Kevin Durant is unbelievable!

[BelgradeNugget]

I never called KD an elite defender. He's capable of elite defense but will only show it in specific stretches/games. Individual defensive rating though is and always has been a terrible stat to gauge an individual's defensive prowess. I'm well aware of Jokic's accomplishments and how good he is, I love his game. But I also know what his weaknesses are and its natural limitations, there's not much he can do about it.

Just one thing, you didn't watch Jokic play this year. He has same natural limitations as Marc Gasol, jet Gasol was DPOY. KD has natural limitations, not strong enough, and people thought he will never be good defender before he came to GS, but he transformed his game become a very good one. Defensive stats are not great, we know, but you started by posting that Nets have 4th best defensive rating. Nuggets have 2nd, and Jokic has the best def, rating on the Nuggets. All other defensive advanced stats are pointing in the same direction. How? Simple, with more physical game Jokic can use his big body to bump players to degree which is allowed now and not worry about fouls. Than add the fact that he has great hands for steals and deflections, and is using verticality much better this year, plus the fact that he is boxing out all the time and challenging shots you get very good defender.

Marc Gasol was fundamentally a much better defensive player than Jokic is and he won his DPOY years ago, which is context that matters. KD started being a good defender in OKC btw, he didn't get recognition for being one until his GSW time. And the reason why I brought up Nets defense is because KD is arguably the best defender on the Nets. Also the point isn't about regular season ultimately, it's about postseason where we know what will happen with Jokic defensively. Jokic is an amazing player but come post season time, if I have to pick KD or Jokic for my team, I know who I'm picking and the majority of NBA GMs would make the same choice.

Again you didn't watch Jokic. Now, when we went from his physical limitations we are on fundamentals and that is were Jokic is great this year. KD started to be good defender for OKC, didn't get recognition - same with Jokic this year. Nuggets defense is better than Nets this year and if you ask Nuggets fans who are their best defenders in starting unit it's AG 1st defensive team candidate and Jokic.
About Jokic defense in PO's he was very good in last 3 years. What people don't get is the fact that Suns exploited MPJ/Jokic in pnr with MPJ playing on injured back, also Barton was coming from injury and PJ Dozier was out. So it was Jokic against CP3 and Ayton. Not recipe for success. When Jokic defends pnr with AG they have the best defensive rating in the league.

[DaPessimist]

Maybe the greatest scorer of all-time. His jumper is unstoppable, and he shoots it with high efficiency from anywhere on the court.

[clippertown]

Seriously, regardless of the fact that KD is clearly better than Jokic offensively, who would you rather have on your team? Jokic does so much at anchoring his team that overall, the gap is smaller than it appears. Plus, a versatile leading Center is far more rare than a tall leading wing player so Jokic is harder to replace. Let’s see if they can both keep it up over the next 20 games.

[Hello Brooklyn]

KD 1
Jokic 2
Curry 3

That’s my MVP count as it stands right now.

Durant/Jokic been more consistent than Curry. I mean even bias GSW fans would tell you Curry has had quiet games this year. His max games have been great, but to me an MVP is holistic not one game.

KD I think has only played one below average game by his standards yet lol. Dude has been cheating the last 2 he can’t seem to miss.

How tf do you score 30 from 12 shots and he didn’t even go to the line ten times (7). KD makes no sense lol

Fwiw HelloBrooklyn has zero clue how great Jokic is. He was the runaway MVP and it wasn’t even a close race. I though he should have been unanimous. Nugs roster is god awful right now.

If someone has Jokic number one this year for MVP I can’t argue with that. If someone says Curry at 1, well sorry to tell you, you are wrong (KD/Jokic right now at this very moment).

Lol at Lebron/Kawhi it’s 2021 times are changing!

Runaway race?

It was clearly Embiid until he got injured. And LeBron before that. Jokic only won it by default.

Kawhi and LeBron are still better.

You guys seem to have short term memory loss. Just because a player has one good regular season doesn't make them the best player.

LeBron won a Finals MVP and outplayed Jokic just last year. Did Jokic even look close to as good as LeBron in that series?

[Dan Z]

I know it's old news, but imagine if the Blazer drafted him over Oden? I'm not sure how far prime Roy, Aldridge and Durant go but that's a tough team. They probably still get Lillard a few years later too (because that pick came from the Gerald Wallace trade).

[DCasey91]

KD 1
Jokic 2
Curry 3

That’s my MVP count as it stands right now.

Durant/Jokic been more consistent than Curry. I mean even bias GSW fans would tell you Curry has had quiet games this year. His max games have been great, but to me an MVP is holistic not one game.

KD I think has only played one below average game by his standards yet lol. Dude has been cheating the last 2 he can’t seem to miss.

How tf do you score 30 from 12 shots and he didn’t even go to the line ten times (7). KD makes no sense lol

Fwiw HelloBrooklyn has zero clue how great Jokic is. He was the runaway MVP and it wasn’t even a close race. I though he should have been unanimous. Nugs roster is god awful right now.

If someone has Jokic number one this year for MVP I can’t argue with that. If someone says Curry at 1, well sorry to tell you, you are wrong (KD/Jokic right now at this very moment).

Lol at Lebron/Kawhi it’s 2021 times are changing!

Runaway race?

It was clearly Embiid until he got injured. And LeBron before that. Jokic only won it by default.

Kawhi and LeBron are still better.

You guys seem to have short term memory loss. Just because a player has one good regular season doesn't make them the best player.

LeBron won a Finals MVP and outplayed Jokic just last year. Did Jokic even look close to as good as LeBron in that series?

No that’s you believing in media hype and not actually seeing the blindingly obvious.

Good regular season? It was an ATG reg season. Destroyed whoever was second. One horse race as showed by the votes at the end.

Embiid got more MVP hype when he wasn’t playing lol wtf. And his return was filled with mediocre games. I’m a Sixers fan Embiid shouldn’t have been in the discussion at the end same with Curry.

Lebron? That was 3 seasons ago now Father Time.
Kawhi is out and Prime Leonard/ Prime PG lost to the Nuggets for ffs lmao.

Give Jokic equal talent and see what happens. Jokic gets another top ten player with him then the league is in for a rude awakening. He’s playing unbelievable atm, positive defender, ATG offense (last year) this year the Nugs are even worse with injuries and yet still they are gunning for top 4, that’s crazy. His peak right now is eclipsing Peak Dirk for me. That maybe controversial but what he’s doing is carrying as hard as anyone.

Put two and two together.

Nuggets team is this:

Him
Barton +
Gordon neutral
And a rookie off the bench in Hyland
The rest of the cast are doo doo trash average G League negatives.

All the hoopla about Curry last year and he missed the playoffs. But I mean they were ranked as a team defensively....

Jokic 2021 & 2022 >>> Curry 2021 - 2022 and it’s not even close.

Look above that’s literally what he has to work with now.

[5paceman]

That is super impressive. But is 6.2 FTA's really that low this year? Looks like he's taken 6th most.

[Hello Brooklyn]

KD 1
Jokic 2
Curry 3

That’s my MVP count as it stands right now.

Durant/Jokic been more consistent than Curry. I mean even bias GSW fans would tell you Curry has had quiet games this year. His max games have been great, but to me an MVP is holistic not one game.

KD I think has only played one below average game by his standards yet lol. Dude has been cheating the last 2 he can’t seem to miss.

How tf do you score 30 from 12 shots and he didn’t even go to the line ten times (7). KD makes no sense lol

Fwiw HelloBrooklyn has zero clue how great Jokic is. He was the runaway MVP and it wasn’t even a close race. I though he should have been unanimous. Nugs roster is god awful right now.

If someone has Jokic number one this year for MVP I can’t argue with that. If someone says Curry at 1, well sorry to tell you, you are wrong (KD/Jokic right now at this very moment).

Lol at Lebron/Kawhi it’s 2021 times are changing!

Runaway race?

It was clearly Embiid until he got injured. And LeBron before that. Jokic only won it by default.

Kawhi and LeBron are still better.

You guys seem to have short term memory loss. Just because a player has one good regular season doesn't make them the best player.

LeBron won a Finals MVP and outplayed Jokic just last year. Did Jokic even look close to as good as LeBron in that series?

No that’s you believing in media hype and not actually seeing the blindingly obvious.

Good regular season? It was an ATG reg season. Destroyed whoever was second. One horse race as showed by the votes at the end.

Embiid got more MVP hype when he wasn’t playing lol wtf. And his return was filled with mediocre games. I’m a Sixers fan Embiid shouldn’t have been in the discussion at the end same with Curry.

Lebron? That was 3 seasons ago now Father Time.
Kawhi is out and Prime Leonard/ Prime PG lost to the Nuggets for ffs lmao.

Give Jokic equal talent and see what happens. Jokic gets another top ten player with him then the league is in for a rude awakening. He’s playing unbelievable atm, positive defender, ATG offense (last year) this year the Nugs are even worse with injuries and yet still they are gunning for top 4, that’s crazy. His peak right now is eclipsing Peak Dirk for me. That maybe controversial but what he’s doing is carrying as hard as anyone.

Put two and two together.

Nuggets team is this:

Him
Barton +
Gordon neutral
And a rookie off the bench in Hyland
The rest of the cast are doo doo trash average G League negatives.

All the hoopla about Curry last year and he missed the playoffs. But I mean they were ranked as a team defensively....

Jokic 2021 & 2022 >>> Curry 2021 - 2022 and it’s not even close.

Look above that’s literally what he has to work with now.

All time great regular season? Lol

Embiid was by far on pace to win the MVP that year before injury. As a Sixers fan you should know this.

He was bad when he came back. But before that he was better than Jokic. And his team had a better record.

I would easily take Steph 2016, Harden 2018, Giannis 19 or 20 over Jokic's subpar MVP season. Just to name a few.

Not to mention the Nuggets were on pace to win 52 games. Hardly an all time great season or record. The MVP is usually on a high 50 win or 60 win team.

3 seasons ago?

LeBron won the finals MVP in 2020. That was literally a year ago. And youre acting like its been such a long time.

Youre just dealing with hypotheticals.

If Jokic had another top 10 player then he would win. How do we know that? Based on what?

Jamal Murray was incredible in the bubble. And he didn't win the Championship. I'm not going to just assume he can do what KD or Giannis have. When he never has.

You don't become the best player in the world based on what ifs. Sorry.

[Openheimer]

Some of the shots he hits are beyond belief good

[VINO 24]

Had the GOAT Olympic run too. His stretch from the playoffs to now is unreal. Lots of uncomfortable conversations are gonna have to happen. He’s literally looking like the BEST PLAYER IVE EVER SEEN

[harlem_ball]

Yeah Durant is fire.

The top 3 are clearly:
Giannis, Durant and Jokic

Jimmy Butlers having a great year too so far.

[Cavsfansince84]

Maybe the greatest scorer of all-time. His jumper is unstoppable, and he shoots it with high efficiency from anywhere on the court.

Same could be said of Dirk and Bird really though. KD is a bit more athletic is the main difference and plays in an era where rules are generally more slanted towards offense. I don't think KD deserves to be ranked above MJ or Gervin either. His jumper isn't always great either. See the last 3 games of the 2016 wcf.

[BoatsNZones]

He is currently leading the league in scoring, averaging 29.4 points per game. He is doing it on an insane TS% of .679.

But that's not even the amazing part. What's amazing is that he is posting that TS% without taking all that many 3's or free throws. He is averaging just 4.6 3PA's per game, and just 6.2 FTA's.

He is shooting 57.7% from 10-16 feet, and a preposterous 70.6% from 16-22 feet! That's not even fair. What are you supposed to do when a 7-footer with a high-release shooting form can shoot 70%?

And he's ridiculously consistent as well. He has shot better than 50% from the field in 12 of his 13 games. He shot at least 3% better than the league average TS% in 12 of his 13 games. He has scored at least 22 points in every game this season but has never scored more than 38.

Basically, every single night, he is going to get 30 points with a TS% 13% better than league average. That's one hell of an advantage for Brooklyn.

It's insanely impressive, and also flat out impossible to maintain (RE the deep mid-range shooting). Some definite regression to the mean coming for KD.

[BoatsNZones]

Yeah Durant is fire.

The top 3 are clearly:
Giannis, Durant and Jokic

Jimmy Butlers having a great year too so far.

Clearly? Curry has something to say about that. Putting up >28>6>6 on >63% TS while leading the #2 offense as the still most defensively schemed after player in the game (Jokic has the best argument for #1 in individual play, but ultimately he's leading one of the worst offenses in the NBA). He's first in Offensive Raptor (2nd overall), 3rd in WinShares, First in Plus/Minus, top 5 in VORP/BPM/PER, etc etc. Frontrunner out of the first month of action for his 3rd MVP. There's nobody clearly better than him right now (let alone 3-4 players), specifically given the defensive attention he maintains and allows the rest of his offense to benefit from.

[Salieri]

It's amazing that Durant is posting unreal stats, playing like a god, and I still consider him just the fourth best player in the game (subjective opinion, of course). It speaks volumes about the state of the NBA when it comes to talent.

Let us enjoy this era because we have been blessed with a plethora of uber talented guys. The league has never been in better shape, we are lucky to be living this in real time. Every damn year there's a period where Curry explodes for a whole month, or Harden, or Jokic, or Embiid, or Durant, or LeBron, or Giannis, or you name him. We aren't given enough time to digest what we're witnessing, and bam comes the next guy going nuclear for a bunch of weeks.

I freaking love the NBA.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

20/8/9 meh

Context. Harden has been feasting on the bottom feeders of the league while playing like **** against good teams. The only "good" team Harden played well against was the Raptors. His other good games? Pacers, Pistons, Magic, and Pelicans.

Context. Harden still gets muuuch more defensive attention than a "meh" Player, making it easier for Durant

Sorry to discredit harden more than I should. It was partly that I missed his recent upswing and also meant meh for him. He isn't as good as he was last year is all I'm saying.

[slick_watts]

doing it after his achilles injury is superhuman.

[Pelly24]

It is absolutely not clear.

Read on Twitter

The Jokic ignorance at this point is out of control.

Joker continues to get disrespected and most of it falls on the media. Easy to hype up KD and Curry for the media. Joker is right there. KD is definitely not the best player in the league “clearly”.

I've to agree with you. Jokic is probably the most underrated player in the league. Last season NBA media was absolutely a disgrace how they handled his MVP. Like the clown Nick Wright. I would go as far as say Jokic is probably at worst the 3rd best player in the league. I've hard time to decide if Giannis or him is 2nd. I tend to go with Giannis due to superb finals. But I still take Durant clearly as the best player. Curry is not in the conversation.

Curry's not in the conversation? that awful warriors team played like a 49-win team when he was in the lineup, and they hit a whole new gear once wiseman was out. GSW has the best record in the league, Curry is averaging 28/6/6 on +8 TS% on the team with the best record in the league. Curry has a 19 net rating. KD is averaging barely more points on a little better efficiency (mind you, Curry has no one near as good as Harden even now on offense, and Curry's efficiency will only go up from here) but he isn't really passing better, and he's barely rebounding better.

To me Jokic is the best player in the world, but KD, Giannis and Curry all have claims to the title in a way. That said, Jokic is decisively playing better than they are, and he has been since last year.

[DroseReturnChi]

not impressed. mpj did that for full season.

[art_tatum]

mvp favorite with curry.
no one else will have a shot this season lets be real.

KD has been the best player in the nba since 2017. lets not lie to ourselves. just cause he got injured for a year. wouldve spanked kawhi if healthy. yall can argue who was better in 2016 curry or lebron, but 2017 and on its KD