Photo: Dustin Bradford
Nick Wright: “All the NBA MVP voters swear Nikola Jokic is the best player in the league, or at least if they don’t think it, they vote as if he is. For the second-straight year he was the seventh player taken in the All-Star draft, which means he was the 8th or 9th player taken because the captains can’t draft themselves, and Steph and Durant were out. Jokic is now a massive favorite to win his third-straight NBA MVP. This isn’t a criticism of Jokic, it’s a criticism of the overwhelming arrogance of the current crop of NBA MVP voters. The way the last few years that the voters have treated the history of this award as if it does not matter at all, and as if this current crop of voters has cracked a code that was otherwise lost to 60 years of MVP history I find absolutely galling. We have absolutely not given out multiple, much less back-to-back, much less back-to-back-to-back MVPs to anyone that doesn’t have deep postseason runs, and that isn’t at the top of mind for best player in the league. Even the folks who vote for Jokic would tell you that Jokic is not better than Giannis, he’s not better than Luka, and gun to your head not better than Steph. If you have to get a bucket is he your no. 1 pick in the league? Is he your no. 2 pick in the league? Is he your no. 3 pick in the league? No, no, NO. If you have to stop the other team from getting a bucket is he one of your top 10 picks in the league? NO. So, why is he the MVP? ‘WELL, NICK, LOOK AT THE NUMBERS!’ [Shows graphic of Nikola Jokic’s historically good efficiency metrics]. These numbers don’t prove what you think they prove. It appears to me these stats incorrectly value a touch too much. Does that prove he’s the MVP or prove there is a problem with the stats? Unless you want to make the argument that Jokic is one of the three or four best players ever, and that he’s in the midst of the greatest stretch of three seasons ever, then don’t bring me these stats.” (Full Segment Above)
Watch Nick Wright, guest-hosting on The Herd for Colin Cowherd, call out NBA MVP voters for anointing Nikola Jokic the Most Valuable Player for the third straight season and seemingly trying to scam us into believing he’s one of the best players in league history.
Check out the segment above as Wright debates whether the advanced sabermetrics that many MVP voters use, numbers that have always favored Jokic as the NBA's best player, are simply flawed statistics that go against common sense.
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