2022-23 NBA MVP Discussion (Pt.1)

[CharityStripe34]

And a missed three was a half-court late-clock shot.

Such horrible shot selection.

[Mickey8]

Jokic touch around the basket is the prettiest thing to watch in all of basketball. He makes it all look so effortless.

It’s crazy that just when you think he can’t become more efficient he steps it up a notch.

Rings be damned, he will go down as one of the 10-15 greatest players to ever lace them up.

He has softest hands of any player in the league.

[ty 4191]

Jokic touch around the basket is the prettiest thing to watch in all of basketball. He makes it all look so effortless.

It’s crazy that just when you think he can’t become more efficient he steps it up a notch.

Rings be damned, he will go down as one of the 10-15 greatest players to ever lace them up.

Hopefully Top 10 all time.

Jokic's three year peak 2020-2021 through 2022-2023, especially considering the depth/strength, and globalization of the game in the 2020's, stands up to anyone's three year peak in NBA history, IMHO.

[BelgradeNugget]

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Jokic can average a 25 pt triple double on 15 shots a game...on 70% (yes, SEVENTY %) true shooting...

I think after tonight he's gonna meet all the criteria except he'll be an assist shy...

Yep, you can calculate true shooting here: https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/stats/tsp_calc.html

After tonight Jokic is 24.6 ppg on 70.13ts% Just insane.

His TS% is over 70, and he's not even in the top 20 in total free throw attempts this year. With more freebies, he might be able to sustain that over the course of a season

And craziest part of his 70,13%ts for the season is this:

In 17 of 24 games he played this season, he played through INJURED WRIST ON SHOOTING HAND. From the beginning of the season until second Houston game he had bandage on his wrist. Here is the last one with bandage.

Watch on YouTube

[Cubbies2120]

Jokic touch around the basket is the prettiest thing to watch in all of basketball. He makes it all look so effortless.

It’s crazy that just when you think he can’t become more efficient he steps it up a notch.

Rings be damned, he will go down as one of the 10-15 greatest players to ever lace them up.

Hopefully Top 10 all time.

Jokic's three year peak 2020-2021 through 2022-2023, especially considering the depth/strength, and globalization of the game in the 2020's, stands up to anyone's three year peak in NBA history, IMHO.

Yeah but he couldn't win a ring missing #2 and #3 options on his team, therefore, legacy points deducted.

[tooler]

And craziest part of his 70,13%ts for the season is this:

In 17 of 24 games he played this season, he played through INJURED WRIST ON SHOOTING HAND. From the beginning of the season until second Houston game he had bandage on his wrist. Here is the last one with bandage.

I thought for a second this post was from Magic superfan/gadfly pepe1991!

I see now that Europeans post to RealGM with the same style.

[eyeatoma]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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[eyeatoma]

Can we get a new poll please? Past the quarter mark now...

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[eyeatoma]

Meanwhile...

Read on Twitter

[itsxtray]

Meanwhile...

Read on Twitter

Comparing Shaq in the heart of the deadball era to Embiid in the hyper offensive modern nba. Nah... Also, Shaq has some of the most dominant playoff series of all time, Embiid can't compare.

[Woodsanity]

Meanwhile...

Read on Twitter

Embiid great regular season player when he actually plays. Doesn't show up like the mailman in the playoffs where it matters though.

[greekbuck34]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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The season is long. 2 weeks ago your sixers lost by 30 points vs the Cavs and Embiid had 19 points on 6-16.
This is just our 8th loss of the season. Your sixers have 12 already.

[PennSports]

great post but thought i should point out that both Maxey and Harden have missed a month or more. Embiids been playing without his 2 and 3 guys which was a driving narrative last year that arguably decided the razor thin decision. You might think Embiid has missed a lot of time but hes 2nd on the team in total minutes behind only Tobias, that is how hurt the sixers have been and hes playing a career high in MPG at 36 per. Still only 3 games less than guys like and Giannis and Ja but havent looked at total games played. Hopefully he can stay healthy because missing 3-4 more would pretty much do him in again unfortunately like it did 2 years ago when he had the stats, the defense, and the first seed. I want the man to get his flowers in SOMETHING. No first teams, no mvps, no first team all D, no dpoy just feels wrong but im a huge embiid homer. At some point 3 straight mvp years has to count for something right? Now he is likely to not even start in the all star game, Always 2nd place But i do wish defense mattered more for MVP because i think him and Tatum have been the best on that end this season of the main candidates.

Giannis i think has been coasting on D and has a lot more help around him on defense at both guard and center with Jrue and Lopez. As for the help narrative Simmons and Kyrie have played far more than Maxey and harden. Maxey has missed half the games and will probably not return until January, Harden missed around 12 games. Kyrie and Simmons are both at about 20 games but the way people talk about the nets im not sure how much of that will be considered "help" lmao

As far as Jokic he isnt gonna win unless everyone falls off a cliff. Hes been amazing but with all his guys back i think Denver should be far better. If that was a big narrative last year then they have to run away with the first seed this year. Hes owning all the advanced stats again to the point where it feels like they were designed around him (even some of the defensive ones again) but a lot of that has to do with Denver rotations. He is rarely playing with bench units compared to his peers and Denver seems to do hockey shifts a lot with 4 or 5 guys in and 4 or 5 guys out. I joked that they signed Deandre Jordan minute 1 of free agency to make him seem even more valuable and its working lol.

i'm well aware of how much time Harden\Maxey have missed but it's not like the Sixkers were killing it when all 3 were playing

The 3 fold "help" comparison isn't all that accurate imo, I mean between the 76ers \ Nuggets \ Nets:

No disputing Harden and Maxey missed considerable time, but when they did play - they were great and the 76ers (if anything) - "should have been better" in those games than they actually were

Simmons may have played about 20 games but he was really bad (and played limited mins) for about half of those

folks (myself included) thought this isn't just injury and rust but that he's unplayable due to the mental issues (it was that bad)
so it's hard to count those 20 GP as "help", you need to only count the ones where he was actually helping the team

it's not a coincidence that his improved play has coincided with both Nash's departure and with drastically improved play from the Nets. In reality it's more like 10-12 games he's been "helping" durant out, unless ur counting games in which he was awful which doesn't really make sense :p ur right about Kyrie tho

as for the Nuggets, MPJ has only played 16 games which is pretty comparable with Maxey's 15
and Murray has been availavle but he's been sub-par on both ends. he's been out so long it makes sense for hm to take time to work himself back in, but the Nuggets absoultely should not have been "better" than they are, as Murray has not been playing well at all (that's putting it mildly)

this may change later in the season but as it stands, MPJ has missed alot of games and wasn't very good in the ones he did play and Jamal has been a negative on the court...

after tonight the Nuggets are first in the West with basically all of the heavy lifting done by Jokic again, so i don't think it's fair to say they "should have been better"

Embiid is a real force but the usual Ewing comparison makes alot of sense - he has been unlucky to share his career thus far with a peer, another player, who plays the same position and is simply better than him, period.

it's not his fault but as far as personal accolades go - there is no mystery there..

I can admit my Embiid bias and have. You pretending to be impartial about Jokic is not working though. Now Seeding matters more than wins and his coveted help that he didnt have last year has returned. The Hospital Sixers are only 2 games worse and still have more help? Cmon bro

But wait if they aren't any good why did he get so much credit for carrying a 6th seed with no hope of advancing in the playoffs MPJ hasnt even been bad 16 and 6, 42% from 3 at the highest contest rate in the league on 7 attempts a game is great for him. The weird thing was acting like he was ever a missing piece, he is a role player.

[antonac]

quelle suprise embiid has a historical record tied to free throw attempts.

[eyeatoma]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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The season is long. 2 weeks ago your sixers lost by 30 points vs the Cavs and Embiid had 19 points on 6-16.
This is just our 8th loss of the season. Your sixers have 12 already.

Fully loaded Cavs squad vs Embiid and no Harden/Maxey I believe.

Meanwhile the Bucks were fully healthy.

[eyeatoma]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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The season is long. 2 weeks ago your sixers lost by 30 points vs the Cavs and Embiid had 19 points on 6-16.
This is just our 8th loss of the season. Your sixers have 12 already.

Embiid, Maxey and Harden have played 5 games together lol.

[CobraCommander]

Jokic is the best player on earth and Tatum is the MVP….

[itsxtray]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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The season is long. 2 weeks ago your sixers lost by 30 points vs the Cavs and Embiid had 19 points on 6-16.
This is just our 8th loss of the season. Your sixers have 12 already.

Embiid, Maxey and Harden have played 5 games together lol.

My guy, the warriors won it all last year and they lost to the grizzlies in game 5 without Morant by 39 lol. It's the nba, this **** happens sometimes.

[greekbuck34]

Giannis is not the MVP. This is pathetic...

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The season is long. 2 weeks ago your sixers lost by 30 points vs the Cavs and Embiid had 19 points on 6-16.
This is just our 8th loss of the season. Your sixers have 12 already.

Fully loaded Cavs squad vs Embiid and no Harden/Maxey I believe.

Meanwhile the Bucks were fully healthy.

Jrue was out and Middleton still not even 50% ready after a 7 month absense throwing airballs out there. But yeah fully healthy.

[Saint Lazarus]

I do find it amusing that while you can argue that Giannis is having his worst "efficiency" year since 2017-18 (depending on how much you value his insane volume scoring), his numbers in points, rebounds, assists, shooting efficiency, PER, BPM, WS/48, etc. would all be career highs for Tatum. Just goes to show how big of a handicap media/fans have placed on his MVP narrative and the natural tendency to always favor the "shiny new toy". I tend to not really do lists early when there isn't a clear cut front-runner, but if there's an inner circle for me it's basically between:

Jokic
Giannis
Luka
Zion

Pick one.

So you went on this spiel about Tatum not being as good as Giannis, but you include Zion in that inner circle?