FavreFan wrote:
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/2/15/18225604/nba-mvp-giannis-harden-george-jokic-durant-curry
More MVP buzz for my guy. Embiid barely makes the list towards the end of the article.
Quote:
Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
The Case For: Four seasons ago, the Nuggets were a 30-win team searching for something to build around and believe in. Now, they’re fighting the Warriors for the top spot out West thanks in large part to the arrival and development of Jokic, the Sentinel-sized straw that stirs the drink.
Jokic is a ramped-up remix of the archetypal “big man who can pass”—a clean-shaven, Serbian Walton; the New Adventures of Old Arvydas. Everything the Nuggets’ no. 3 offense does runs through him, and everything they are flows from his unselfishness; everybody sprints out on the break, cuts hard from the weak side, and stays sharp when running through an action, because if you’re open, Jokic will find you, and if you’re not but could be, he’ll throw you into an open look. And with all due respect to his playmaking predecessors, no Goliath has ever distributed the ball quite like Jokic; this season, Jokic has assisted on on 38.4 percent of his teammates’ baskets, by far the highest rate by a center in NBA history.
It took some convincing, but the pass-first-second-and-third big man has also accepted that calling his own number helps his teammates, too. Jokic is shooting more from the field and the foul line, yet has remained one of the most efficient high-usage players in the league. Increased aggression has also opened up his playmaking even further, resulting in some eye-popping numbers: Jokic is on pace to join Wilt, Oscar, and Russ as just the fourth player ever to average more than 20 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists per game.
No contender has had to deal with more injuries this season than the Nuggets, who have lost starters Paul Millsap, Gary Harris, and Will Barton to the injury list for extended stretches, who finally got free-agent addition Isaiah Thomas on the court this week, and who have still yet to see first-round draft pick Michael Porter Jr. in live action. And yet, they’re 39-18, with their best shot at making it out of the opening round of the playoffs in a decade, because that’s where Jokic has put them.
Damn FF. Seems to reference a lot of things that i outlined earlier in the year. MPG, Defense, PPG,. There is not way he will have more votes than Embiid with these pedestrian numbers.
The Case Against: Jokic has the lowest scoring average of the elite options, which could hurt his curb appeal. (Among the top tier of candidates, though, only Harden creates more points via assist.) He also logs at least a couple fewer minutes per game than the other front-runners—the more you play, the larger the impact you make—and lags behind them in true shooting percentage. And he might get dinged for Denver’s drop back to the middle of the pack in defensive efficiency after a strong start to the season; the Nuggets allow three more points-per-100 with Jokic in the middle, and he ranks 35th in opponents’ field goal percentage allowed at the rim among 45 bigs to defend at least four restricted-area attempts per game.
Those sorts of things might seem like splitting hairs, given that he’s is the focal point for Denver’s surge this season. But this is the kind of conversation in which those hairs get split. A top-five finish feels more likely for Jokic than top-three or higher.
_________________
The Hawk wrote:
This is going to reach a head pretty soon.
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