2019 MVPOLL (and awards predictions/talk)

this is a 3-man race between giannis, harden, and paul george, with jokic being in his own tier at 4 imo, and the rest really not being important

harden's been slipping over the past couple of weeks, and has been dowright awful since the all star break, but I think at least some of that has been re-integrating with chris paul, who has been playing better and assuming a larger role in the offense, something the rockets need him to do if they're going to challenge the warriors again in the playoffs. I think this is ultimately unfair, but unless harden goes supernova (again) from here on out, I think the timing of the tear he went on earlier in the year is going to hurt him as much as it'll help him -- people are bored by his greatness and I think let their personal opinions of the aesthetics of his game overshadow just how unstoppable he was, and how utterly crucial that stretch was in not only keeping the rockets afloat but vaulting them from 14th in the west to 5th while paul was out. and the guy is scoring more than anyone in modern NBA history, and doing it without losing one ounce of his usual efficiency. I mean come on

the case for giannis (and, in a way, jokic) is much more straightforward: he's the best player and fulcrum of the best team in the league, (and one that's flying under the radar as statistically one of the strongest regular season teams ever) and doing it while basically putting up prime shaq's shooting numbers in kevin durant's body. by the way, he's hit 31% of his threes in january and now 40% of his threes in february. if this is a sign that, in a season or two, he can be an average 3pt shooter, we're past MVP discussions and might be looking at one of the 5 best players of all time. weirdly, I think he can even improve more on defense too, and he's already a terror

paul george has basically morphed into 80% of kevin durant's offense and 125% of his defense, frankly a shocking leap for a player his age who it seemed like we'd seen everything he had to show us. there's something to be said about the way russ has deferred to him this year, especially late in games, in a way he never even did with KD, but part of that might be russ's own (offensive) decline and maybe billy donovan's coaching. ultimately it's hard to make a case for george when the other major candidates either have better numbers than him or are doing just as much to help their teams, but he's deserving of a top 3 vote

100 otm. Only really included kd and Steph if they end up with the best record and one of them goes nuts from here on out. Jokic needs a narrative push and a huge finish to the season but even then it’s a big stretch to overcome those three.

agreed that giannis/harden/george are your real options. from a marketing perspective, if the bucks end up winning the east (and they likely will), i presume you give it to giannis as a way to stir up some MUST SEE TV vibes. Otherwise, barring a massive collapse, you back-to-back harden. george doesn't have the name recognition with the general public and, in a year with lebron maybe not making the playoffs, i think the NBA won't take the risk.

well the NBA doesn’t dictate who wins, and the votes are due at the end of the regular season, not during/after the playoffs

further reading from amico
https://theathletic.com/843494/

and harper
https://theathletic.com/836876/

xp i thought mvp was announced during playoffs, my bad
and yes, votes are from the journalistic community but allow me my tinhat to conflate sportspress with nba in the belief that there's some common goals as far as pulling attention is concerned for both

insofar as "narrative" matters to voters, perhaps. and the award is announced during the playoffs, but is voted on before them

jesus harden, 40% usage rate?

yeah. you'd think the opposing players would try guarding him, am I right?

alright im leaning harden again

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-james-harden-is-even-better-than-you-think-143013213.html

good piece

windy all nba talk
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26306393/tens-millions-stake-all-nba-sprint-finish

it seems that this is one of the first years in a while that it's tough to find enough worthy players to fill out both the forward and the guard spots

giannis gonna win it

PG normalized after his hot streak which he does every year (shooting splits since asb 38/31)
JH also came down to earth a bit, to be expected after he got his squad back and could chill a bit (shooting splits post asb 41/27)

Giannis has increased his 3p% by a whole point post asb and everything else has maintained. Bucks are going to have the best record. It's his.

also hes lovable

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWLj6cbW4AMpv8N.jpg

lmao

this was good i think
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2828714-15-nba-stars-who-would-have-been-your-parents-mvp

ROY is gonna go to Luka BUT the raw stats (and even TS%) have really evened out over the season between he and Trae.
http://bkref.com/tiny/GCdZ2
like it's really close. I would consider a co-ROY thing for real.

its crazy what a big load both of them are carrying @ 20 y/o

trial by fire and so forth, not sure its really the best approach tbh

its fine if you're all in on the star and you want to build from the ground up.

yeah I mean only a certain caliber of player can handle it, I do think luka is a level or two above trae especially projecting forward but trae has been out of his mind since 2019 started

Every time people start hyping Trae young I check the stats and he’s still shooting 42/33 on the season. Luka’s just better.

I mean trae’s been nuts and I’m really optimistic about him...but luka will be an MVP candidate in a few years

luka cld get there but thats a long road

Luka is also shooting 43/33 Matt

heh

lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

that's just better, last i checked

lagoon your luka skepticism is funny to me, what is your angle?

white genocide

just the most impressive teenager since lebron, can basically do everything, what’s not to love

its the thing abt being the best teen since lebron its just obvs not true, i cant stand for it

can u name a better 1

like in real life teens are usually bad

ant davis obvs for one just real super clear

is zion in the nba yet?

yeah otm zion too

hes prob not even still the best by whatever bs stat was cooked up anymore tbh that was when he was on a heater at the beginning of the year

best teen since lebron was bieber

i mean not at basketball but he was the #1 teen you cant deny it

bieber is going to be a dad can u believe it feel like hes grown so much been on a major journey

still hes a teen in my heart

yeah ok, his comps are lebron james and anthony davis, please forgive me

throw kyrie in there too

best way is probably just finding as large as possible on/off samples

or summon a ghost then ask the ghost

wait is this voted on by media or coaches or both? coaches def know who the best defenders are

Klay doesn't make spectacular defensive plays but he is so fundamentally sound on that end mentally and technique wise. I never see a team or even player try to go at him.

feel like a lot of good perimeter defenders who also have substantial scoring loads spend a lot of the reg season coasting on the defensive end cause no one really has the energy, so u see kawhi or klay doing shutdown stuff in the offs that theyre not necessary doing all season

I think we can say for sure that Bledsoe is the shortest

I'm thinking him, CP3, and Mookie are the shortest guys to make All D?

this is solely voted on by media folk?? lame af

feel like coaches should def have a say in this

would solve a lot of problems if they just let the media coach the teams while the coaches vote on the awards

all groups player coaches media shd have their own awards wld be interesting to compare and contrast

^co-sign

I hear media opinions ALL THE TIME. They're not hard to find. Meanwhile every lil nugget of "insider" talk re: how certain players are discussed, gameplanned for, evaluated, etc from coaches and current players is treasured like a rare taco and devoured by me.

my kingdom for a compendium of scouting reports

media guys do so much voting based on reputation it’s dumb. this has prob been getting better over the years but still

all nba
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7RT4leUcAAzSpf.jpg

so I guess this means there's a better chance Kemba stays in Charlotte now that they can offer him the supermax. this might end up being more of a curse than a blessing though, seems like every mega deal handed out to a PG in recent years (Wall, Paul, Westbrook, Conley) has been a mistake or looks almost certain to become one in the near future.

I'd swap KD for PG and the rest looks ok.

yeah kemba should probably stay haha. only supermax that has worked is the curry one.

harden too

seeing lebron on the 3rd team is kinda O__o but is also the right decision.

pg on the first team is corny

The fact that both Giannis and Harden were unanimous 1st team picks makes it even more apparent that the MVP race is between those two and quite close.

I think Giannis is going to win pretty comfortably, that's my prediction.

interesting side effect of coasting the reg season

A real-time reaction at what it looks like when you think you're getting an extra $30M and then get it clarified that you're not. Amazing video. https://t.co/FDrEWseOJs

— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) May 23, 2019

klay didnt coast as much as others on the team imo. he just shot poorly to start the season.

whole team coasting tho prob cost him

coasted into first place

3rd place iirc

right right pretty crazy they will not have homecourt vs either team

they have some things to work out in the next cba
https://i.imgur.com/Ra9orPZ.png

yeah thats kinda a funny way to do things

if i was a media person i would simply not vote

i wld vote vindictively based on which players were nice to me

Lol so the awards show is tonight and they’re giving out all the reg season awards what a sham no one cares any more

the famous dunk is its own reward

— br⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️seph (@on3ness) June 24, 2019

some vintage luka hateration from lagoon itt

omg u guys r such babies abt luka

I am going to be a single-issue poster this season and that issue will be zion luka

― k3vin k., Monday, October 21, 2019 10:38 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

Lagoon is just asking questions. All the questions are about Luka not being good somehow but