Jaqua92 wrote:Embiid didn't have an argument for best player. It took him campaigning and an anti-Jokic media campaign to make it happen.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.
Yet, it happened.
I hear you though, and perhaps, I agree for this year. But Tatum will absolutely win a narrative MVP at some point. Maybe not this year, but so long as he's a top 5 player on a contender, he's a lock for one at some point.
Don't know what more to say besides that I really don't think that's how 'narrative' works or ever has, also that you're maybe getting caught on 'best player' and not 'best season,' which is what MVP is for. Players who win MVP do have to have an argument for best season that particular RS, the narrative part can't be bent too much beyond that. It will sometimes allow players who had heroic seasons win over obviously better players (esp when those players have boring or below average season for their standards), but it doesn't mean 'let's pass this thing around to obviously not top players just cuz.' Tatum could definitely win one at some point but it'd take a lot of circumstances to line up, and he won't just win one if he keeps showing up as the 5th-8th or so best player over and over again, and on a good team surrounded by good talent, with no other reason. Lots of players who are at Tatum's level haven't won one--D Wade never won one, or Chris Paul, to give two recent examples who were definitely playing at Tatum's level for years. (And guys like Dirk or Barkley who won just one MVP had very strong cases and circumstances for winning it that particular year). You don't win it just for being very good for a long time.
Stormi mentioned a few things about why Embiid had his case, but I think the big thing in the narrative last year was that Jokic really did have a lazy final third of the season. Looks like he averaged around 23ppg in Feb/Mar/Apr, and he just wasn't going 100%, and his team only took home 53 wins (less than PHI, MIL, and BOS) so it wasn't like he had no reason at all to try. People probably knew he was still the best player in the league and was capable of doing more if he felt the need to but it's hard to want to give MVP to a guy who's taking it sort of slow for the last 1/3 of a season. But it definitely wasn't voter fatigue or desire to spread it around on its own, it was more that fatigue on Jokic in a low-energy season was enough to push him below Embiid in a strong season.
