SGA & Jokic Lead The MVP Race | Rachel Nichols & Chris Mannix

SGA & Jokic Lead The MVP Race | Rachel Nichols & Chris Mannix

Let’s get into our awards here. And let’s start at the very top. The MVP, which seems like once again is a two-player race. You think so? I do. Oh, I don’t think so. Oh, you’re thinking it’s deeper than that. See, I’m The two players I’m thinking would obviously are Shay and Nicole, but you once again are at the very top. You see some depth this race. Before you give me your your winner, give me the the depth. How deep are you going with your your MVP ballot there? Right now, I’m going three and then like a consolation. Okay. I think I know where you’re going to go with three. I I didn’t get the Go ahead. I I think I know where you’re going with three, but I wasn’t able to get Okay. I The consolation is just emotional. Yeah. Frankly, um so yes, obviously Shay and Joic. I I think Luca at the moment and and by the way, I’m making this point because we’re only a quarter of the way through the season. So, we just still have to see. You’re asking me. I am not projecting out to what’s going to happen for the next three quarters of the season. This is not a prediction of who is going to be in the top three or how deep we’re going to go in terms of really who it’s between. This is if the MVP had to be voted on right now, right? And I think Luca is quote in the conversation like we like to say in that top three. He’s leading the league in scoring. He’s averaging nearly a triple double. Defense has actually been solid. He’s had a steals are good. He’s had a five steel game and a pair of four steel games in a season that’s still relatively young, right? That’s three games out of the only 20 that we’re talking about that he’s had four or five steel performances. That’s not nothing. I’m not putting him as number one. I’m just saying that this is a three-way conversation in my mind. Um, and then my consolation is like, man, Giannis is playing at an MVP level when he’s playing. The onoff numbers with Giannis and the Bucks, when he is on the court, they are the best offense in the NBA. When he is off the court, they are the worst offense in the NBA. And it is just hard because they are also 11th in the East as we sit here. Giannis is out for a few weeks. It’s not a tenable MVP vote at the moment, but he is playing at that level and it just kind of sucks that circumstances aren’t putting him quote in the conversation. My conversation though is three people deep at the moment. All right, so three people deep. Give me the top of your list. The top of my list is Shay. Yeah. And I know I thought you might go Jokic, but I know we have a debate. A lot of people want to give it to Jokic because he didn’t win last year and they both deserved it last year. There’s like a predisposition to favor Joic coming into the season because most people believe last season and right now he is the best player in the NBA. You talked across the league, which I believe by the way. Yes, I think we all kind of believe that. Uh and that Shay got it because of the numbers, but in part because they finished a country mile in Oklahoma City better than everybody. 16 games up y on anybody in the tough Western Conference. I do think there was a predisposition to favor Joic coming into this year, but I’m with you. You give me your reason first and I’ll give you mine. Look, I think it’s very very close. I think it could change over the next, you know, threequarters of the season, including the next few months, which I do want to talk about when we get to the Oakage part of the conversation. Can I just add one thing to this? The in a bizarro quirk of the schedule, the Thunder and Nuggets don’t play till February 1st and then they play four times from February 1st on all the way to like the penultimate game, I think, of the regular season. So, they are there’s going to be a lot of one-on-one matchups between Jokic and Sheay that are probably going to go a long way towards right into awards. Absolutely. No question. But again, this is for where we are 20 games in, right? And where we are 20 games in, you have a guy who has sat out nine fourth quarters over 16 games. I haven’t updated this since I wrote this down when you sent me the text this I think you set the hold forth last night when they Okay, so your Portland Trailblazers 10 over 18 or something like that which basically means that all the stats we talk about him with he is doing in so many fewer minutes than everybody else. He is scoring basically a point a minute. And when Joel Embiid was scoring a point a minute we talked to him about we talked about him as the MVP. I mean, scoring a point a minute is a really big deal, guys. And so, that that’s a big part of it. Um, despite not he’s not a three even volume three-point shooter to get that point a minute. So, that’s also sort of a factor into this. Um, he’s scored less than 30, only three times this season. I I just sort of feel like you can’t look at what he’s doing in the amount of time he’s doing it. And that’s really what kind of tipped me over the edge because I started out this exercise thinking frankly what I thought going into the season which you just talked about which is Joic is the best player. I still believe that. Um you know Joic in terms of his all-around game I I just if I had to pick who I wanted to start a team with today for this season I would pick Nicole Joic. So I think his skill set is the least replaceable between the two of those guys. You know those kinds of things. And maybe that’s part of most valuable player. I do want to talk about that because it is my favorite subject in the NBA is what makes an MVP. Uh but the fact that Sheay is doing this in threequarters of the time largely that everybody else is you just you can’t ignore that and again they are number one in the West again and they are on pace for 70 games and I actually I don’t know what they’re on pace for in this particular 80 right now but right well that’s what I mean it’s over 70 obviously but I I think that there’s you know it’s one of these things where we’re going to sit there like oh could they break I mean I think they’re going to make sure they don’t break the record because after 2016 it almost feels like in the NBA that people are superstitious that if you break the the record, you’re not going to win the finals or it took too much out of you or whatever, whatever. Um, but they certainly could. Yeah, with this kind of team. Um, I was a little bit reluctant to give it to Shay because of who else is on the team and then you’re like, “Yeah, but J’s not even playing.” This was my point like this. So, they’re not running away with the West yet because the Nuggets are really good. They’re like three or four games up right now on Denver as we tape this. Lakers, by the way, number two in the West at the moment, which is another Luca argument. a good a good Luke argument. You’re right. He’s he’s definitely in that conversation. Um but the fact that Oklahoma City has the number one defense in the NBA by a wide margin, has a top five offense, and is doing all this without an all-star two guard who is a great scorer and was on the second team all defense last year, like an elite wing. Had Lou Dort miss a ton of time already. Seven, eight games, I think, on this season. Chay is is steering all this. like Chad Homegrren’s also having an all-star year. Guys like AJ Mitchell, who we’re going to talk about are playing fantastic. Um, you know, that’s they’re still one of the deepest the the deepest team in the NBA, but Shay in a lot of meaningful ways is strapping this team on his back and carrying them to this ridiculous start this early in the season. I want to read some of the some of the numbers I was looking up like he’s he is and I don’t want to say he’s the most unguardable player in the league because I think Joic is I think Joic is the most unguardable. is the most uncomfortable player in the league. Shay’s shot portfolio is insane. Like right now he’s shooting I think it’s this is an update from the game against Portland, but he’s shooting 41% from three uh on the season. That’s a career high for for him. Uh he takes the fifth most shots per game from the mid-range. So he’s shooting mid-range jumpers. Um he’s 4.7 attempts per game in the restricted area. So he’s scoring a lot in the paint. Um people call him a free throw merchant. Here’s a great stat I was looking up of, if you can tell, I’ve done a lot of work on Shay. I was gonna say, um, of the top 50 guys that go to the basket, the quote drivers in the NBA, Shay is 18th in free throw attempts. So, it’s not like he’s the number one guy when it comes to free throw attempts. He’s People call him that that old free throw merchant tag. The numbers don’t back that up. They don’t. Um, another one more step on that’s deep in the uh weeds here, but Shay is leading the league in field goal attempts coming off drives drives. He’s third in the league in passes out of drives. He’s fifth in assists out of drives and he’s tied for 33rd in turnovers off of drives. So, he’s playing an efficient, relatively turnover free basketball when he’s going to the rim. His shot profile is ridiculous. How efficient he is from every area of the floor is different. It’s special. And with Oklahoma City leading the West with all the guys they’ve had out, specifically Jaylen Williams, who is a star. Like Jaylen Williams is going to be a superstar. um to be to only have one loss, which by the way came on a backtoback after one of those NBC games that started eight o’clock in the West Coast and you get to Portland at 4:00 in the morning. They still lost I think by two points in that game. No, I saw them the night before and they told me they were getting in the morning. Crazy scheduling quirk. That’s the one game that they lost. Otherwise, they’re absolutely mowing everybody down. Shay’s got my vote. I mean, look, this is Can I do my thing now? Yes. Can I do the MVP thing? I have been saying for more than a decade at this point, the NBA needs to at least consider revamping the way it works the awards. I do love this. The NFL has revamped its awards. The NHL has revamped its awards. It is time for the NBA to take a look at revamping this because people a are voting on very different things, which I know is in some ways the beauty of the MVP vote, right? Some voters vote about this, some voters vote about that. I’m not sure it’s so great. And we have It’s not that I can’t decide. All of you internet people out there. It’s not like, “Oh, she’s a girl. She can’t pick between her favorites.” That’s not it. It’s that we’re voting for different things. Who the most valuable person is who you’d pick first if you were starting a team today and not for like the future, but for this season is a different person often than who is having the best statistical season. Best season statistically and best or most valuable player are often two different things. And by the way, when they are the same person and some years they are, that’s even cooler. That would be even cooler to have somebody win both awards. We would be able to start making a better distinction between who is great and who is cosmically great. Because the most valuable player in the NBA, the person I would start a team with, is still Nicolic. He can do things that Sheay can’t do. He has a non-replicatable skill set. So if I was starting a team, I’d start with him because then I could put people around him. Whereas with Shay, I couldn’t put another Jokic next to him. There are certain things that make a guy valuable in a way. Well, you can say that, but he’s not Jokic. He’s not doesn’t have the size of Jokic for starters. He’s not. And all of the other things. I mean, he’s he’s I love Shangun, but he’s not Nicolic. And he’ll be the first person to tell you that. He does tell you that. I I just I I just think that value and best stats are two different things. They’re related, but they’re not the same. And to keep pretending they’re the same. When the NFL has a best offensive player and an MVP, when the NHL has best goal scorer to statistically, I mean, it’s not a vote. It’s just these are the stats. Here’s who had the best stats and they have an MVP. They have a best scorer and they have an MVP. These are different things. other leagues, major pro sports leagues, not just like some fantasy league somewhere. Recognize that these are different things and the NBA in my opinion needs re awards reform at the top because then again, not because oh my gosh, I can’t decide, but I happen to think right now Nicolic is the most valuable player, but I think Sheay is having the kind of season that you can’t just can’t not talk about. I would argue though, and maybe this doesn’t hold up over a full season. I would argue right now though, Shay is the best player and the MVP. Great. Because that that’s a great argument to have. Why can’t we have that argument? Fair, right? Yes. The NBA, by the way, will never do this. You I don’t know why they do all kinds of things. The NBA is honestly like I cover a lot of different sports and the NBA is the most responsive league. the NBA is the least afraid to ch change things because quote this is the way we’ve always done them. No, I I just I think I think the NBA gets so much credit for understanding that the game changes, times change, all of the things. And it is surprised me that they have been so reluctant in this particular area because the other leagues in the same amount of time have done it. I’m not taking this out of the air. This is not my personal theory. This is modeling after what the other leagues have realized. And I think that it could actually provide us with a lot more interesting conversations. Not because someone can’t decide, but because they are different things. All right, let’s talk about coach of the year where the Are we talking about Jokic at all or No, you’re like you’re not. No, I’m good. Look, he’s having he’s Joic. He’s an all-time great. Like he’s he’s he’s the same. Look, his numbers last year were better than the words during his MVP seasons. He is the most consistently great player. Have you seen his shot chart? It’s ridiculous. He’s I mean, it’s literally just all green. Yes. He’s the entire court is green. Yes. Uh there’s there’s no argument against Nicole Joic. I just think that the edge she gets. And look, Joic, if the Nuggets stay in the mix over the next few weeks with Christian Brown out, with Aaron Gordon out, like that enhances Jokic’s case, we could have a different conversation. Well, that’s what I was going to say. The reason I wanted to bring it just circle back to him is Aaron Gordon is out for four to six weeks, but I think that’s going to be closer to two months because it’s a hamstring. He already had a hamstring issue last year, different hamstring, but still you don’t want to mess with it. I just think it’s going to be two months. He’s so important to that team. Christian Brown, another starter out a month plus. So again, we are going to get back to a little bit of we saw last year where everything is on Nicole’s shoulders. I think he will play a lot more minutes. I think that Jamal Murray obviously will be key. some of the guys on the bench are going to have to step up. But if he is able to lead them through these next couple months with two of the starters on the team down, I think that may shift for some people who is number one. 100% might with me. Yeah. And so if they’re right there neck and neck with Oklahoma City, you know, at the midway point of the season, we do this again, I’d probably lean towards Jokic for MVP.

Chris Mannix and Rachel Nichols break down if Shai Gilgeous Alexander or Nikola is the MVP favorite at the quarter mark of the season and the third player that could join them as the season goes on

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