Wemby will need to adapt to the motor he has. He expends a lot of energy going after everything, following the ball around; he will also continue to learn/pick his spots better while still maximizing overall impact. Not to say his wind won't improve as well over time, I just think we have to acknowledge the physiology of his body is probably going to prevent him from being conditioned like a prime Lebron at any point.
Its not due to a lack of effort in my opinion. He is capable of unprecedented athletic abilities for a person of his size, getting easily winded (compared to top tier NBA players) is the likely drawback. Again, I do think he can improve his cardio but the most improvement really needs to happen in terms of basketball IQ.
I’m not mad. There was a stretch of games before and after France when he was clearly not playing with the same energy we’ve been accustomed to. The defensive effort was lacking. A lot of people thought it was illness, allergy. When the DVT news hit the first thing this forum was speculating was whether it explained his conditioning issues
Go in your hat
Only for Ben Simmons
I’d throw in the Coyote
Add raven still thinking 10th seed is in reach n important without our 2 best players
It's just one game, but Steph actually got to run the point and play make earlie, and he looked really good in the role (I believed him when he said he could do it before the season started). I'd love to see more games with him basically being the lead starting PG and see what happens.
I'd like to see if he could back it up. It's just one game against a depleted team, but I'd like to see how he'd do playing that role the rest of the season. Try and balance scoring and passing more. Haven't been able to see much of it due to CP3 starting at PG all season.
Since like January, when they’re in the game together, if CP catches the inbounds pass, he immediately passes it to Castle, and runs up court to take a shooting position. CP is allowing this to happen.
Agreed.
He hasn't gotten over himself yet.
If he doesn't win ROY it's only because it'd be 2 years in a row for the Spurs.
Same for Wemby not winning DPOY last year.
I mean Jokic, who's having the statiscally/metrically greatest season EVER, should win MVP again but he probably won't because the people who vote are weak.
Doesn't CP3 usually start the gaming running plays? I haven't watched the games that closely as I'm usually doing/reading something else while it's playing, so sometimes I'm just listening to Sean and Toby, but I don't recall Stephon starting the game as the defacto PG. That is what I want to see from the get-go, Steph with the keys to the team and PG slot to start the game and see how it evolves over the course of a whole game. See if he can balance scoring and passing better. I do remember what you're saying, but I don't think they're hardly any games where Steph has started in that role from the tip off.
When Victor was playing, it was usually Victor getting the plays/ball, then De'Aaron came in and he went to the bench, then when Victor was ruled out, Steph got benched again for some reason. I don't know, maybe I'm not remembering right and Steph has had more chances to run the team with CP3 in there. In recent games, yes, but since January, I don't think there's big stretches/chunks of the games where that has happened. I want to see what he can do from the get-go.
God would I love to see Denver come rub it in all the media's faces by winning it all again just like they did when they gave Embiid Jokic's MVP trophy.
Why would they give it to him, when Shai has great stats as well? Also his team is leading a tough Western conference 13.5 games above the next western conference team and 14.5 in front of Jokić's team, currently? Greatest season ever or not, Shai AND OKC are making their own history mainly because of Shai. Sorry, Jokic does not deserve it over Shai this year. That W-L gap is way too wide.
Worth mentioning as well that OKC has missed Chet for a massive portion of the season and JDub the past few weeks and they haven't skipped a beat thanks to Shai.
He passes the Third Eye test
Yep! That just can't be glossed over either. Now if they had similar records at this point, I definitely believe Jokić would be the frontrunner but you just can't toss out that 13.5/14.5 games lead. I just even know what the debate is about when that factor alone should end the argument when you also look at the stats Shai is putting up.
One of the toughest MVP decisions IMO.
They both have a case. Shai has been amazing. He's having a great season and his team is doing great and he's one of the main reasons for it. They have a real chance to do something special and win it all. If it was a choice between MVP and being in this position, I'd rather be in Shai's position.
Having said that, depsite the record, Jokic still has a very legit case IMO. He's putting up historic numbers to keep his team in the hunt for a chance at the Championship. You have to look at it that way too. Where would the Nuggets be without him and his incredible season? I think they'd be finished already. Usually, I wouldn't give it to a player who's team is that far behind the number one seed, but he still has a very good case. Shai on the other hand, would his team be better than the Nuggets without him compared to the Nuggests without Jokic? I think so, so that is where I think it's not as big of a gap as that record suggests IMO. I don't think you can base it solely on record.
What about the Brown Eye test?
That’s assuming the MVP is a team award, which it isn’t in some years and is in others. What jokic is doin ‘‘twas never seen before, what shai is doing we’ve seen before, many times.
OKC is a strong team that’s well constructed, Denver is a deeply flawed team that has lost key pieces the last few years. To say the case is closed purely because of team records is saying the mvp is solely the best player on best team award. But Boston was 14 games over the second best EC team last year and 7 over the best WC team (and the nuggets). Tatum put up great stats but he didn’t win the mvp, he actually finished 6th, and jokic won it. Jokic put up even better stats this year. So there is definitely an argument for Jokic.
In fact, Jokic would likely be the run away winner this year if he had never won the award before. It’s all narratives.
One only need to look as far as Westbrook's MVP season to find a historical parallel. Similar raw numbers but Jokic is doing it on much higher efficiency. Westbrook's team finished 6th in the west that year. I think Kawhi actually had the same case to be made as Shai that year, but Russ won pretty handedly.
Pretty sweet having back2 back roty's
Exactly. Gilgeous-Alexander checks every box that has typically led to MVP (counting/advanced stats, record, narrative, waiting his "turn") and is going to win it, but this handwringing over it is the latest example of the tribalism (both ways) that has gripped this league.
Post Duncan and pre Wembanyama, Jokic was my favorite player, but all the reasons for him have been disregarded in the past. From "we know he's the best player", to the metrics (no longer uniformly) indicate, to he's averaging a triple double to record doesn't matter that much.
Even the gap in roster is not as pronounced as it's made to be considering the Thunder haven't been whole basically the entire season (yet remain on track for the point differential record) and their offense falls off a cliff without Gilgeous-Alexander because as much as Williams is a better overall player than Murray, he's not (yet?) a better offensive engine.
Feels like there is a little underselling of just how efficient of a season Shai is having this year, extremely close to Jokic from what I can see (ts%, per, bpm,vorp). Played a handful more games than Jokic as well. Shai is basically having a peak level MJ season which sounds crazy to say. Jokic of course has gaudier counting stats (partly due to position, nobody expects a guard to get 12 rpg for example) and those help his case. Really comes down to overall counting stats vs Shai leading an elite team poised to win 68+ games. The efficiency is close enough to not really swing it imo.
Great point. This is as good as a guard (the usual glamor/favored position) has played since Jordan.
Him and the Thunder still aren't getting enough respect. This is basically '15 Curry/Warriors on steroids. Nothing is guaranteed obviously (unless they catch unprecedented opponent injury luck like the latter), but this is an all time team in the making apparently hiding in plain sight.
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