2024-25 NBA MVP Discussion Thread

[Jaqua92]

Nikola Jokic is the best basketball player I have ever seen.

Completely redefines efficiency and team offense.

I think it's utterly assinine to claim Curry was better at his peak

Redefines it? No. That would be Curry because there is no peer to Curry.

Jokic is getting praise similarly to how LeBron got praise. They are both worse than Curry at his peak.

You seem to think Curry at his peak is the best player of all time then

[WarriorGM]

Nikola Jokic is the best basketball player I have ever seen.

Completely redefines efficiency and team offense.

I think it's utterly assinine to claim Curry was better at his peak

Redefines it? No. That would be Curry because there is no peer to Curry.

Jokic is getting praise similarly to how LeBron got praise. They are both worse than Curry at his peak.

Are you trying to get folks to not take you seriously ?

Do tell why any of you should be taken more seriously than me.

[Wolfgang630]

Redefines it? No. That would be Curry because there is no peer to Curry.

Jokic is getting praise similarly to how LeBron got praise. They are both worse than Curry at his peak.

Are you trying to get folks to not take you seriously ?

Do tell why any of you should be taken more seriously than me.

Well none of us are named WarriorGM to start with.

[Doctor MJ]

So chiming in on the Jokic candidacy:

I think it will be very, very hard for him to win another MVP without winning another title. Not saying it's right, but it's how voters tend to think.

Re: "Jokic stans bemoaning others talking about anyone else". There's some truth in this...but it's to be expected given, a) the overwhelming data supporting Jokic, b) a resistance to acknowledging this data broadly, and c) a reluctance to keep giving a guy the award repeatedly.

After last year's playoffs I'd have said Shai was the MVP favorite for this year, and I'd still say that. Other players like Luka or Tatum have a much more clear path to winning the MVP as well.

The more games Jokic plays, the sillier this argument becomes.

I mean "voter fatigue" is literally all anyone can say now. I've heard so many people talk about this crap.

"Someone else is going to win MVP because everyone is tired of Jokic being so dominant." Ugh, stop it. If anyone else was putting up even comparable numbers, I could understand it. But they aren't.

Voters are going to be forced to vote for Jokic again, because Denver is going to win 50+ games again, he is not going to have an All Star teammate, and his numbers and impact are going to be so far ahead of the competition that voting for anyone else is simply going to be malpractice.

What we are witnessing is almost unprecedented.

Completely understand your perspective, as I myself have always been a Jokic guy, but nevertheless, it will be very, very hard for him to win the MVP this year.

(Not utterly impossible, but if there's any kind of natural 2-man race, I expect voters to look to vote for the other guy. Frankly the same will be true if it's a 3-man or 4-man race, but the split vote might make it easier for Jokic to slip through by virtue of having the most Top 2 ballots.)

[BigGargamel]

29.7 ppg
13.7 rpg
11.7 apg
1.0 bpg
1.7 spg
56.3 FG%
84.3 FT%
56.4 3PT% on 4 attempts per game
Nuggets 7-3 record with Christian Braun, Russell Westbrook and Peyton Watson starting games.

Even with all the constant Jokic talk, I don't think people are comprehending how iconic of a season he is having. These aren't even video game numbers because you can play NBA2K on Rookie mode and not duplicate these stats.

We've never seen anything like this in the modern era, ever.

[Wallace_Wallace]

At first I thought the Nuggets were going to struggle especially without Gordon and a relatively thin bench. Now all of a sudden, they’re just one game back from teams that started red hot like the Thunder/Suns/Warriors. Impressive work by Jokic

[AleksandarN]

So chiming in on the Jokic candidacy:

I think it will be very, very hard for him to win another MVP without winning another title. Not saying it's right, but it's how voters tend to think.

Re: "Jokic stans bemoaning others talking about anyone else". There's some truth in this...but it's to be expected given, a) the overwhelming data supporting Jokic, b) a resistance to acknowledging this data broadly, and c) a reluctance to keep giving a guy the award repeatedly.

After last year's playoffs I'd have said Shai was the MVP favorite for this year, and I'd still say that. Other players like Luka or Tatum have a much more clear path to winning the MVP as well.

The more games Jokic plays, the sillier this argument becomes.

I mean "voter fatigue" is literally all anyone can say now. I've heard so many people talk about this crap.

"Someone else is going to win MVP because everyone is tired of Jokic being so dominant." Ugh, stop it. If anyone else was putting up even comparable numbers, I could understand it. But they aren't.

Voters are going to be forced to vote for Jokic again, because Denver is going to win 50+ games again, he is not going to have an All Star teammate, and his numbers and impact are going to be so far ahead of the competition that voting for anyone else is simply going to be malpractice.

What we are witnessing is almost unprecedented.

Completely understand your perspective, as I myself have always been a Jokic guy, but nevertheless, it will be very, very hard for him to win the MVP this year.

(Not utterly impossible, but if there's any kind of natural 2-man race, I expect voters to look to vote for the other guy. Frankly the same will be true if it's a 3-man or 4-man race, but the split vote might make it easier for Jokic to slip through by virtue of having the most Top 2 ballots.)

To be honest if Jokic keeps this up. There will be no 2 man race at all.

[BigGargamel]

The more games Jokic plays, the sillier this argument becomes.

I mean "voter fatigue" is literally all anyone can say now. I've heard so many people talk about this crap.

"Someone else is going to win MVP because everyone is tired of Jokic being so dominant." Ugh, stop it. If anyone else was putting up even comparable numbers, I could understand it. But they aren't.

Voters are going to be forced to vote for Jokic again, because Denver is going to win 50+ games again, he is not going to have an All Star teammate, and his numbers and impact are going to be so far ahead of the competition that voting for anyone else is simply going to be malpractice.

What we are witnessing is almost unprecedented.

Completely understand your perspective, as I myself have always been a Jokic guy, but nevertheless, it will be very, very hard for him to win the MVP this year.

(Not utterly impossible, but if there's any kind of natural 2-man race, I expect voters to look to vote for the other guy. Frankly the same will be true if it's a 3-man or 4-man race, but the split vote might make it easier for Jokic to slip through by virtue of having the most Top 2 ballots.)

To be honest if Jokic keeps this up. There will be no 2 man race at all.

This is my point. I could get the voter fatigue thing if there was anyone else even in the same arena as Jokic. But to realistically vote for anyone else would be an abuse of your voting privilege. There's no one else even the least bit worthy.

Logic would be that Jokic's stats aren't sustainable, but we've been saying that for almost half a decade now, and somehow he keeps elevating his game.

[Jadoogar]

i understand voter fatigue and stuff but if you have watched any Nuggets' games, idk how you can vote for anyone other than Jokic. It's not like he's stat padding, they wouldn't have won any of these games without him putting up these video game numbers.

Will he be able to sustain these wild numbers and minute load? i have my doubts. But as of now, it's clearly Jokic.

[WarriorGM]

Nikola Jokic is the best basketball player I have ever seen.

Completely redefines efficiency and team offense.

I think it's utterly assinine to claim Curry was better at his peak

Redefines it? No. That would be Curry because there is no peer to Curry.

Jokic is getting praise similarly to how LeBron got praise. They are both worse than Curry at his peak.

You seem to think Curry at his peak is the best player of all time then

Curry at his peak revolutionized the game, led his team to the regular season wins record, got the MVP unanimously causing vested interests within the NBA establishment to actively try diminishing him in case he ever posed a challenge to Jordan in the public imagination and Steph did all the previous while sitting out something like 20 4th quarters.

What exactly makes you think Curry at his peak shouldn't be considered the best player of all-time? We all just saw Curry shut the door on France while LeBron and KD were open and sharing the same floor. Considering what happened can you really say it wasn't the right call? If I was to have a hypothetical best player of all-time, what Steph did there is the kind of thing I'd expect him to be able to do. And Steph has done numerous such things.

[Infinite Llamas]

Curry is averaging like 22/4/6 and his team went 3-0 in his recent absence.

Right now he isn’t a candidate at all.

[WarriorGM]

Curry is averaging like 22/4/6 and his team went 3-0 in his recent absence.

Right now he isn’t a candidate at all.

Take out the 3 games and the record is 5-2 translating to a 71% wins%. Jokic and the Nuggets are at 70%.

Now if we knew nothing else about Curry then there is no reason for him to be mentioned as a candidate. But we do know about Curry and that should give pause to any conversation that this is an open and shut case for any other player. Since Curry is older and is not expected to be as consistent it's natural he is not the favorite. I will say though that I wouldn't entirely exclude the possibility of Curry leading his team to a better record than the other leading candidates. If he manages to do so...I think the voting will be interesting.

[Roger Murdock]

Congrats to Garland for winning player of the week! Well deserved

[AleksandarN]

Read on Twitter

[Wolfgang630]

Lebron passed the torch to Jokic.

[Jaqua92]

Redefines it? No. That would be Curry because there is no peer to Curry.

Jokic is getting praise similarly to how LeBron got praise. They are both worse than Curry at his peak.

You seem to think Curry at his peak is the best player of all time then

Curry at his peak revolutionized the game, led his team to the regular season wins record, got the MVP unanimously causing vested interests within the NBA establishment to actively try diminishing him in case he ever posed a challenge to Jordan in the public imagination and Steph did all the previous while sitting out something like 20 4th quarters.

What exactly makes you think Curry at his peak shouldn't be considered the best player of all-time? We all just saw Curry shut the door on France while LeBron and KD were open and sharing the same floor. Considering what happened can you really say it wasn't the right call? If I was to have a hypothetical best player of all-time, what Steph did there is the kind of thing I'd expect him to be able to do. And Steph has done numerous such things.

Jesus Christ lolol

[AleksandarN]

It’s not just stats with the dude.

Read on Twitter

[DrModesty]

Shai finally with an MVP type performance today.

45-3-9-5-2 also going 4-8 from 3.

So far he has been more like a top 10 player than a true MVP candidate. The Chet injury takes away the SGA has a stacked team narrative this season.

Jokic clearly miles out in front of everybody though.

[Wolfgang630]

Shai finally with an MVP type performance today.

45-3-9-5-2 also going 4-8 from 3.

So far he has been more like a top 10 player than a true MVP candidate. The Chet injury takes away the SGA has a stacked team narrative this season.

Jokic clearly miles out in front of everybody though.

He’ll have to keep playing at this level and stay ahead of Denver to have any chance of winning. Tatum with him if not ahead of him.

[AleksandarN]

Pure dominance

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