Who do you think wins MVP this season? (2025-26 NBA MVP Discussion Thread)

[1993Playoffs]

And Jokic's defense has been consistently...mediocre.

It's actually Giannis whose defense has been consistently mediocre over the past 3 seasons (including this season).

While Jokic has been improving on that end over the past 3 seasons. It is pretty evident when you watch them play.

Bruh...

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151 defensive rating is insane

[Archx]

And the Celtics were hunting Luka in the finals. And SGA actually won

Well Pacers actually did exactly the same, they were hunting SGA who didn't exactly excel on defensive end either. But yeah, it is true, OKC did win at the end. I think it was Stan Van Gundy who said during one of the games how OKC were 7-8 man deep when it comes to defense, they were ridiculous and it's also the case this season. Almost unbeatable.

[Jamaaliver]

Bruh...

Spoiler:

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151 defensive rating is insane

Against a Spurs team missing both Steph Castle...and Victor Wembanyama.

[Jamaaliver]

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[lethalizer]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

[MrBigShot]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

He's not, actually that's one thing that makes SGA so good - he's not the athlete Kobe was, but he has a level of discretion that Kobe really lacked. He has excellent shot selection. And while he is capable of making difficult shots, almost every shot attempt he takes is a high quality look he can consistently make. SGA has scoring down to a science.

[lethalizer]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

He's not, actually that's one thing that makes SGA so good - he's not the athlete Kobe was, but he has a level of discretion that Kobe really lacked. He has excellent shot selection. And while he is capable of making difficult shots, almost every shot attempt he takes is a high quality look he can consistently make. SGA has scoring down to a science.

I'm going purely by play style.

Check it out:

Watch on YouTube

[hagredionis]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

Luka's jersey ranking:
2019-2020 2nd
2020-2021 4th

So basically Luka was much more popular than Shai even before joining the Lakers.

[lethalizer]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

Luka's jersey ranking:
2019-2020 2nd
2020-2021 4th

So basically Luka was much more popular than Shai even before joining the Lakers.

Yeah and then it dipped to 8th, it would have never gone down there if he was with the Lakers from the beginning.

Shai was ranked 9th last year one spot ahead of Jokic. If the playmaking was that important, imagine where Jokic would be by now.

Your original argument just makes no sense, sorry.

[hagredionis]

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

Luka's jersey ranking:
2019-2020 2nd
2020-2021 4th

So basically Luka was much more popular than Shai even before joining the Lakers.

Yeah and then it dipped to 8th, it would have never gone down there if he was with the Lakers from the beginning.

Shai was ranked 9th last year one spot ahead of Jokic. If the playmaking was that important, imagine where Jokic would be by now.

Your original argument just makes no sense, sorry.

Yeah 8th which means Luka's worst year is still better than SGA's best year which tells you all you need to know. And I didn't say just playmaking I said his playstyle in general. Type Doncic highlights into Youtube and you will see what I mean, there are literally 100s of videos. Here's the thing people wants to see volume scoring, stepback 3s, dunks, spectacular playmaking and assists. Nobody goes to see a game thinking I want to see a guy play because he has great advances stats, only nerds care about advanced stats.

[Castle Black]

Some of these are insane. Joker is unreal.

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[scrabbarista]

Jokic is averaging 29 ppg and on track for the highest TS% of all time. You have to go down '23 Durant at the 44th spot to find another player who averaged at least 20 ppg.

So, you have arguably the greatest passer of all time having arguably the greatest scoring season of all time.

While leading the league in rebounding.

[scrabbarista]

It's actually Giannis whose defense has been consistently mediocre over the past 3 seasons (including this season).

While Jokic has been improving on that end over the past 3 seasons. It is pretty evident when you watch them play.

Bruh...

Read on Twitter

151 defensive rating is insane

Especially for a player who's at 110 for the entire season.

[scrabbarista]

Luka has more fans than SGA because his playstyle is more spectacular and he's a much better passer and playmaker.

I'd guarantee you SGA would have more fans than Luka if he was in LA instead of Luka. Shai is the closest player we have to a modern Kobe, city of LA would start thinking about the potential statues he'd build for him by now.

Luka's jersey rankings before he joined the Lakers: 8th, 6th, 5th.

Luka after joining the Lakers: 1st. Immediately, his season even wasn't that great compared to his standards.

Laker boost is incredible when it comes to popularity.

Luka's jersey ranking:
2019-2020 2nd
2020-2021 4th

So basically Luka was much more popular than Shai even before joining the Lakers.

You're both right. Luka is naturally more popular than SGA - in raw terms - but if you put SGA on LAL and Luka anywhere else, SGA would be more popular than Luka.

[scrabbarista]

Some of these are insane. Joke is unreal.

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Jokic has had one "good" teammate. PJ Dozier.

And Jokic has had zero teammates who weren't good when they played with him.

Very possibly the best player ever.

[Andri]

Another very good night for Doncic against a crappy team. He keeps regaining ground in the MVP race.

A below average night for Shai against Blazers without all their starters, saved from a bad one by some bad looking shooting calls. At least he improved during the crunch time, but still. Deni was the best player on the floor by a wide margin.

IMO Hartstein is key to OKC success. And let's see how Jalen W come back impacts SGA numbers, if so.

[bbms]

Leaders in Clutch Points (final 5 minutes or overtime):

1. Shai: 80 points in 9 games

2. Maxey: 66 in 14 games
3. Cade: 59 in 12 games
4. Flagg: 48 in 14 games
5. Harden: 42 in 9 games

80 points in NINE games. In the rest, SGA didn't even come close to being on the court in the final minutes.

[Johnny Firpo]

Leaders in Clutch Points (final 5 minutes or overtime):

1. Shai: 80 points in 9 games

2. Maxey: 66 in 14 games
3. Cade: 59 in 12 games
4. Flagg: 48 in 14 games
5. Harden: 42 in 9 games

80 points in NINE games. In the rest, SGA didn't even come close to being on the court in the final minutes.

Do you guys even have close games? That's pretty remarkable considering that net rating. This means that on the rare occasion where OKC has to play a close game (clutch is considered within 5 points in the last 5 minutes, right?), they funnel everything through this guy, and he does amazingly well in those moments (which we knew).

[hagredionis]

Leaders in Clutch Points (final 5 minutes or overtime):

1. Shai: 80 points in 9 games

2. Maxey: 66 in 14 games
3. Cade: 59 in 12 games
4. Flagg: 48 in 14 games
5. Harden: 42 in 9 games

80 points in NINE games. In the rest, SGA didn't even come close to being on the court in the final minutes.

lol OKC didn't have 9 close games, they're usually 20 points up by the end of the third quarter.

[lethalizer]

Leaders in Clutch Points (final 5 minutes or overtime):

1. Shai: 80 points in 9 games

2. Maxey: 66 in 14 games
3. Cade: 59 in 12 games
4. Flagg: 48 in 14 games
5. Harden: 42 in 9 games

80 points in NINE games. In the rest, SGA didn't even come close to being on the court in the final minutes.

lol OKC didn't have 9 close games, they're usually 20 points up by the end of the third quarter.

Game logs are available to use for public.

OKC had two double OT games to start the season, their last three games have all come down to the wire. That's 5 already. They lost to Portland by two points, that would make it 6.

Add the game against Dallas which was a 7 point win on the road, and the Kings game which was a 6 point win at home. That's 8. Game against Memphis on the road was a 4 point game when Shai checked in with 6 minutes to go. He hit back to back threes with 4 minutes to go to make it a double digit game to clinch it.

NBA uses this definition for clutch points: "Clutch time is defined as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points."

There you go.