright lines in basketball can be so deceiving. LIke with Lebron and Luka both injured you gonna see Austin Reeves numbers pop because a third option becomes the first option.
Listening to these cans talk about outright numbers like leading the league in scoring is so dull. Jokic crushes the league when it comes to on/off, plus/minus, and on the whole advanced stats not because he's gonna take the most shots or make the most passes, it's because he's a floor general who does what the objective of being a floor general is -- managing an offense that maximizes TEAM OUTPUT, not his own personal stat line. Whether it's something as lame as setting a good screen, or getting a "hockey assist", the processor in his head makes the right play for team success much more than any other player. Nobody does more, and has to do more. Early in the season he was putting in so many minutes because the team sucked so bad lol. He's consistently great overall, but often not a game to game basis because his entire approach is a function of adjusting to what hte game gives him; which means sometimes he will only attempt 5 shots in a half and contribute through being the set up guy, other times in means he's gonna score 50 points, most times it's a mix of just making the right play that gives the highest probability of a team score which aligns to the overall season stats.
You take a look at all the players he has played with over the past five or so years that got traded have gone on to do nothing except suck the bag or exit the league -- Austin Rivers, Monte Morris, Will Barton, Facundo Compazzo, KCP, etc have all been key Nuggets players just become complete non-starters or are out of the league. Don't get me started on how Jamal Murray played in the olympics without having a Jokic-type player on the team; he averaged 6 points.
Luka had a great year last year, but it was predicated on highest usage in the league. It's what you'll notice about ALL the competitors to Jokic for MVP conversations through the years, they are all at the top for usage whereas Jokic hovers a ways below in the ~20 spot typcially. Seriously, the team projects to have 50 more wins with him than without. OKC goes from 1st in point differential with Shai, to 5th without. There's no comparison when it comes to value to the team.
All that said, these discussion have been on repeat for Nuggets fans like myself for years and years and it's really really stale at this point. And the Nuggets need to do better at shooting threes and playing D in the playoffs. I think they can turn up the latter somewhat, but not the former. The games against Washington have been brutal this year. Even if Jokic scored like 100 points combined in the two games LOL. Malone is the luckiest coach in the league because he really shouldn't have a job. I think OKC has the best chance of winning a title this year to be honest, but am worried about how a playoff whistle will affect them. Regardless, I do respect Shai and while yeah, him getting mvp will be a bit of a robbery, I think it would sit better with me given that he is the best player on a clearly better team narrative, than the whole ESPN woke "Jokic is white and the voters are white" narrative that was shamelessly embarrassing.
But at the end of the day, the non-narrative numbers are pretty much the same this year as the year Embiid got MVP.
NBA MVP Award Tracker
www.basketball-reference.com
