That December - Jan stretch in 23-24 was the best basketball ever seen in at least a decade imo. Im not even particularly an embiids guy but he was unstoppable, was a genuinely elite defender and was a really good passer. The combination of being a 3 pt threat, a paint threat, a general physical mismatch, an elite defender and a genuinely good playmaker was just unstoppable. I genuinely think I’d put that two month stretch above any two months from Curry (excluding playoffs)

What makes it even crazier is during wilts day the efficiency league wise was way lower and he wasn’t getting all these foul baiting calls. He also sucked at free throws lol.

Embiid was 100% the MVP in 2024 if he didn’t get injured by Kuminga

Yeah, Jokic avg 8 points less that season, but also 6 assists more and 1.5 rebounds more than Embiid.

He also had 10% less usage, 5% better TS, 2.6 bigger WS among other metrics of course (VORP, BPM)

So people wanting to see Jokic win MVP that season is now crazy as you make it sound.

physically sick to agree with a celtics fan but it’s so nice to see my man get props

To be fair Jokic was having an equally ridiculous season. Like actual video game numbers

I am constantly trying to get people to understand that watching the Thunder right now is watching history being made. The team and Shai, but mostly Shai. the underlying statistics of his game are absurd and would maybe be a bit more understandable if he was a 6’10” wing who was just bigger and stronger than everyone else at his position. But he isn’t.

Witnessing greatness. Felt like winning the Finals and MVP took a lot of pressure off his shoulders and he’s playing so free. This is similar to Curry’s dominant season rn but fans will cry free throws when every top scorer is a free throw merchant.

His handles and drives are just so smooth. Like he glides in a way no one else does

Curry gonna have 500% TS.

I’m not sure who you’re making the argument for, but for what it’s worth Jokic and SGA have a pretty similar average shot distance of 11.8 feet for Jokic and 13.2 feet for SGA. But distance is not remotely the only factor for difficulty anyway.

Lol

This everyone hates SGA shit is getting so old lol. I’m not ready for thunder fans to keep spamming people aren’t ready for x

Hey! That’s Al Harrington’s moniker! Gus Johnson wouldn’t like that.

its great but being a 3 pt machine sure helps too..

It’s because we suck

His team not being a contender is part of that 

Because SGA Jokic are genuinely levels above the pack?

Averaging a triple double is the current talking point.

….which, who am I to judge? I’ve been known to appreciate a triple double season as an argument for MVP.

Tbf, EPM is doggy too. Look at some of the guys in the top 10 of EPM.

Keep our dicks out your mouth, we know dude is an amazing player and is having a historic season.

Sga is actually at 11.0

I don’t put much stock in EPM. Zach Edey is not the 9th most valuable player. Porzingod isn’t the 6th.

good post.

Bro what these arguments are so insanely vague. I am talking about peak curry vs peak shai saying curry changed the game doesn’t matter, if anything couldn’t you make the argument shai being able to do something there’s can’t makes him so special. It’s just such a vague argument idk really even get where the debate would be. Didn’t bill russel and his team kinda of invent the fast break? I don’t think I have ever heard this as an argument for his goat case

That is kind of an awful argument, you’re ranking individual seasons, Shaq also didn’t do anything special, he was bigger, stronger than everyone and he dunked and did layups, he just did it at the highest level

I’d disagree somewhat. I think the NBA has skewed heavily towards scoring either at the basket, or from 3. Anything in-between is seen as the least efficient shot. While statistically that has been true, it’s also the most unstoppable because of defenses adjusting to the 3 or paint.

I could see a resurgence in the mid range, and that would be Shai changing the game. Not as revolutionary as Steph of course, but he’s not doing nothing lol

I don’t think he’s officially better than 16 Steph yet but I don’t think being revolutionary matters when talking about player impact towards winning. Honestly it makes Shai look a little bit more impressive - we know what he’s doing, it not new, and nobody can slow it down

Steph shocked the world a little bit, people were playing drop coverage on him lol.

Jordan didn’t deserve DPOY that year lol, he was a golden child when it came to voting awards. There isn’t a single year in his career where he was even close to Hakeem as a defender.

Changing the game isn’t exactly a factor on how good someone is. Doesn’t really matter if you inspire or you just doing something already done but on another level. What shai is doing this season is unprecedented from an efficiency perspective for the level of scoring

Funny enough a vid just came out that really breaks this down well

In terms of impact to the game, it’s nearly impossible to beat out Steph’s season. But a player can be more impactful in terms of winning even without doing something we never seen before stylistically. We have seen players doing similar things, SGA is just doing it better than most

I think the issue with rTS is that there is that past a certain point improvement gets much much harder- a +4% increase from 54 to 58 is much easier than the same increase from 67 to an absurd 71

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Thats true and a good point. I of course still think 2015-16 Curry is the greatest offensive season in league history

Jokic’s season isn’t historical from a scoring standpoint its historical for everything else he does

We’ve entered an era where we are no longer restricted to American players and have access to a global pool of talent. I’m not surprised at all by this and actually expect to see more records shattered as the games global influence grows

This Shai dick riding is absolutely insane. Holy shit.

This is the greatest guard season of all time if he keeps it up. I’m taking this Shai over any other guard in history. Including MJ

Embiid in MVP season was avging like 33 on 66% TS ion see the big difference here

I mean SGA had played 23 games so I think it’s fair

When people use statmuse to discuss bball, it’s always a tell sign they aren’t very versed on stats

Ah yes. OKC bench was good against a top 30 bench.

Now imagine that lineup against starters

Watching a guy flail and getting rewarded by the refs for 30% of his points isn’t greatness

It’s killing the sport, ratings don’t lie

That’s the most reasonable response I’ve heard