The NBA Today crew looks at highlights of the MVP candidates heading into the All-Star Break before Tim Bontemps joins the conversation to discuss the results of his Straw Poll 2.0 that shows Nikola Jokic as an overwhelming favorite to win the award for a third straight year.
0:00 Coast to coast with MVP candidates
2:50 Embiid’s health
3:54 Straw poll results
9:52 Perk’s dynamic duos
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44 Comments
Ok, as we keep seeing the weakest arguments about why Jokic should not win the MVP, it's again time for the usual debunking of the Jokic hate. Feel free to copy any portion of this however you see fit when answering to those types of "arguments":
1 – "Bla bla bla playoffs this, bla bla bla championships"
Irrelevant. the MVP is LITERALLY an award given to the most valuable player during the regular season. For championships you have, well, the championship and the Finals MVP. If you wanna say those are more important than the MVP, that's fine, it's a perfectly reasonable position. But saying Jokic shouldn't win a 3rd MVP because he has no championships is kinda like saying someone should not win the DPotY without also winning the 3 point shooting contest. They are completely different things. So if you want to argue against Jokic's case, stay within regular season related arguments.
2 – "Oh but this game bla bla that, that game x did bla bla what…"
Also irrelevant. MVP is not about individual game performances, but about, well, the whole regular season. So whatever happens in any given game is of no importance compared to the consolidated impact a player had on his team over the season. Everyone is gonna have stinker games and sticking to such argument is just selection bias at its finest. Again, if you want to argue against Jokic's case, then use arguments spanning the whole season.
3 – "Advanced stats bla bla bla, eye test bla bla this…"
Stats, both raw and advanced, are directly tied to the play on the court. To say stats are unimportant and you have to watch the game is like saying how many wins a team has is unimportant when deciding seeding, you just gotta go with whatever team your "eye test" shows to be playing better. "Wins" is a stat as much as PPG or VORP. Every stat represents a limited slice of the game, though, so no single stat, raw or advanced, should be taken as the definitive evidence for giving someone the MVP award (since it does not have a clear, strict rule about which stat or stats should be taken into account – like "wins" for seeding). There's a hint in the award name, though: "most valuable" – we need to at least reasonably argue about how we can measure that value. And the more raw and advanced stats we consolidate into our view, the closer the result will be to what actually happens on the court. So, once more, if you want to argue against Jokic's case, you have to incorporate a well rounded and most complete possible statistical analysis into your take.
4 – "Player this got robbed bla bla, player that didn't win such year, whah whah whah…"
Past mistakes should not have relevance on current award runs – to the contrary, if we think mistakes were made in the past, then it should be our duty to make sure they don't happen again – if you think a player was deserving but didn't get it in the past, the least thing you should say now is that a player deserves it but shouldn't get it. Same goes for voter fatigue – whatever happened in the past should not be a thing. So if you want to argue against Jokic's case, stay within this season's accomplishments.
Now, all that said, you can finally argue against Jokic's case for MVP. Good luck. 🙂
"Giannis had to do so much without all of his guys healthy"
His 3rd best player is an All Star and 4th best player is a DPOY candidate. Also his squad is deep.
Jokic has yet to play with an All Star in HIS CAREER!
They are top 2 for MVP but no doubt Jokic should win this one.
Perk starts talking about Jokic hunting stats(which is not true) and they show the most insane passes of his💀💀💀
8:15 just exposed nuggets and jokic
Seems like the MVP is all about offense
It was Embiid award last year
Lol… Jokic a 3x MVP is crazy. They did lower the bar. Westbrook was the last real MVP. Embiid should've got at least one if those since he a factor on both ends of the floor. Joker only play one side of the ball. Do defense matter at all? But hey he might get it every year fir the rest of his prime if they only go by offense. He'll be the greatest player ever.
GIANNIS is the real MVP. Nba doesn't want to give giannis his 3rd mvp.
Why does richard jefferson hate jokic so much lol, im convinced they had beef when they played together😂😂😂
Srsly Jokic have healthy squad xD. The most you can say that he has squad on rehab every other game and even Aron Gordon is out this year more than prev.
RJ, talks as if Nuggets are healthy all year. They haven't played healthy all year.
It's interesting how mvp voting is being done now, you literally could have given Shaq the MVP every year because of his dominance but they didn't in fact they made every excuse to not give him the MVP, they said MVP was not about stats but how important a player is to that team.. fair enough… Now these people are using stats and metrics to justify giving Jokic the MVP for the third year in a row, Jokic is a great player but I don't think he is that much above the other players to justify him winning it every year. His case is better this year but how he won it last year over Embid is weird to me.
Can we just admit that embiid is fragile asf…..dude can't stay healthy for a season to save his life
I love the annual tradition of watching nba fans have meltdowns as Jokic leads the MVP strawpoll
Bro luka bout that quiet life and i respect it
This is such a joke. You mean to tell me LeBron never won 3 in a row, MJ never won 3 in a row, Kareem never won 3 in a row. A lot of all-time greats never won 3 in a row because of voter fatigue but Jokic can win 3 in a row when he hasn't done anything in the playoffs and doesn't even have a legacy in the league. It's becoming a statistical award. Absolute joke
Dam, Jokic can't win. The nuggs are winning because the joker is a all round team player. Triple doubles are now over rated. Please
100% NIKOLA JOKIC MVP x3 he is dream player
so defense doesnt matter anymore? Embiid, Giannis, and Tatum are leagues better on defense than jokic
Jokić MVP idc!
MVP will be eliminated be out in the 2nd round 🥱
hoping Jokic will get his 3peat MVP
Jokic haters go cry now, dude is taking 3rd straight MVP while also being one of the best playoffs preformers ever & while also being as humble as can be, dude he definitely deserves it!
"he got eyebrows?" Perk is a savage 💀😂
Bontempts poll has become a factor in the MVP race. I think his poll is completely legit but no doubt once a guy has a decisive lead this late in the season it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Media voters are human beings vulnerable to group think and don't want to appear stupid challenging the prevailing wisdom. I love Jokic and think he deserves the MVP at this point but I also think this particular poll influences outcomes.
76ers are 30-15 with Embiid, and 8-4 without him.
Nuggets are 38-13 with Jokic and 3-5 without him.
Perkins is literally arguing that embiid should be in the MVP race as long as his team carries their record to where the nuggets are….
Not even close ,were not giving this stat padder anymore awards until he proves he can win the finals .
RJ is wrong, nuggets were in title contention 2 year ago before Jamal tore his acl.
Jokic is really about to have more MVP’s than Giannis,Steph,Kd,Duncan,Shaq and Kobe.
If the Bucks end up with a better record than Denver, how can you not give it to Giannis?
They way I see it, the narrative plays a big part in the MVP voting
– So the first year that Nikola won he was kind of the default winner. He had an amazing season, and was neck and neck in team records, stats etc. But unlike most, he was actually available and played the entire season
– Second year he had a big push in the narrative. I mean he had amazing stats, historic numbers and advanced stats, AND one of the worst teams in history. Whom he managed to lead to the 6th seed. Something Curry was very far off from doing the year before for example.
And here is the amazing part about this… Because Jokic won his 1st MVP with no pressure, and his second with the narrative of not having a bad team – Now, the only thing that's left is actually HAVING a team and BEING the first seed.
What I think hurts someone like Giannis, is that his current season will always be compared to his 2 MVP seasons. So no matter how good he is now, there's always a questions of "Well yeah, but he did this a few years ago AND his team was actually the 1st seed"
I think that if Jokic wins his 3rd straight, the only other thing for him to do would be to break (or at least be near) the 73-9 record with his team. While having similar stats.
Just my two cents on how the voting works…
Yeah if they nuggets don’t win the chip this year this will be jokic last mvp
Perk said he assist hunt but look at his teammates numbers:
Jokic on the court:
AG: 60 FG% | OFF 51 FG%
MPJ: 50 FG% | OFF 43 FG%
B. Brown: 56 FG% | 41 FG%
Only Jamal and Bones could create their own shots, that's why he has to create advantages on offense so much.
Triple MVP is crazy Jokic doesn't pass the eye test to win 3 in a row. Like Bird Chamberlain and Russell
Back to back to back lets gooooooooo
Giannis and embiid should swap spots in the betting but jokic is the mv3
This is straight up White hate!!! Leave the man alone.
Lol. Jokic is not a stat padder
Joker MVP! Three in a row!!!
Jokic offensive output is better than Embiid, also more efficient
Bron, Jordan, Greek freak didn't win 3….but joker???
How can you win mvp and play NO defense????
Mvp is a joke. No longer has meaning.
Where is the joker fatigue that the freak delt with???
Just to debunk Perk on Jokic, last night was the first time the Nuggets ever tried to force Jokic into a triple double. We have seen him have so many Sombor triple doubles with 9a or 9r, and honestly he should have sat in the 4th last night but the bench lost a big lead and let the Mavs come back.
Joker mvp🇷🇸
There should be just one MVP award given after the playoffs, based on the performance during regular and post season. That would take care of all the criticism regarding post-season underperformance.
Perk really just said jokic is trying to get triple doubles🙄 that’s how you know he doesn’t watch the nuggets
Nuggets help Jokic with Triple Double that’s ridiculous 😂😂😂