Jaqua92 wrote:HotelVitale wrote:Jaqua92 wrote:No one thought Embiid was either.
Tatum has been to a finals, he's been to 4 conference finals. He's not even 26. He plays for the Celtics.
He absolutely has a narrative MVP in the next few years, even if he isn't the best player, which he isn't.
If he has another career year, and the Celtics win 63+? Absolutely a lock imo, regardless of the better players
I'm very critical of Embiid but that's maybe getting carried away with the idea of 'MVP narrative.' Yes he won despite not being the best talent in the league and not being able to dominate against great defenses, but he still had a clear argument for best player last RS: had elite stats and efficiency, played great defense, was the only AS on a 54-win team, and played the season strong. He was also certainly a top-3 RS player for a few years straight. And last year Jokic coasted the last month of the season and Giannis sat a good amount of the last third of the season, while Embiid finished really strong. That was enough for MVP voters to say 'alright we know he doesn't dominate in the PO and that Giannis and Jokic are more proven/legit talents, but he might've had the best individual season and the other guys weren't going as hard the last couple months.'
This season it seems like Tatum would have to play like at least top-3 player, his team would have to win a ton of games (the 63 you quoted would qualify as that IMO), and he'd have to hope that other guys have off seasons or don't play the whole season through. Even then I'm not sure. The media doesn't generally give you an MVP for being like the 4th-6th best player 3 years straight, think that's a distortion of narrative.
Embiid didn't have an argument for best player.
My apologies for derailing, but:
33.1 pts, 10.2 reb, 4.2 ast on 65.5 TS%. The best scoring season at that efficiency since Steph's MVP in 2016 when he averaged 30.1 on 66.9 TS%.
- Three 50 point games in a single season, most at his position since Kareem
- Most PPG on 50% shooting since MJ
- Had 59/11/8 with a steal and 7 blocks, which was a top 10 regular season game score performance ever.
- 47/18/5 with 3 steals and 2 blocks on national television against Denver. 52/11/6 on 20/25 shooting when he dissected Boston. Ridiculous in the clutch including like 6 game winners or go ahead shots late in 4th quarters + multiple game saving blocks.
Along with anchoring a top 10 defense on a team that started Maxey and Harden all season while being 90th+ percentile in all rim deterrent metrics.
He was also a 2x runner up, which means the NBA collective viewed him as the second most impactful regular season performer in the league over span of
two entirely separate campaigns.
I understand he's a horrific playoff dropper, but that has no valuation in determining the leagues regular season MVP. Some fans really need to stop narrating this discourse as if he were a surprise name drawn a from a hat because it holds no basis in reality.
