Lakers head coach JJ Redick on why Luka Doncic is not more prominently featured in MVP discussions: “Because he complains to the refs, I don’t know”
JJ knows all the stupid ass narratives lol
Used to be his full time job!
But in his defense, he wasn’t much for it then either
i swear jj used to be the logic/stats guy instead of whatever the fuck they have going on right now LOL
You mean the “a player who’s averaging 36 PPG is not in my first team” guy?
Difference between a podcaster analyst and the head coach for the LA Lakers
On both sides
Only Pepperidge Farm Uncs remember when he was calling Bob Cousey and Jerry West “plumbers and firemen” that couldn’t complete in todays game😅
Did you watch the entire clip? That other talking head (mad dog something) was being a douche and denigrating Chris Paul and other modern players and it set JJ off
Every time the Lakers go in a rut going back to last year, THAT Brian Windhorst video after Game 1 of the finals resurfaces.
True that Luka does himself no favors sometimes but he has an uphill battle to win MVP one day. Not just from his closest competitors but from voters who see nothing but a lazy player who bitches too much.
that windhorst rant still pisses me off to this day because defense was nowhere near the top of the list in terms of why the mavericks lost that series.
they still had the best defensive rating of anyone boston played in the playoffs but when only one player is even remotely capable of generating offense then it shouldnt be surprising when you get dogwalked
There’s also the concern that Luka was pretty hobbled by that point. Yeah, I’d kinda expect the guy hopping around on one good leg to be a bit of a defensive concern in a seven-game series.
Windhorst… just is not a particularly insightful talking head, even by the standards of talking heads.
After Round 1 people were talking about how Luka shouldn’t be playing because of how hurt he was. And yet he carries them to the finals and is STILL the only player to show up. And looking back now it took him almost 2 years to recover from that Finals Run.
Windy is a dumbass plain and simple.
He knows his role among media members. Same way Stephen A. Smith knows his. Sports debate shows are all about viewer engagement. Getting people emotional about opinions is the best way to keep their attention. You piss people off, they watch out of hatred for that person. Humans are strange impressionable creatures, and capitalism is exploiting that to the full extent.
I remember him being packed in so much ice and shit, he looked like the Michelin man on the bench. Was doing crazy work to get them there.
interesting narrative on luka, a guy who plays 35,36⁄37 minutes a game, stays efficient, is known as a deadly closer.
funny how these take root. I remember everyone talking about harden being out of shape when he played 44 minutes that first game(during his trade demand) hit a triple double against the best athletes in the world. might need to get out of shape myself
Let’s get out of shape together and conquer the basketball world!
Nico probably had that video playing on a loop when he called in the trade
I’m a luka fan but not long ago i saw a lot of ppl here roasting luka for his defense also.
Lukas defense has been better lately, but I don’t understand why people feel the need to pretend that means it was better before. There are significant stretches of every season where Luka absolutely mails it in and gives zero effort on defense.
Lakers are a bad defensive team. And they don’t have AD to bail them out. Honestly they leave Luka to die more than they cover for him, and all of them have the lapses that Luka has.
Which “significant stretch” this season did Luka “mail it in and give zero effort on defense”?
Be specific, which stretch? It’s comments like these that just make sweeping assertions with zero evidence that perpetuate this narrative.
Meanwhile Anthony Edwards’ DPOY center was publicly begging their coach like a month ago to hold the stars accountable for giving zero effort defensively. And shocker: nobody cares or ever brings that up. Only Luka, and only with random statements like this and cherry picked clips where he doesn’t get back on defense twice in an entire game.
He’s still a bad defender in MVP context. Lol. Your issue right now is that you are speaking from a general point of view, but the conversation you’re in is in regards to MVP.
He may not be that bad a defender in general, but you need to be top tier overall in order to be MVP and his defense among MVP candidates is the worst. Shai, Vic, Ant, Cade, Giannis are all better. Only one who’s in his region is Jokic but he puts in way more effort so he’s also better.
I think the point is that it was never that bad to begin with while it’s never been great and the recent improvements are more than welcome, his defensive flaws have been overstated and exaggerated for a while now.
I mean the biggest issue was that he’d complain and then the other team would get easy buckets.
It was more of an effort thing seeing him talking to a ref and letting his teammates play 2 on 3 when he could’ve easily put in a bit more effort. lol
That would happen like once every ten games though. It just happened a lot against the Celtics on national media which was the only game everybody bothered to watch and then base their takes around.
That hardly ever happens, it happened a few times this season within the span of a week and because people posted lowlight clips on this sub people get the impression it’s happening every possession.
I mean it happened during the bad stretch when i watched a couple of the Lakers games. i’d watch him get fouled but the refs would swallow the whistle and then he’d stand there complaining to the ref, obviously it doesn’t happen every possession.
It just felt funny seeing him make ridiculous shots and then have the other team make a simple layup because he refused to get back. Huge fan of Luka and it’s probably the only problem.
Fwiw I’m pretty sure the post analysing kawhi’s defence had Luka listed as a completely average defender.
Playoff push…. They don’t care about 3⁄4 of the season
Not wrong…. Still don’t think he’s good defensively
Absolutely a generational talented basketball player that has to guard the best players in the world and gets his size taken advantage
He’s been on a tear last 4-5 games.
Could say the same about LeBron this season…. It’s been the apparent lack of effort defensively, that’s been the most disappointing.
Last 10 games team defense has shined where it was a liability. Playoff push or not they are beating good teams right now
Steph Curry’s defense is ass too but the warriors learned how to hide it.
He’s definitely seen how those talking points can overshadow actual performance on the court.
It’s not stupid lol it’s true. If we are picking amongst the slimmest of margins, one player complaining all game and hurting his team on certain possessions is going to matter. We are splitting hairs.
He’s definitely seen how those talking points can overshadow actual play on the court.
Yeah stupid narratives are the only reason luka isn’t MVP
Man knows ball
Man knows ball dont lie
Man knows his boy bitches way too much
Bill Simmons, Zach Lowe, and Brian Windhorst, the 3 most influential national media members, have each gone on record saying they don’t like watching Luka play basketball.
Lowe called him unwatchable last month.
Windhorst has openly said he “can’t stand watching Luka play basketball” and famously lashed out at Luka in a 2 min monologue during the 24 Finals clearly intended to go viral, which recast that entire playoff run as somehow an indictment of Luka as a player.
Simmons just had Max Kellerman on his show and happily discussed how Jaylen Brown is better than him.
There are many more examples, but the reality is when you the most important voters themselves are on the record about their distaste for your style of play, you’re never sniffing an MVP unless it’s a true unanimous style year like Curry in 2016.
While Luka has been on this crazy run, Kendrick Perkins just recently said Luka wouldn’t even be on his 1st team All-NBA. Guess who also has an MVP vote?
its so insane any of these people get a vote, but perk? good god
You think it’s insane that Zach Lowe gets a vote?
I actually don’t think he does anymore. I vaguely remember him saying he relinquished it
That’s correct. He gave it up in part because he didn’t like that player’s contracts were linked to all-nba teams. Edit: added the dash
Haha the dash is so important. I was so confused by the end of your sentence and I was trying to figure out if players contracts are linked to all other nba teams had to do with revenue sharing.
Of course the most qualified one relinquished it lol.
Idk if he did though. You may be conflating MVP with All-NBA. He said he refuses to vote for that because way too much money is on the line for the players for him to feel comfortable having a say. Maybe MVP and All-NBA are the same voters idk.
Yeah its just looks unfair how much money gets tied to a bunch of people who only really just get paid to talk about you, some of who have barely any ball knowledge and just judge you by if they like you or not.
Imagine getting your bonus money through a popularity contest lol
I mean they are in the entertainment industry at the end of the day. And it’s not like modern NBA players good enough to be in contention for All-NBA really need the bonus. But yeah, I still feel where he is coming from.
I don’t have anything against him I just don’t like the media voting for these awards. I think a system where players and coaches vote anonymously but can’t vote for themselves/their teammates would be much more interesting.
This point is always funny during 🐐 talks and other comparisons where people say “x player says he is the best, im going to take the word of a professional player”.
What if most and and majority of the league say ur best
You mean the guy that famously said that white basketball players only win MVP because the voters are racist? https://youtu.be/-bMomS-Apn4 That’s so crazy that Perkins wouldn’t pick Luka.
Don’t forget Max Kellerman saying on that same Simmons pod that Jalen Brunson is better than Luka lmao
Lowe hasn’t been a voter for several years now. Simmons literally puts Luka on his favorite players to watch lists all the time. Being critical about him isn’t some agenda you think it is. Luka is wildly popular with voters. They had him all-nba first team while he missed the playoffs lmao
Simmons has been out on Luka since before he was traded. He literally just was doing segments questioning whether Luka can win a title and comparing him to Jaylen fucking Brown. Windhorst’s views on Luka are well-documented. And sure, Lowe isn’t a voter anymore, he just has the 2nd biggest NBA podcast in existence, is connected to folks across the league, and trashed Luka less than a month ago when Luka had just won player of the month averaging 34/7/9 on 51/39/75 shooting without Reaves all of January.
You can pretend this isn’t a thing but it 100% is and it was never more obvious than the onslaught a few weeks back when everyone was piling on him.
I don’t think people talking about Lowe actually listen to his podcast, he’s addressed it recently as well he’s just as well documented saying he loves watching Luka play and he’s a first team NBA player he just also hates the complaining and was saying that part of his game is unwatchable. And it does suck, I love Luka I love jokic they’d be even more fun if they never interacted with a ref again.
You are right about the details of Zach Lowe’s statements, but your last sentence gives away a detail about his biases. I have been listening to him for years and have never heard from him about Jokic’s flopping or complaints to the referees. Never. Just because Jokic is his darling, he turns a blind eye to the stuff Jokic gets away with.
If he were at the same level of disdain towards Jokic’s antics, fair game. But not saying anything for that for years and lashing out at Doncic for similar non-basketball-related issues is just hypocritical.
No point trying to talk to Lakers fans with their victim complex. Lowe has been very fair with Luka and is the one NBA personality that no sane person will accuse of having an agenda
If no agenda, why has Lowe never gotten on Jokic for complaining to refs? Come on man lol
I did listen to the podcast. It’s incoherent for his position to simultaneously be “Luka is unwatchable” and “I love watching Luka play,” which is apparently your understanding of his position.
To go from “Luka is unwatchable” 3 weeks ago to now this week tweeting “I feel so bad for Dallas fans, all the time” is nonsense. It’s incoherent and it’s a result of him now wanting to backtrack because it’s such a stupid thing to have said about a player this good.
The whole reason he felt the need on his latest pod to address his prior comments about Luka is because he knows he has to clean up what he said. He went overboard for clicks and he should just own it, he doesn’t go after any other superstar the way he did with Luka
Hey, that’s finals MVP jaylen Brown
Jaylen Brown is a great player and he is a good defender too
Bill used to gush about Luka when he first broke out as a superstar and would compare him to Bird. But he jumped off Luka’s bandwagon when the Mavs missed the playoffs in ‘23 and was fully on Jokic’s when he won the title.
Lowe addressed this today. I think you are over playing the unwatchable comment
Luka going on an incredible run doesn’t change the fact that he has times where he is extremely not fun to watch lol, and there were Lakers fans on here saying the same thing at points. When he’s at his best he’s undeniable, at his worst he is a foul baiter that talks to the ref more than he plays defense, and both those things can be true. Zach Lowe has also consistently called Luka one of the top 4 players in the league for the record
You find SGA’s fun to watch? He’s incredibly efficient, but it’s like watching the world’s best tax preparer.
fr, fucking hilarious to say “not fun to watch” is a valid reason all things considered
The problem is rather Luka being infuriating to watch when he is on a whining and no effort on defense because he’s frustrated spell. Especially when you n general like him as a player, because those are things he should have had figured out by now, but they seem rather to have gotten worst. He would be so much less frustrating if he even just waited with talking to the refs until the ball is dead instead of focusing on defense.
SGA simply doesn’t do those things. Also let’s not just act like his only talent is drawing fouls and that he isn’t an incredible skilled and enjoyable to watch player otherwise.
No, that shit sucks too.
A lot of people also don’t like watching OKC or SGA, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s an MVP caliber player and OKC is an amazing team. Whether you like how someone plays should honestly have no bearing on whether that person is deserving of rewards, and it would be fine if the media balanced the criticism with praise, but it was nothing but crazy slander for like 2 whole months. And those narratives matter unfortunately, this man dropped below JB and Cade for a little bit there on the MVP ladder.
Bro there’s like a billion lakers fans. You can find one of them claiming smush Parker was the second coming. Who cares?
There are Laker fans who name their own dookies. Who cares what a small number of them say?
Dunno. Never was a problem for me. Been watching him since his rookie year.
Luka being criticized for defensive effort atp was fair. That Windy piece was an absurd hit job though.
What are we on here? You cut out all context of all their statements. They were talking about the bitching to the refs.
Most lakers fans would agree that the Lakers were disgusting to watch until about two weeks ago. Most lakers fans would agree that Luka’s bitching at the refs was getting on their nerves too.
Stop playing the fucking victim. Luka has been incredible, but his attitude recently does not compare to what it was during earlier in the season.
Windhorst called Luka fat. He has zero credibility
Zach Lowe did not say Luka playing basketball was unwatchable. He said the ref complaining was unwatchable. He had him on a lock for his first team All NBA and has been heaping praise on him. Don’t believe me, listen to the podcast literally from today.
Lowe explicitly went on the record saying the opposite…
Don’t forget Max Kellerman and Rich Paul
He’s 2nd in odds behind SGA, the Lakers just weren’t looking that good earlier. Yes you’re right about the media being very vocal with his criticism but the reason he wasn’t included in the conversation earlier was team record not an indictment of Luka’s play style.
It’s been a discussion of the two players leading the 1 seeds, and the two player leading the very unexpected 2 seeds along with the person who is widely considered the best player in basketball right now (Jokic) who’s team was the 3rd seed for most of the time this discourse was going on
It’s almost like they were given instructions to name sga as their MVP candidate or some shit.
Luka won’t win MVP, ever. I’ve come to terms with that. Jokić, Wemby and SGA are media darlings and now they have Jaylen Brown ahead of him as well. You can’t fight public perception combined with bias. He will go down as an all-time legend that never won MVP. It sucks, but it is what it is.
To me a voter needs to separate “fun to watch” from “good in today’s NBA” in the MVP discussion. I abhor watching James Harden, SGA, Luka, etc. play. I hate that the NBA has allowed foul baiting and initiated contact to be an offensive play style. I think games lack flow, pace, and calls or missed calls decide too many games.
But, a guy like Luka should 100% be in the MVP discussion because in the reality of the NBA, getting calls is a skill and he is good at it. He gets to the line, gets points, and ultimately leads the Lakers to wins with a good but not elite roster. I don’t see how that’s not at least in the discussion for MVP, even if you don’t like his play style or the 3 point & foul fest that is the NBA. That’s the NBA you’re voting for players in.
2 out of those 3 have nothing to say other than tweeting leaks. Bill is the only one who actually knows anything about basketball.
Who listens to those three?
A bad Luka night is a 40% 30 pts, 9 assists, 7 rebounds.
and 3 complaints to the ref
You’re robbing him his numbers
No way, he prob gets 3 even before tip off
Luka was 27-7-7 on 44% in February with a 6-6 record.
0-6 vs teams above .500, which is probably why he dropped in mvp rankings
Funny response but he has a point
3 weeks ago he got attacked almost daily by every mainstream basketball pundit
NBA media should be ashamed for how they covered Luka this year and in 2023-2024 when he averaged 34/9/10
He will get attack when they start losing
The media cycle around him has been brutal, they’ll hyperfocus on the complaining but ignore the historic numbers he’s putting up.
That’s the point I can’t take and I’m so pissed off. That’s why I don’t care anymore about the “twitter Stans.” At this point, Luka NEEDS those PR stans the way he’s been talked as if he was a fringe NBA player case
The media’s obsession with narratives over actual performance is exhausting. Dude’s putting up historic numbers and they’d rather talk about his body language.
It’s more to do with how the Lakers have been than Luka. In general, the players ranked ahead of Luka have played on better teams and MVP has become a combined team/individual award. Lakers have only recently caught fire.
He averaged 27-7-7 on 43% in February. Lakers went 6-6 and did not beat one team over .500. Particularly embarrassed by title contenders.
The criticisms were fair.
It’s true, Luka’s usage rate still #1, and his supporting roster is so much weaker than SGA.
But clearly the “Most Valuable Player” is going to go to the guy who is having himself a great season, but while he is surrounded by arguably, no not arguably, OBJECTIVELY, the best roster in the league!
So what DOES the MVP award even mean? Is it given to the best player on the #1 seeded team? Or is it given to the player that having the most historic and productive season in the NBA?
Regardless, whatever the criteria is, it’s not going to Luka🤣
MVP changes every year.
If it was best player Bron would have 10.
whatever media decides. aka, Perkins and Steven A. Smith
MVP goes to the closest of an American you can get. Since americans aren’t there currently, they giving it to a canadian. Still on America continent I guess.
OKC are 10 games ahead of the Lakers. That nods to sga.
SGA has specifically not had his second best player the entirety of the year and is still 10 games ahead. That nods to sga.
OKC have had a majority of their team miss games, being in the 5 teams most hit by injury. Shai has played most of the year amd they have the record. Shai gets that nod.
Luka has had to compete woth Lebron for touches, star time and usage. Lebron is an MVP and takes a lot of attention from Luka. This also leans toward SGA.
Luka is an offensive phenomenon. So is everyone in the MVP talks. Efficiency and defence set the other 3 front runners apart from Luka.
“Lebron is an MVP and takes a lot of attention from Luka. This also leans toward SGA” - holy smokes, what is this take?
Is it defensive attention you are talking about? Nobody is guarded as heavily as Luka this year when on ball, not even close. Heck, not even this decade lol.
Is it about media attention? AR would probably have more of that than SGA lol
And on the other topics, just peek at the OKC net rating with SGA on the bench (+5.7): that would be 5th best net rating in the league, only trailing Spurs, Pistons, Celtics and Knicks and what is a 56 wins pace. That’s the quality of OKC roster without SGA.
You know what Lakers are without Luka? -1.4, which would be 19th best net rating in the league, only ahead of Blazers among play-in teams and on pace for 38 wins. They are already at 45 otherwise.
Didn’t JJ himself vote for Jokic over Luka in 2024?
This may shock you, but 2024 was a different season than 2026.
I am in fact shocked
He also said something bad about AD. I don’t remember what but it offended me.
He left AD off all defense first team I believe. Still think he was dumb for that, but I’m glad he’s our coach
I remember JJ justifying his decisions with the advanced stats, which did not do AD justice bc he was flanked by poor defenders like D’lo and Taurean Prince.
AD was the best defender in the league during 2020 and 2023.
so?
So? Maybe he felt Jokic was better.
jokic was damn near avg a triple double (again) while leading his team to the 2nd best record in the west. no one knew the mavs were going to the finals
Joker deserved it
I mean, yeah
That and the lack-of-conditioning narrative
It’s funny how a dude with a 38% usg who is always on go mode can have a lack of conditioning narrative lol. Luka career average in mpg 35
Or defense
Yeah let’s not pretend that this whole sub a few weeks back was just clips of luka pitching to refs and not getting back on defense. He deserves all the criticism during that stretch just as much as he deserves the praise for his run right now.
Even during that period, he was still playing better than Jaylen Brown and Lakers were still winning games. He didn’t deserve that at all.
It’s because his teams don’t win alot of regular season games.
If Luka is ever on a 60-ish win team you will see the dickriding.
Yeah, but Jokic won with 3rd place 47-25 and fucking 6th place 48-34.
Well right now the top 2 MVP candidates are top 2 seed in the league.
One of them went 19-2 in the last 2 months and is still second place in rankings.
Before this 8-0 run the Lakers were bouncing between 3-5 seed barely on pace to win 50 games, ofc he’s not in the MVP conversation.
And bringing up Jokic makes no sense either, he’s been dropping in rankings ever since he came back from injury and started losing games.
Luka was not in the MVP conversation because up until this 8-0 run, he had no case of being the MVP.
What was Westbricks win total the year he won?
In the last 5 years only one mvp won on a 60-win team, but apparently only Luka needs a 60-win team to win an mvp. Totally fair.
Third place in the west is too far back to win MVP? Absurd
Edit: and winning more games def helps (ie wemby Shai, but it should not detract heavily from Luka’s case)
Well, the guys ahead of him have won more games so yes it matters.
Exactly what I said
The goalposts will keep on moving for Luka until he wins a ring. It is what it is
Problem is hes been handicapped by terrible management his entire career
He had a fucking gm that actively hates his ass 😂😂
And i think what team record is , its the stupidest narrative there is .. a player draging a g league roster to playoff spot in 6 or 7th place is more valuble then best player on a great roster that finishes 1 or 2nd .. any day .. also i am not saying luka has a g league roster with lakers .. i am just painting a picture
He carried the Mavs to the NBA finals
He had Kyrie and what does the playoffs have to do with regular season MVP.
I think it is more that they know instigating gains more clicks than dickriding.
Just look at our sub when we lose vs when we win.
I swear, it is not always, but oftentimes, it is more active when we lose than when we win. Right now we got some good narratives running like Luka 60 and Bron triple double on a back to back and we riding the high of this win streak. But on normal occasions, I could swear a loss generates more sub activity than a win.
JJ knows that the media lowkey fucked Luka over. Yeah he complains a lot, but that shouldn’t be a negative to his MVP odds
I’m a Luka fan and I’ve always said I don’t care if people don’t like him, don’t like his attitude or something. But don’t lie about how good he is because you don’t like him.
It’s the consequence of not being a media darling like Jokic.
They did the same to Jokic until the Nuggets won the championship. Then it became cool to like him, I guess
… Not really? Jokic won 2 whole MVPs before winning a ring. And the advanced stats (which, I know, are merely indicators) have loved him for his entire career, which made him popular among guys like Thinking Basketball even before his first MVP. Jokic being robbed of the 2023 MVP was one of the biggest narratives that season even before he followed up his stellar regular season play with one of the most effortless postseason masterclasses.
I guess you have somewhat of a point, but it’s apples and oranges.
Naah man they didn’t like Jokic as well strangely, but thankfully Nuggets got AG and Jokic won the ring with a competent roster.
No one is lying about how good he is lol he just isn’t the MVP.
He’s more valuable to the Lakers than SGA is to the Thunder.
It’s wild how much narrative drives MVP voting, and Luka’s complaining gets more attention than his actual stats.
He’s a completely one sided player. He’s one of the worst defenders in the NBA, that should be a major knock on his MVP hopes.
Some dumb people really fucked him up with the no defense narrative.
It all goes back to: (1) Windhorst’s unhinged monologue during the 24 Finals when he recast that entire playoff run as an indictment of Luka as a player, and inexplicably blamed Luka for Dallas losing to Boston despite the Dallas offense, not its defense, being the driving factor because of Kyrie and role players shooting horribly
(2) everything to do with Nico blaming Luka for the Finals loss and then trading him while publicly framing it as an issue of Luka’s defense, which made no sense but everyone adopted his talking points anyway
Just an unbelievable sequence of events when Luka at 24 years old led Dallas to the Finals on a team cobbled together 3 months earlier at the trade deadline. The fact that the media and then Nico turned that accomplishment into a pile-on about Luka’s shortcomings is truly one of the most illogical pathetic things I’ve seen.
Even before I started liking Luka, Windhorst’s rant sounded so personal. Like he REALLY didn’t like Luka in that moment. You would’ve thought Luka had insulted his family.
It’s wild how that narrative stuck when he’s clearly improved on that end this season.
It’s wild that it stuck when Windy went on that whole rant in the first place, given the Mavs held the Celtics to their worst offense of the entire playoffs and it was the Mavs offense from everyone but Luka that lost them the games.
They literally didn’t lose the finals because of defense at all and the story somehow became they lost it entirely because of Luka’s defense.
Luka was targeted in a one on one +90% in that finals defensively. Or in a pick n roll.
If Kyrie was logged on it would’ve been different bc Luka is the only player that showed up. If Kyrie played like 59% ability it would’ve been close. But since he stomped on the logo he cannot play in bean town. Choke artist ssa
And it’s not why they lost given it resulted in the Celtics worst offense of the playoffs.
Cause media needs to shove FTA down our throats 24⁄7
Luka leads the league in FTA per game, and shot 30% from 3 up until mid January, Shai has been good since October، MVP is a full season award.
Ironic in so many ways 🤣
It’s wild how much free throw numbers get treated like the ultimate stat when they’re often just a measure of who gets the whistle.
Luka deserves to be in MVP conversation… Look at that LAL right now, they are #3 in tight western conference…
7 and 10 games behind 1 and 2 though
JJ put Stephen A in his place time and time again. He knows how bad national narratives are
Even people like Zach Lowe, who I respect, fell into the Luka over hate trap
Luka starts every year as a betting favorite to win MVP and everyone on every panel picks him as a favorite. This weird victim shit surrounding his MVP case is tiresome. He’s not winning MVP this season unless SGA doesn’t meet the games requirement so really what is this whining about? A 2nd or 3rd place finish?
You got talking heads putting him in the Cade/Brown tier, that’s absolutely disrespectful.
I agree that sga technically deserves another one this year but Luka also needs one undeserved one after the 23⁄24 robbery
I’d put JB ahead of both of them. JB doesn’t score 33 a night, but he has the worst supporting cast of the 3 and his defense is heads and tails above SGA and Luka.
The kids will say she was glazing him
u/ Even luka’s coach doesnt think Luka should win mvp
Bros 10 games behind OKC, 7 games behind the spurs and plays 1 end of the game.
Hes got a net rating 3.4, (albeit 9.7 post asb)
SGA at +14.9 (11.2 post asb)
Wemby is +16.2 (25.5 post asb)
He’s not in the MVP conversation for the same reason that Jokic is not even top 3 in MVP odds anymore.
Having a bad stretch of games completely kills any chance at winning the narrative battle that is the MVP race. Shai is just the epitome of consistency right now so it’s that much harder to put others in the race with him when they have a bad stretch.
Can you point out any bad stretch for luka? Because I didn’t see it.
Luka got that James Harden reputation
A bit harsh but true
Tell him to score 85
It’s because he complains to the refs..you do know. And that’s the first step to self help
Maybe because he’s lazy on D
He shouldn’t win this year, but he should be a top 5 vote getter (which I think he will be when the tallies are revealed)
reddick
the biggest luka hater in the game
JJ the psychology major!
He’s hitting the hair dye ah hell nah
Hahaha
“Do you enjoy watching Luka play?” mofos better catch these Ls.
Luka seems to either shoot his team out of games, or carry them on his back to the win. He’s pretty streaky in a weird way. He’ll play below his averages for stretches, and people will start to question if running the entire offense through him is for the best. Then he’ll turn around and play like an unstoppable demigod for stretches and the narrative flips completely. Hopefully he can carry this energy into the playoffs because he’s ballin’ out right now.
Reminds me of how AI used to be trashed by the media. MVP, scoring titles. Has a bad game, and commentators go stupid.
Most of these commentators don’t even ball, they just chasing views. Ballers know ballers.
This sub so fickle lol
He can’t say the real reason. Everybody knows, that if Luka was a black man, guys like Perkins would treat him like a god.
Nah NBA rigged!!!
It sucks they have to play this media game to get him in the convo. Maybe let’s not let the media solely pick the MVP? We let the fans have a say for all star and that affects the players contracts. Why not for MVP?
Its probably because of how he ending up on the Lakers
At this rate I expect he will benefit from an “owed one” narrative in the next few years. But SGA is repeating this year
The truth. You’re already playing for the Lakers so naturally despised by a lot of people. Don’t give them an opportunity to hate you more.
He’s the most electrifying star since Kobe.
I’d say mostly due to defense. When Wemby exists, you can’t win it as a 1 dimensional player, no matter how good that dimension is.
Him playing zero defense might have something to do with it as well maybe?
Saying that is saying “I did not see him play ever.”
Problem with Luka is when it works, yeah he’s fun to watch. When he’s not playing well, he has lots of clumsy mistakes that he immediately blames on the referee. He really is a tough watch at times. And he’s not known for his defense or his focus lmao.
It’s okay if he’s not MVP.
Pretty glaring reason…he doesn’t play defense.
2nd favourite for MVP btw