Texas Chuck wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:
I'll also say this: If Portland were to beat the Nuggets, the way Dame's been playing, I'd have to seriously consider Lillard over Jokic.
Would love some elaboration on this if you wouldn't mind. Because I got to say on the surface that seems to be minimizing too much what Jokic did over a full 72 games. And its not like Jokic is playing anything short of fantastic in this series himself.
I love Dame. Been making some enemies particularly among Mavs fans because I've take Dame over Luka for all-NBA the last two seasons. But Jokic this year.....just something else entirely.
Well I'll put it this way:
If your team gets upset in the 1st round and everyone agrees that the star of the team that beat you was the best player on the court and the reason why you got upset, I think it's hard to swallow a case where we say you were the best player that season.
Further, it's one thing if you're talking about a Harden-type situation this year where he didn't play for part of the year (and outright, purposefully had negative impact for part of the year) but was at his best in the playoffs. But we're talking about Dame here who was an MVP candidate in his own right and likely would have been ahead of Jokic in the voting if his team had been able to keep pace with Jokic's team instead of sliding at the end.
Now, I'm analytical enough to note that Portland's SRS never indicated that their year should be treated with the kind of respect Denver's SRS did and I'm fine with that in the abstract...but if Portland ends up beating them in their playoff series, it's awfully hard to look at the two teams as if they're fundamentally in different leagues.
I'll also acknowledge some particular squeamishness at the idea of Portland upsetting Denver in both series they've played during Jokic's tenure. Two issues here: 1) the direct comparison with Dame, and 2) the fact that the rest of the league doesn't see the Blazers as true contenders, and thus two losses to them screams "Nuggets aren't real contenders either". There are rebuttals I respect to this, but I don't think there's any doubt that if the Nuggets lose this series with Dame as the best player that if you ask anyone X years in the future about this year, they aren't going to talk about Jokic positively. Sad but true.
Frankly the same may be true to an extent if the Nuggets lose as expected in the 2nd round, but getting upset in the first round to a non-serious team is already rough for MVPs.