ATL - Ham Slamwich to the Lakers

[MickeyDavis]

Other thread maxed.

I have no complaints about Jokic winning. And although I think Embiid should have been behind both Jokic and Giannis I wouldn't have complained had he won.

[MikeIsGood]

It's fine. They're all great players and up there. Giannis has 2 of them, plus a Finals MVP and a title. So, you know, pretty cool with who we got

[CharityStripe34]

Congrats to the Joker. Awesome player.

Freak is going for b2b Finals MVP anyway.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Embiid scored 40+ points in 12 of his 68 games this season. Him, Giannis and Gobert are the biggest deterrents in the paint. He dropped 42-14 in a win against us 3 months ago. He’s a dominant player. It should’ve came down to him or Giannis.

I saw that a lot of this when Philly fans were touting him over Giannis. If he had that many great games but still ended up scoring the same a Giannis on-average it just means he is more inconsistent. Not saying he isn't a dominant player, but so is Jokic and Jokic wasnt far behind in scoring but did it much more efficiently (and IMO did so without flopping for FTs).

[BroncoBuck]

Embiid scored 40+ points in 12 of his 68 games this season. Him, Giannis and Gobert are the biggest deterrents in the paint. He dropped 42-14 in a win against us 3 months ago. He’s a dominant player. It should’ve came down to him or Giannis.

I saw that a lot of this when Philly fans were touting him over Giannis. If he had that many great games but still ended up scoring the same a Giannis on-average it just means he is more inconsistent. Not saying he isn't a dominant player, but so is Jokic and Jokic wasnt far behind in scoring but did it much more efficiently (and IMO did so without flopping for FTs).

The Embiid flopping is so overblown. He’s massive, much like Giannis he is constantly fouled in the paint without a whistle. Yes he flops, but if you watch the full game for context it’s generally because of how horribly he is being officiated. Embiid is the most skilled center since Hakeem. Maybe that game where Embiid crushed the Bucks weighs too heavy on my opinion, but I think it was a toss up between Giannis and Embiid while the voters decided to define MVP in a more literal sense this year.

[Prez]

Embiid scored 40+ points in 12 of his 68 games this season. Him, Giannis and Gobert are the biggest deterrents in the paint. He dropped 42-14 in a win against us 3 months ago. He’s a dominant player. It should’ve came down to him or Giannis.

I don’t think we really want to get into the stats argument because Jokic’s numbers blow Embiid’s out of the water.

Jokic averaged 27ppg himself while nearly doubling Embiid in assists. Significant gap in rebounding as well, and it’s not even that super close in terms of the advanced/efficiency/impact metrics.

Also, regular season wise, Embiid isn’t on Gobert or Giannis level defensively. His earlier career defensive dominance has not scaled with his higher offensive burden and he has lived quite a bit off of reputation on that end. And Jokic was legitimately above average defensively this regular season.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Embiid scored 40+ points in 12 of his 68 games this season. Him, Giannis and Gobert are the biggest deterrents in the paint. He dropped 42-14 in a win against us 3 months ago. He’s a dominant player. It should’ve came down to him or Giannis.

I saw that a lot of this when Philly fans were touting him over Giannis. If he had that many great games but still ended up scoring the same a Giannis on-average it just means he is more inconsistent. Not saying he isn't a dominant player, but so is Jokic and Jokic wasnt far behind in scoring but did it much more efficiently (and IMO did so without flopping for FTs).

The Embiid flopping is so overblown. He’s massive, much like Giannis he is constantly fouled in the paint without a whistle. Yes he flops, but if you watch the full game for context it’s generally because of how horribly he is being officiated. Embiid is the most skilled center since Hakeem. Maybe that game where Embiid crushed the Bucks weighs too heavy on my opinion, but I think it was a toss up between Giannis and Embiid while the voters decided to define MVP in a more literal sense this year.

I agree he gets the Giannis/Shaq treatment and sells fouls downlow. But he also does a ton of flopping every where else on the court. In that game he kicked our ass, there was one play he got a rebound and fell down 95 feet from the basket. He got bumped but I'm not sure that bump would've even knocked me over. He got 2 FTs. Him doing that 1-2 times a game adds up (along with his other fouls)

[emunney]

The thing that bothers me about Jokic winning is that people point to his on-off #s but never mention the fact that they barely staggered their starters at all, so if Jokic is sitting, most likely most or all of the other starters were also sitting. True to a degree with Embiid as well. Very much not the case with Giannis, yet he had similar on-offs.

Giannis is very clearly the best player in the world at this point, and the fact that there's a train of people claiming EMBIID got screwed just goes to show you that the crowd isn't satisfied with being dumb once.

[Milbucks96]

Jokic deserved mvp hands down, Embiid and Giannis were also deserving but Jokic rightfully won. The records were too close and Embiid and Giannis missed too many games while Jokic played almost every one. It’s that simple.

Also name all the awards during the first round, specifically in the beginning. What’s the point of waiting til the mvps season is over and he’s probably halfway across the earth.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

“Wanna fine players for saying stuff to the fans but the fans can put they hands on our families….f–k that!!,” Paul tweeted after Phoenix’s 111-101 loss to Dallas at American Airlines Center.

I assume this has been discussed and CP obviously has the right to be angry, but he is trying to say 2 wrongs make a right. Fans can't put their hands on family members. Kid and his whole family where immediately kicked and I'm sure banned/tickets revoked if STH. If worthy of it, his family would be able to press charges. We don't want either situation happening: fans crossing the line with players nor players yelling at the customers. I'm fine with protecting the players and having a quick ejection trigger-finger when it comes to fans yelling inappropriate stuff, but I also see nothing wrong with fining players who are equally aggressive.

[BUCKnation]

Giannis coasted most of the year, outside of a couple of big, national tv games. Still coasted to a 30-12-6, but definitely wasn't as engaged as usual unless it was needed in the 4th. Think Jokic is deserving losing 2 of his top 3 teammates and putting up nearly an identical record as the sixers or bucks.

[jschligs]

I saw that a lot of this when Philly fans were touting him over Giannis. If he had that many great games but still ended up scoring the same a Giannis on-average it just means he is more inconsistent. Not saying he isn't a dominant player, but so is Jokic and Jokic wasnt far behind in scoring but did it much more efficiently (and IMO did so without flopping for FTs).

The Embiid flopping is so overblown. He’s massive, much like Giannis he is constantly fouled in the paint without a whistle. Yes he flops, but if you watch the full game for context it’s generally because of how horribly he is being officiated. Embiid is the most skilled center since Hakeem. Maybe that game where Embiid crushed the Bucks weighs too heavy on my opinion, but I think it was a toss up between Giannis and Embiid while the voters decided to define MVP in a more literal sense this year.

I agree he gets the Giannis/Shaq treatment and sells fouls downlow. But he also does a ton of flopping every where else on the court. In that game he kicked our ass, there was one play he got a rebound and fell down 95 feet from the basket. He got bumped but I'm not sure that bump would've even knocked me over. He got 2 FTs. Him doing that 1-2 times a game adds up (along with his other fouls)

He gets the Giannis/Shaq treatment but he also flails all over like a little bitch all the time. Falling to the ground regularly and acting like a guy a 30 pounds less than him can actually cause him to go flying. You can't compare Embiid's flopping to Giannis.

[emunney]

“Wanna fine players for saying stuff to the fans but the fans can put they hands on our families….f–k that!!,” Paul tweeted after Phoenix’s 111-101 loss to Dallas at American Airlines Center.

I assume this has been discussed and CP obviously has the right to be angry, but he is trying to say 2 wrongs make a right. Fans can't put their hands on family members. Kid and his whole family where immediately kicked and I'm sure banned/tickets revoked if STH. If worthy of it, his family would be able to press charges. We don't want either situation happening: fans crossing the line with players nor players yelling at the customers. I'm fine with protecting the players and having a quick ejection trigger-finger when it comes to fans yelling inappropriate stuff, but I also see nothing wrong with fining players who are equally aggressive.

I give CP a pass here as he's saying this out of emotion and I'd probably say worse, but based on the outcome of this situation you couldn't argue that anybody is sanctioning fans putting their hands on players' families.

[skbucks1985]

The MVP is not something that I get particularly worked up about, one way or another anymore. But one thing I realized to day and maybe this would be more common if I really dug into the ongoing narrative throughout various other years, but I don't think Jokic was playing the best during any prolonged period. Before his injury, I thought KD was the clear MVP. And then right around when he got injured is when the Celtics started to take off and Tatum was playing the best. And I'm certainly not advocating for either of those guys because KD missed too many games and Tatum's play through 50 games should preclude him from this conversation.

[greekbuck34]

If Giannis wanted to win another MVP award he would have done it. He has other priorities.
The regular season is long and coming out after a championship, a recovering knee injury and a short off season is hard to care about it, especially when you team starts the season with basically half its players unavailable.

In the regular season we just want to finish in a top 4 seed, protect our bodies at all costs, test plays on both ends of the court for the upcoming playoffs and send messages to other elite teams especially after the all star break and in the 4th quarters of close games.

Everything else is just waste of our time.

[Pachinko_]

Anyone with a legit chance to win in the playoffs will always save himself for the POs and not target the MVP. I know it's hard to tell but Giannis did it too. Jokic will do it too as soon as he gets a team, Embiid will also do it, maybe after he wins an MVP because he probably still has a hard on for it. KD is maybe not doing it because he's such a basketball junkie and he doesn't have a coach to tell him to pull back, but it's very hard for him to put a full healthy season together anyway.

So in that sense it will always be someone halfway between up and coming and established to win MVP. Not the peak Lebron, not the peak Kawhi etc.

Lots of words just to say that if Giannis wanted to win MVP he would win MVP. But he has bigger fish to fry.

[Plossum]

Any of the three could’ve won and would’ve been deserving. Can’t fault the Jokic choice, he was amazing. But maybe the NBA should let voters start to factor in the playoffs.

[Profound23]

Any of the three could’ve won and would’ve been deserving. Can’t fault the Jokic choice, he was amazing. But maybe the NBA should let voters start to factor in the playoffs.

That is the way I feel....there are a number of great players in the league. However, if Giannis never won MVP before I would be upset so I can see why Sixer fans are.

[JayMKE]

Its a bad look for the MVP to be sitting before May even, should have been more predictable. We all know Giannis is the real mvp.

[blazza18]

This is probably reason number one why I didn't really think Philly found something with their win last night.

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