Two months ago, we discussed the ownership of MVP this season. At the time, Alphabet Brother, Curry and Durant were the main candidates for the MVP. Now, with the final month of the regular season left, the roster has changed dramatically.
Some new names appear in the MVP shortlist, such as Morant and DeRozan. Morant and DeRozan have a lot of similarities, their teams have played far more than people expect this season, they have also played the league's top amazing level, can come up with a beautiful statistic sheet, in the key moments of the game, they often wear superhero shirts to save the team, which is impressive. Although we all know that they will most likely only play a running role this season, getting the MVP nomination this season is already an admirable achievement for them in itself – not that they are not good enough, but that the top three in the MVP list this season are really exaggerated.
When four-fifths of the season is past, the MVP rivalry between Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid continues. This may be the smallest gap and the highest level of MVP battle in NBA history. According to Basketball-Reference.com data, all three have a PER value of 31.0 or more this season, and in terms of individual performance, each of them has played an excellent season that is enough to stay in history. Since the NBA began counting turnovers in 1978, Jokic and Alphabet Brother have had the top two PER values in history this season, and Embiid has also ranked in the top ten in history. Sandwiched between them are the exaggerated seasons of "1987-88 Michael Jordan" and "2008-09 LeBron James".
John Hollinger, a well-known NBA data expert, insists that if their performances were separated into three different seasons, any one of them would be entirely likely to get a full-vote MVP: "Whether it's per capita, BPM or any other high-level data indicator, just in terms of regular season performance this season, if the rest of the league players are still on the ground, then these three have flown to the stratosphere." ”
46 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and 4 blocks, 32 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists, 38 points, 18 rebounds and 7 assists. If it were an ordinary season, Jokic's performances in the last week alone would have been enough to put an end to the MVP debate, and now, by playing three consecutive Super Saiyan-level performances, Jokic has only "regained the attention of public opinion" and thus "made the MVP competition more intense".
Jokic averaged 26.1 points, 13.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists per game this season, and throughout the NBA's 75-year history, he has performed uniquely this season. Everyone who has seen the Nuggets play will be impressed by his back punches, projections and passes. He can score from anywhere, throw any incredible ball at any opponent, see teammates in any corner of the field and cleverly pass the ball into their hands. We've said all this too much, and probably even readers will be bored, because anyone who has watched the Denver Nuggets this season can see Jokic's terrifying dominance on the offensive end. I think that existing adjectives may be difficult to express that outrageous feeling, and we can only comment on "the strongest in history" and then console ourselves in turn: the fewer the definite words, the higher the gold content.
Last time we talked about Jokic, we talked about how much the Nuggets needed him, but as the season progressed, that statistic was still so ridiculous that we had to repeat the same thing: When Jokic was on the floor this season, The Nuggets win 9.3 points per 100 rounds (the league's number one Phoenix Suns win 8.1 points per 100 rounds); when Jokic is not on the floor, the Nuggets lose 7.2 points per 100 rounds (the Houston Rockets, the league's bottom-to-last, lose 9.0 points per 100 rounds). In short, when Jokic was on the floor, the Nuggets were the best team in the league, and as soon as he took a break, the Nuggets would immediately become one of the worst teams in the league.
Michael Porter Jr. played nine games and got injured. Jamal Murray hasn't played a single minute for the Nuggets this season. Most of the Nuggets' game roster consists of Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Will Barton and a bunch of role players Michael Malone didn't know where to get them. Aside from "Jokic is just too good," you can't explain why this team is now 40 wins and 26 losses. It was a 2005-06 Steve Nash-esque season. When the most reliable helpers fell, last season's foreign white MVP took on more responsibility, leading very different teammates to an unexpectedly exciting season. He totally deserves a Lianzhuang MVP... Is it?
At least for now, he can't overwhelm Embiid with such a story and performance. Whenever he played a terrifying game, Embiid would fight back with an equally outrageous game. Against the Bucks before the All-Star Game, he scored 42 points in 21 shots, and just three days ago, facing the Chicago Bulls, who are also powerful in the East, he destroyed his opponents with 19 points in the third quarter, cutting 43 points and 14 rebounds in 36 minutes. Against the Knicks last week, he even made 27 free throws in one game.
"When defending Embiid, you can't avoid fouling." A scout from an Eastern European team told the media, "He has a full range of low-post offensive skills and is so strong now that you can't push him out of his offensive zone without fouling." And as the game progresses, your number of fouls will increase. He's torturing your flesh and torturing your spirit at the same time, and few people can push him off the basket while being careful not to foul, which can make people physically and mentally exhausted at high speed. ”
Embiid doesn't have as much offensive area as Jokic, but once he gets the ball low on the left side of the penalty area, he produces more than anyone else in the league. He can bully opponents who are shorter than him with deep steps, he can play with defenders of the same physique as him with up and down steps, he can also turn around from the left and cut into the middle, directly attacking the basket with beautiful foot and speed. Most of the time, defending Embiid in the low position will make the defender look like the helpless armored vehicles and planes in the Ultraman movie, trying to shoot a little dent on the monster's scale armor with machine guns and shells, and often not causing any substantial damage to the monster, only making it more ferocious and angry. Besides, Embiid was much more terrifying than the monsters—there were three referees standing behind him.
If the season ends today, Embiid looks like the one with the best chance of winning the MVP award. James Harden's arrival doesn't seem to have affected his ball and stats too much, and Philadelphia's record is slightly better than that of the Nuggets. But with a month to go in the season, we can't ignore the possibility that last season's FMVP will come forward this month.
Antetokounmpo received just one MVP first vote last season, and his regular season performance has not seen any significant decline compared to his first two MVP seasons. This reflects in some ways the complexity of the MVP award: It wasn't his regular-season performance that confiscated Giannis's vote, but the Bucks' elimination by the Miami Heat in the previous playoffs. There is no theoretical basis for this phenomenon, because the award vote in a single season should have nothing to do with any previous game, only the performance of this player this season, but the fact reflects the fact that the NBA is chasing high and low. Fortunately, Alphabet Brother led the Bucks to one of the most memorable ways to win the NBA championship last season, so this season, everyone can suddenly see his crazy regular season dominance fairly.
When the Bucks were ungrouped this season due to COVID-19 regulations and injuries to key players, Giannis kept the Bucks' lower limit. In the last 20 games, with the return of the main players, the Bucks have only lost 6 games. Their record has now climbed to second in the East, and if Alphabet Brother remains full-time in the next month (he has missed 11 regular season games, and he can't play more games in this year's MVP competition), the Bucks are also getting better in the closing stages, and the most terrifying honor harvester in the NBA of this generation is entirely likely to become MVP and defensive player of the year again.
Embiid was born on 16 March 1994 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Less than 9 months later, Giannis was born in Athens, Greece. Three months later, Jokic was born in Sembol, Serbia. The basketball world has always been centered on the United States, and these three geniuses who have been born in distant corners in less than a year are now at the peak of their careers, playing a rare and outstanding season in history, but only one person can get an MVP, which may be their misfortune, but it is definitely the luck of the fans: we have never seen such a fierce high-level MVP competition before, and we may not see it later.
In the future, they may be injured, they may decline because of their age, they may not play well because of the changes in their teammates, and the peak of superstars may come to an abrupt end at any time in ways that people do not expect, at a time when everyone does not expect, and at that time, we will never enjoy such a peak battle again.
Therefore, we implore everyone to put aside those boring black honey controversies for the time being, cherish this moment, and appreciate this rare super collision in history. In the last month of the season, these three top individual seasons in history will surely sharpen and push each other, bursting out of the world's rare light.