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

[Castle Black]

This isn't basketball. The NBA has a massive flopping/foul-baiting issue, and SGA is the poster-child of it. Same with Luka, who is currently averaging the most FTA per game in NBA history…

This cannot continue. It's a black eye on the sport. Silver has to do something about this moving forward, because the players are going to continue to do this so long as they're rewarded for it. The onus has to be on the league.

Read on Twitter

[canada_dry]

Leaders in Clutch Free Throw Attempts (final 5 minutes or overtime):

1. Shai (37 FTA in 9 games)

2. Cade: 25 in 12 games
3. Maxey: 25 in 14 games
4. Flagg: 21 in 14 games
5. Johnson: 18 in 12 games

SGA in 9 games of clutch time has attempted almost 50% of the clutch FT attempts of a 2001 Prime Shaq, who had a 39 game clutch sample size.

Let that sink in. SGA has a better whistle than prime Shaq who was being intentionally fouled sometimes

Well, OKC only lost 1 of those games. How many of those do you think were intentional because Shai had just put the game away?

Makes the points lead less impressive then, no?

...because apparently noone else gets fouled late in games and thats not a strategy employed widely by the nba? Huh?

Sent from my SM-S911W using RealGM mobile app

[canada_dry]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1pbb6iw/highlights_shai_gilgeousalexander_clutch/

He has been doing this all season. He is not dominating the clutch points because of free throws, he has the most shot makes as well.

But one directly impacts what the original post was stating, his points in the clutch.

Also, he has attempted 42 FGA in 9 games in the clutch, vs. 44 in 14 games for the leader (Maxey).

So he freely chucks away, almost as much as prime '06 Kobe (who was called a black hole on offense because he was surrounded by garbage). That Kobe took 40 FGA / 100 possessions in the clutch with HORRIFIC teammates. SGA is taking 37/100.

And he hits a lot of those shots at a 68.4 ts %. I guess Michael Jordan shouldn't have been so good at scoring in the clutch either, what an idiot! Why is he shooting and carrying his team in the clutch?! Moron.

Never seen someone try to twist something so great into a bad thing, lol. OKC want the ball in SGA's hands when it matters, that's how it's going to be in the postseason as well. Because he shoots the god damned 10-16 midrange shot at 58.2 % for the season. That would be the highest % on that volume by far in NBA history. Jordan was reported at around 51 % for comparison. KD had a 56.3 % season from there in 22-23, that's the highest I have seen so far.

This has been going on for the 2nd straight year now. The jokic stans are exposing themselves in these threads.

I say that as a guy who really genuinely enjoys both these guys.

Sent from my SM-S911W using RealGM mobile app

[Patches Perry]

mvp masterclass

Kobe would be so proud. The footwork SGA employs to get to his midrange J reminds me of Kobe every game I watch.

[Doctor MJ]

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.

I get why you say this, but Luka had the popularity advantage when he was a Mav.

I'm also with you in pushing back against the idea that Shai doesn't have an aesthetic game. While that sort of thing does hold back the popularity of some guys, these are typically bigs who don't score a ton. It didn't hold back Harden for example despite the fact he had a grifting game considerably more egregious than Luka or Shai.

With Luka we can specifically point to his intuitive genius... but in my experience there's really nothing about intuitive genius that necessarily gives you a leg up with fans relative to more classical athleticism, and the delay of appreciation pertaining to Jokic points to how it can be a disadvantage when it comes to popularity.

I do think that part of what's going on here is that observers at any given moment tend to focus on certain things that led the last great player, and so the league domination of Jokic does help someone like Luka now... but people went head over heals on Luka before Jokic broke through the collective conscious.

This leads me back to the combination of a) how quickly Luka became a superstar in the NBA, and b) how much his style of play tends to fill up the columns of the box score with extreme volume. These two things more so than the specific way Luka played I think are what got his popularity going from (near) the jump.

In other words, had Luka had a slow start to his career where he didn't make all-star until Year 5, while Shai became a superstar by Year 2, I think we'd see their relative popularities in Dallas & OKC flipped.

[BelgradeNugget]

Yeah yeah, keep finding excuses for your hero. How low can his shot attempts go? I want eight against OKC in a blowout loss in may. Can you tell him? And he will look amazing efficiency wise, so you can post all about his efficiency while Shai and OKC focus on actually making the winning play and letting your teams best scorer go to work.

It's interesting how his defense still wasn't good even if his shot attempts were low recently, I saw some non Jokic-cultist Nuggets fans pointing that out in the Nuggets subreddit. You would think he would have more energy for defense when his shot attempts are so low at times? You will surely find another excuse for that as well. And for when he loses in the postseason again. It was the horses fault!

Wait, I have lost your point. Efficiency merchant or traffic cone. You Jokic-hater-cultist are sick. To dedicate your whole life on hating one player. Does this make you happy? Well I don't think so, but before you find better meaning of life it is all you have left. Right now he is loosing one game of 4 so you will have more happiness in your life.

BTW his shot attempts depend on offense he is creating. You know as a playmaker if you have heard of this word. And Nuggets offense is leading the league so I guess he knows what he is doing better than you. Or maybe not I see a lot of 12 years old experts here.

Hahaha. Why am I a hater? I literally just made a valid point about his shot attempts and defensive effort being too low at times.
I still have him 1A and 1B with SGA in the MVP race. I am only playfully jabbing at you guys for being so god damned sensitive about anything negative about Jokic, it's kind of hilarious. We are allowed to criticize him. I can criticize SGA as well, he pushes off and he foulbaits at times like the foul call he got against Murray last night. That's lame, but its how the game has "evolved" for better or worse, and way too many players like Brunson, SGA, Luka, Reaves and Mitchell do it. Jokic flops at times as well. Jordan pushed off on his famous 98 shot vs the Jazz as well so idk.

You are a hater because the moment I made my point you called me a "Jokic-cultist", "you guys for being so god damned sensitive about anything negative about Jokic"...

Can I criticize YOUR opinion on how offense should be played without being called names. If I can let me start.

In one of the games you point, last against Phoenix he only took 7 shots, scored 26 points, but more important thing is Nuggets as a team shot 58% from the field, and 58% from 3, and scored 130 points. Is that bad? Well there is one bad thing, they had 16 turnovers, with Jokic having 5. What is problem with Nuggets turnovers? A lot of them comes from teams guarding him on the post with one small player fronting him and other big in the back waiting to disrupt the lob attempt. Jokic is doing bad job at keeping his position in the post, Nuggets are doing bad job at passing him the ball.

But there is a bigger problem in that set. It is the same problem Nuggets had with Caruso guarding him in front and Chat behind him, while ignoring Westbrook/Braun/Watson on 3pt line. The same problem Nuggets had with "Rui adjustment" vs Lakers who ignored AG at the 3 pt line. Same problem Nuggets had vs 76ers with PJ in front and Embiid in the back. The same problem they had with Derrick Favors and Gobert. Dealing with weak preventive double teams denying him the ball. And there is a way to beat them.

While at Davidson, Stephen Curry was once double-teamed for an entire game without the ball and held to 0 points, it was against Layola MD, Davidson won. He simply went to the corner with 2 defenders and let his team play 4 on 3.

Jokic is never double teamed the way Curry was, hard double 100% comitted, but this is what Nuggets should do, in a way, against these kind of defenses. Ignore Jokic and play 4 on 3. They are better and better at that.

BTW in the Nuggets champions season Jokic had the lowest number of shots per game 14.8. Who knows is it good?

[Doctor MJ]

Kobe would be so proud. The footwork SGA employs to get to his midrange J reminds me of Kobe every game I watch.

The fact that people on the whole can't seem to see a connection between Shai & Jordan/Kobe is really interesting. If people really loved Jordan/Kobe's midrange game as the main thing - as in THAT is what made those guys pop in people's minds - I think we'd have seen a groundswell in Shai's popularity before he even became an MVP contender.

What we've actually seen on the other hand to me implies that people didn't actually love the specifics of what Jordan/Kobe did in their mature prime so much as they loved those players and thus pointed to what they did as impressive.

The fans seem to get hooked by a combination of youthful explosion and alpha male attitude, and then once they're hooked, they'll love whatever their guy does as long as he does well enough to not lose the fan support.

[bbms]

mvp masterclass

sexy free throws

[bbms]

Kobe would be so proud. The footwork SGA employs to get to his midrange J reminds me of Kobe every game I watch.

The fact that people on the whole can't seem to see a connection between Shai & Jordan/Kobe is really interesting. If people really loved Jordan/Kobe's midrange game as the main thing - as in THAT is what made those guys pop in people's minds - I think we'd have seen a groundswell in Shai's popularity before he even became an MVP contender.

What we've actually seen on the other hand to me implies that people didn't actually love the specifics of what Jordan/Kobe did in their mature prime so much as they loved those players and thus pointed to what they did as impressive.

The fans seem to get hooked by a combination of youthful explosion and alpha male attitude, and then once they're hooked, they'll love whatever their guy does as long as he does well enough to not lose the fan support.

these guys don't even like basketball. they are pop diva fans. it's how the nba chose to market this thing a long time ago.

[BelgradeNugget]

Wait, I have lost your point. Efficiency merchant or traffic cone. You Jokic-hater-cultist are sick. To dedicate your whole life on hating one player. Does this make you happy? Well I don't think so, but before you find better meaning of life it is all you have left. Right now he is loosing one game of 4 so you will have more happiness in your life.

BTW his shot attempts depend on offense he is creating. You know as a playmaker if you have heard of this word. And Nuggets offense is leading the league so I guess he knows what he is doing better than you. Or maybe not I see a lot of 12 years old experts here.

Hahaha. Why am I a hater? I literally just made a valid point about his shot attempts and defensive effort being too low at times.
I still have him 1A and 1B with SGA in the MVP race. I am only playfully jabbing at you guys for being so god damned sensitive about anything negative about Jokic, it's kind of hilarious. We are allowed to criticize him. I can criticize SGA as well, he pushes off and he foulbaits at times like the foul call he got against Murray last night. That's lame, but its how the game has "evolved" for better or worse, and way too many players like Brunson, SGA, Luka, Reaves and Mitchell do it. Jokic flops at times as well. Jordan pushed off on his famous 98 shot vs the Jazz as well so idk.

Jokic being a flopper and a defensive liability isn't even debatable at this point to anyone being objective. Lots of gaslighting going on around this guy for the last year or so.

Never gonna sit here and tell you Luka is a good defender.

Jokic's cult just got new member. Not for people with epilepsy, sensitive...

Watch on YouTube

[Doctor MJ]

Kobe would be so proud. The footwork SGA employs to get to his midrange J reminds me of Kobe every game I watch.

The fact that people on the whole can't seem to see a connection between Shai & Jordan/Kobe is really interesting. If people really loved Jordan/Kobe's midrange game as the main thing - as in THAT is what made those guys pop in people's minds - I think we'd have seen a groundswell in Shai's popularity before he even became an MVP contender.

What we've actually seen on the other hand to me implies that people didn't actually love the specifics of what Jordan/Kobe did in their mature prime so much as they loved those players and thus pointed to what they did as impressive.

The fans seem to get hooked by a combination of youthful explosion and alpha male attitude, and then once they're hooked, they'll love whatever their guy does as long as he does well enough to not lose the fan support.

these guys don't even like basketball. they are pop diva fans. it's how the nba chose to market this thing a long time ago.

There's some truth in what you say, but I wouldn't say these folks don't like basketball.

Rather what I'd say is that for people in general we have a tendency toward Great Man thinking wherein we try to reduce the complexity of a given situation down to the shoulders of one particular giant to explain what's going on.

The question of how to get basketball fans to really embrace all the complexity of the sport is an open one, in part because ESPN & TNT worked so hard to not simply ignore the complexity but mock those who dared to seek nuance. The next time Shaq says, "I was never all that smart when I played, and since then I've put no effort into re-thinking the game based on the paradigm shifts that have come since, so now it's time for me to be quiet and listen.", will be the first. To say nothing of Stephen A who has now actual claim to basketball expertise at all beyond reading a box score in the voice of a preacher.

[Special_Puppy]

I think the lack of verticality in SGA’s game is part of why he’s not as appealing to casual fans like MJ and Kobe were. Also is just a more quiet reserved person than MJ and Kobe were https://youtu.be/nARzNjqNoko?si=ZfVLFuilPmqrNktq

[Cubbies2120]

Hahaha. Why am I a hater? I literally just made a valid point about his shot attempts and defensive effort being too low at times.
I still have him 1A and 1B with SGA in the MVP race. I am only playfully jabbing at you guys for being so god damned sensitive about anything negative about Jokic, it's kind of hilarious. We are allowed to criticize him. I can criticize SGA as well, he pushes off and he foulbaits at times like the foul call he got against Murray last night. That's lame, but its how the game has "evolved" for better or worse, and way too many players like Brunson, SGA, Luka, Reaves and Mitchell do it. Jokic flops at times as well. Jordan pushed off on his famous 98 shot vs the Jazz as well so idk.

Jokic being a flopper and a defensive liability isn't even debatable at this point to anyone being objective. Lots of gaslighting going on around this guy for the last year or so.

Never gonna sit here and tell you Luka is a good defender.

Jokic's cult just got new member. Not for people with epilepsy, sensitive...

Watch on YouTube

Yeah but LeBron has never been known for his basketball IQ...right? Right?! What the hell does he know that our expert analysts on RealGM just aren't seeing?!

[hagredionis]

Luka was named Player of the Week of the Western Conference.
37.3 ppg / 8.7 rpg / 10.3 apg

[CobraCommander]

Luka was named Player of the Week of the Western Conference.
37.3 ppg / 8.7 rpg / 10.3 apg

those are crazy numbers - with AR avg 30 and Lebron also getting his. skinny luka is a threat....

still 3rd in the mvp with Giannis 4th...and Jokic 1 and SGA 2... but this is a good week...

[Doctor MJ]

I think SGA’s lack of verticality in his game is part of why he’s appealing to casual fans like MJ and Kobe were. Also is just a more quiet reserved person than MJ and Kobe were https://youtu.be/nARzNjqNoko?si=ZfVLFuilPmqrNktq

Verticality is a reasonable thing to query.

I will say, Kobe had the perception of verticality, but generally didn't go for drastically more dunks than Shai.

[Castle Black]

Read on Twitter

[Mavrelous]

I think SGA’s lack of verticality in his game is part of why he’s appealing to casual fans like MJ and Kobe were. Also is just a more quiet reserved person than MJ and Kobe were https://youtu.be/nARzNjqNoko?si=ZfVLFuilPmqrNktq

There is much more to differ between Kobe and SGA that makes the footwork and modrange the only thing simillar to totally different players and personalities.

[Mavrelous]

Luka was named Player of the Week of the Western Conference.
37.3 ppg / 8.7 rpg / 10.3 apg

Luka and Brunson, in your face to Mavs org...

[Cavsfansince84]

I think Jokic's season will be the best but I don't think he's going to be able to overcome a 10+ difference in the team win column if Okc wins like 67+ again. Denver needs to get to at least 60 wins to give him a chance at it imo.