Dirk, Curry, Jokic: From regular season second team to Finals MVP?

2023 NBA Finals MVP, is the second-team center of the year Jokic. In the final seven games of the regular season, he played 50 minutes and scored 20 points.

Previously, in 2021 and 2022, he was a two-time regular season MVP and a first-team center in the league.

Previous year:

The 2022 NBA Finals MVP also happens to be the second-team guard of the year Curry. In the final 12 games of the regular season, Curry was injured. In the first round of the playoffs against the Nuggets, he came off the bench for four games.

The year before, he was also the first team of the year + scoring leader.

Coincidentally, isn't it?

In the 2015-17 season, Leonard played 146 games in the regular season, with two annual teams, and once second in the regular season MVP vote (after Curry) and once third (behind Wilson and Harden).

In the 2018-19 season, Leonard played 60 games in the regular season, the second team of the league; Finals MVP.

Coincidentally, isn't it?

Dirk of the Year in 2005–06, losing the finals in 2006; The following year Dirk won the regular season MVP Dirk and was blacked out.

In the 2010-11 season, Dirk League Second Team, averaging only a decade-low 23 points per game - leading the team to the championship and Finals MVP.

Coincidentally, isn't it?

"A superstar a while ago, succumbed to the second team of the regular season, and finally won the championship and won the Finals MVP" - there are many cases?

Wait, there are those who can't make it to the second team of the regular season.

Thomas the Smiling Assassin, who averaged 21 points and 14 assists per game in the league's first team in 1985, did not make the All-League team after 1987.

But:

The Assassins, who did not make the league's top two teams in 1988, took the Pistons straight to the Finals and played the Lakers until Game 7, including 43 points in Game 6 with injuries, including the legendary 25 points in a single quarter.

In 1989 and 1990, the Assassins won two championships with the Pistons, and they were close to winning three consecutive championships.

Of course, there are many examples here: in the past, the team was not thick enough and needed you to survive the regular season, and the playoffs were out of strength.

Later, the team was thicker, and the regular season could be loosened and left to the playoffs.

For example: Wade 2006 regular season second team (teammate shark team), final championship, Finals MVP. In 2012 and 2013, he was a league three-line, two-ring.

Wade himself has been in the annual team twice:

In the 2008-10 season, he rebuilt with Chalmos and Beasley, won two First Team of the Year, and also won the 2009 scoring title, but the team did not go far.

Given the choice, would Wade want to lead the rebuild team to a fight, or do he get through the regular season healthy and fight for the championship?

But there's another layer here: Can I put it down?

Old topic: Basketball, especially for superstars, is the art of compromise.

Chamberlain was the scoring champion in the first seven seasons of his career, and he didn't get anything; In the 1966-67 season, he gave up the scoring king and won the championship: the opponent was the Warriors led by the new scoring king Barry; In the 1971-72 season, Chamberlain, who once averaged 50 points per game in a single season, averaged less than 15 points per game, became a blue collar, and ranked in the league's second team, the Lakers played a 69-win regular season record including 33 consecutive wins, won the championship, and Chamberlain's 1972 Finals MVP.

John Stockton was a nine-time assist leader , but then began to divide the ball between Postman and Hornacek, so he was no longer the assist king in the 1996–97 season: he reached his first Finals.

The following year, the second finals.

The famous law of the NBA, "scoring champion + championship, can't have it in the same year" - except that McCann, Skyhook, Sharks and Jordan can do it.

OK, Jordan:

Jordan's 1986-90, regular season, averaged 37 points, 5 assists and 3 turnovers, 35 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers, 33 points, 8 assists and 4 turnovers, 34 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers - did not win the championship.

Entering the 1990s, he averaged 32 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers, 30 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers, 33 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers, 30 points, 4 assists and 2 turnovers, 30 points, 4 assists and 2 turnovers, 29 points, 4 assists and 2 turnovers - less possession, lower statistics, six championships.

Regarding putting down, Curry has the clearest paragraph. In the 2015-16 season, Curry led the team to 73 wins, averaging 30 points on 20 baskets in 34 minutes per game, and was the all-time regular season MVP. Lost in the finals.

The next season, Curry averaged 25 points on 17 shots per game before All-Star.

In April of that year, Curry himself put it very well:

"It was decided at the beginning of the season not to hit the 74 wins in the regular season. Not worth it, really, not worth it. You just need to go back to the finals... Physically, it's great to be able to take a break. More importantly, spiritually. It's especially laborious to mentally prepare for each game, so it's nice to have an extra 24 hours of rest... It's good to know what is most important and worth fighting for. ”

"[MVP and the like] are all about the plot. Every December, whoever wins and performs well is the favourite; If you're not on the hot list every December, you're in trouble. Thomas Jr., for example, led his team to the first place in the East, but he was not an MVP favorite in December 2006, so it was difficult for him to compete with players like Wilson and Harden, who were leading from the beginning. For me, last year and the year before that, too. ”

When he is needed, such as in April 2017, when Durant was injured, Curry averaged 30 points and 8 assists in 32 minutes per game, and scored 31 three-pointers in five games.

In the first round of the playoffs against the Blazers, Durant played only two games, and Clay shot only 39%, so Curry averaged 30 points and 7 assists per game, and the Warriors were 4-0.

In the 2017 playoffs, Curry, the second guard of the year, averaged 28 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals per game, and the Warriors won the championship.

So: everyone is complaining about Leonard's load management, but an objective fact:

The top superstars are making more or less trade-offs.

There is an energetic monster like Jordan in the world, who is unremitting and enterprising in the regular playoffs, scoring champion + championship, and extraordinary person who wants data honor - a single year's regular season MVP + Finals MVP, he has four.

But most of the winners - Curry in 2022, Jokic in 2023, Dirk in 2011, the assassin who almost won three consecutive championships, Chamberlain who gave up the scoring king, and even Ginobili, who played as a substitute without waiting for Popovich to speak, and David Robinson, who gave up the main offensive power to second-year Duncan, all understand a basic truth:

For superstars, basketball is the art of compromise.

To compromise and give up many things in order to pursue more.