I hated those convos the second I saw them. I love Cade and think he’s been a top 10 player this year, but dude let’s win a playoff series first

And brown lol

hE dOsEnT pLaY dEfEnSe!

Some genius tried to say Jokic is way better than Luka on defense. They play two completely different positions.

People judge him solely off the 24 mummy run to the finals and lowlights but he plays more minutes than anyone. He’s going to have a missed read or a blow by every once in a while. It happens to all players.

Shai, Jokic, giannis

Then you can argue Wemby, Ant, Tatum

I think consensus is probably 4

Anyone who has followed Luka’s career knows he follows the same trajectory:

• starts season off crazy
• slumps to end the calendar year
• comes back at the new year
• ends the season looking like a Lebron/Larry Bird Superman

Luka with a league average 3 ball is scary.

He’s also driving and getting to his midrange spot more often. It seems that he just forgot about that aspect of his game until recently

I think his splits are the difference. At the start of the year he couldn’t miss a 2 which was masking his fg%.

I get ya, but part of that has been effected by his January stats (more importantly, his splits are significantly better) He’s also turning the ball over slightly less - down from 4.5 to 4.

splits (not including January): 46/32/80

But I’m mainly comparing to the bad december he had.

31/7/8/1.²⁄₀.5 + 5.2 TO’s, on 44/29/78 splits

Now look at the defensive stats

I’ve always had a hard time justifying putting Luka or Shai over Giannis, but I think this season is when I’ve pulled that trigger and for me it’s Joker, SGA, and Luka. Giannis is still in that conversation but given the health concerns and frankly a fall-off of his defensive effort it feels like it’s time.

Are you implying Luka is not top of the top or are you saying that the top of the top is crazy in part because you are also including him?

The Luka fans vs Bron fans civil war is hilarious considering the true villain is Gabe Vincent

Bruh LeBron fans will blame anyone except their 40 year old king lmao, meanwhile Luka’s been cooking all month

The Lebron-Luka civil war thing is tiring to me…and I’m not even a Laker fan. Both sides need to stfu and realise that the Lakers, as currently constructed, aren’t built to contend anyways.

Blame game helps nobody.

source?

Man I hate that subset of LeBron fans. Most Bron fans I know are chill now, mostly the ones my age, since we know he’s just playing with house money now in terms of “legacy”.

And I’m already about to transfer being a Luka stan once Bron’s done. Luka’s the perfect player to replace Bron with (in terms of watching).

Luka always gets steals. His defense has been better as of late tho

Especially his onball defense. Massive improvement from december. He’s still not great at rotating and sometimes abandons his assignment or gambles too much but he’s actually using his size and quick hands really well so far this year.

Forget too bad, 4 turnovers a game aren’t bad overall for his assist to turnover ratio, his usage, AND his scoring.

you are clearly bothered by Shai’s success as a Nuggets fan. Mentioning him for no reason. You love Luka because you know he isn’t a threat to Jokic like Shai is lol

Why do we have to put down another player to prop up another? So fucking stupid, Shai is a MVP, how is it not even close?

I was very hesitant to put Luka or Shai over Giannis for a long time - I kind of still am, in a way - but at the end of the day it’s a performance driven league. I think any one of those guys can be the best player in the league any given season, but Joker is the most consistent, and SGA is the most recent. Team bias aside I think I have to give SGA the 2 spot still but I think that Luka has clearly carved his way back into that conversation.

I’m no Shai fan, but saying the reigning MVP, Finals MVP, NBA Champ, and current MVP front-runner isn’t close is an egregious take.

This smells like racism

This is just straight delusion, Shai has been incredible and I’m a Thunder hater

There’s actually nothing that would lead you to this conclusion other than the fact you love your white players. Like SGA and Jokic far exceed Luka’s advanced stats and efficiency, and are both champions and MVPs. Luka and Jokic don’t even play similarly at all. Genuinely if you never knew what these players looked like, I actually don’t know how you’d get to this position.

Nah SGA is the best in the league rn. I don’t like watching him play but he just is.

You’re welcome to post advanced stats, o’ enlightened one.

I would argue they matter outside of that context. Turnovers don’t just come off of passes, and some turnovers are better than others. But turnovers really matter in the context of offensive efficiency. If you are shooting ¹²⁄₁₄ every night but you’re committing 15 turnovers a game your offensive possessions are less efficient than someone going ¹²⁄₂₅ on 1 turnover.

His free throws are down this month compared to the rest of the season

EDIT: I just want to add that the whole free throw hate train is stupid. Great players get free throws, with very few exceptions. The online discourse has tried to make this into a bad thing for some reason some reason, but knowing how to get calls and get to the line is just another part of the game. It was stupid when it was the biggest criticism of harden, it was stupid when it was being said about Embiid, it was stupid when it was said about SGA, and it’s equally stupid now.

Your beef, however you may have it, is with the refs and the league. Don’t hate the player, hate the game

Yeah, I think he’s the most obvious comparison. Luka is probably a better playmaker / passer, and peak harden was certainly a better shooter - but it’s pretty damn close otherwise. People love to say “Luka is a playoff riser, that’s the difference” but Harden has honestly gotten a pretty unfair shake for his playoff struggles - the guy is a first round HOF, top 30-40ish all time player. As a humble luka stan, I welcome the comparison

Luka is 5x better passer than Harden.

Both 3 and FT player

They beat the bulls and mavericks in successive games. How are they not contenders