It’s March basketball

That doesn’t matter.

Must be damning realizing most of the things you say in regard to sports is unpopular

Nah.

Huh?

Re: The Mavs players part, you have a point but after Luka was traded a short while after Kyrie went down and AD went down. With basically no star level playmaking on the roster the role players not having easier looks is pretty much normal.

Who is even the PG for the Mavs currently? Max Christie? Ryan Nembhard? I mean no shit it’s hard for the roleplayers to perform with that level of playmaking.

You act like Shai hasn’t taken the Thunder 10 wins ahead of the Lakers while the team has experienced the second most injuries in the league including missing his #2 option for most of it. Just to give you some perspective on how good Shai has been this season the difference in FG% between Shai and Luka is the same as the difference between Luka and Patrick Baldwin Jr’s rookie season. And of course, SGA also plays defence.

There’s some truth to this, but it hasn’t always been this way.

Thing is, there are a handful guys in NBA history to maintain elite two way play while shouldering the entire offensive load.

Shai was much better on one on one D three years ago, but he kinda slowly let that go.

The NBA kinda accepts this as the game evolves.

Like, Ant was a much better defender a couple years ago. Now he gets up for select games still(did a great job on Shai the other day) but the Wolves fans will tell you firsthand that his defense has not been great at all this year. He picks his spots.

Now, elite help defense is much easier to maintain cause you can pick your spots easier and it requires less effort on a game to game basis.

In the end, if I’m getting MVP type of production on offense, I’d prefer my star guard to be average on one on one D and elite at helping.

Shai’s height and athleticism allows him to do so, so I’m fine with it.

Big wins against okc can definitely shift the narrative a bit if they can topple okc from the top seed a bit.

Luka’s eFG% has been better since the new year. 58.0 eFG% vs 56.2 eFG% respectively. Shai still TS% king though 62.1 TS% vs 64.1 TS% respectively.

Shai is far and away this year’s MVP and honestly it’s not worth arguing.

Luka averaged 33 ppg on +4% (+5% compared to guards) Relative True Shooting while being by far the most double teamed player in the league.

The Lakers with the most minutes played this year is Luka - Smart - Laravia - Rui and Ayton. Literally none of those guys start on OKC outside of Luka.

Meanwhile OKC’s most minutes played is SGA - Chet - Dort - Cason - Mitchell. All 5 of those dudes would start on the Lakers even if they were fully healthy.

Oh absolutely but with Wemby, possibly Ant, maybe Jokic again, maaaybe Shai, etc, idk if he’ll have a good window. I think he will, he’s been 2-5 mvp for lots of years, it’s just tough to get that first spot yk

He’s only 27

But already well past his physical peak. He can’t get to the rim anymore. 

:( he might, yeah