he’s less efficient than Tim Duncan

Not even, Kobe and Duncan had the exact same TS% ha.

RAPM-flavored models (which all point to Jokic, Wemby and Shai being superior players) routinely win stats prediction competitions. Long decade+ sample size.

They vastly outperform the eye test of Reddit commenters.

I feel like I’m being gas lit reading these comments, how about the eye test on defense where Luka has been questioned on this sub multiple times throughout the season? How often have you seen SGA lack on the defensive end this season? SGA has been more consistent there’s two sides to basketball.

You realize you just eliminated four candidates ahead of him for him to be considered, right? IF, Jokic, Wemby and SGA miss too many games AND Luka hadn’t had the month he’s having Cade might be the MVP? That’s not somebody who had a real chance even before he got injured

If that’s your case it’s not Cade, it’s Haliburton lol.

Either way you’re wrong, he’s not in the same class as joker, SGA, or Luka.

That hasn’t really been a good argument this season. 

Cade has missed 8 games this season. 

Pistons have gone 6-2 in the games he missed. That’s a better winning percentage than when was on. 

Lakers being 18-18 against teams above .500 isn’t a narrative, no. Luka and Jokic are a distant third behind SGA and Wemby for MVP right now.

What’s Shai’s narrative exactly other than being the best most consistent player in the league?

He’s played as many games as Luka and SGA pretty much lmao

And his 20 minutes are more impactful than nearly everyone in the league. He still carried the Spurs even when he was on minutes restriction with his absurd defensive anti-gravity and points per minute scoring.

TBF Luka were not that great in early and mid season too.

what an over exaggeration. all the other candidates played about the same. it’s not december bro

its rough when your franchise player gets traded for a pile of shit

I hate to break it to you but nobody outside of Oklahoma cares about the 20 point streak. We’ve watched Shai drop below 20 multiple times in the playoffs. The arbitrary consecutive regular season accomplishment while ignoring playoffs is cool to absolutely no one who is unbiased. With that being said, shai will win because of his ridiculous efficiency and team record and that’s fine

Luka literally won player of the month in January and was averaging 40 early in the year too. He literally had one mid stretch in December and thats it. Literal proof of the bs narrative you guys have.

That makes the win record difference go from 10 to 8.

Dort boutta take one for SGA and bodyslam Luka’s knees first game

So does SGA cooking Luka in the first match up earlier this season count?

Luka had 19pts on 7 of 20 shooting with 7 assists and 4 TO’s in 32mins

SGA dropped 30pts on 10 of 18 shooting with 9 assists and 1 TO in 29mins.

OKC won 121 to 92.

Or are we excluding that one, it’s only the next two that count?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202511120OKC.html

I don’t think you can make up a -1500 to +2300 odd difference based on only those two happening, but we’ll see.

Edit: -2000 to +1800 rather, based on FanDuel odds, my bad. Hadn’t refreshed it for a while.

I doubt voters fatigue will kick in before a second MVP, he has the strongest case this year. Next season is going to be so fun

The biggest knock on Shai is people don’t realize how dominant he actually is bc nobody watches OKC

He’s sat 20 4ths this year bc they were up too much

I keep seeing national guys say Luka is a better scorer and I’m looking at Shai have superior per minute numbers by a mile

He’s got unanimous Steph efficiency with elite defense and the lowest turnovers per game of someone 28ppg or higher ever

How do you use the reasoning he is 3 games away from being ineligible so he can’t win mvp but ignore it with dpoy when they both have the same criteria

He was also very good to start the season. He only had a tough December I think

His advanced stats is still a tier behind Shai since January. Note that every player to finish #1 in Actual EPM at the end of the season went on to win MVP on that said season in the 2020s (even Embiid in 2023). I wouldn’t say Luka is the best in the world just basing off PRA when Shai since January is ahead in every single advanced metric you could think of.

“His team is completely struggling” they’re 3 games back from the Lakers. Luka is playing out of his mind right now but to say Jokic, or Luka, or even Wemby are not in the conversation at this point is so overconfident. These guys defy any expectations on a regular basis.

It was the same story as last year. Luka went on a good month and a half run before the playoffs and got 4-1’d by the Timberwolves.

Lmao if Luka scores 40ppg for the rest of the season and the Lakers don’t lose another game, it still won’t matter🤣

The MVP race is just completely wrapped up already in the eyes of the media members who actually get to vote on the award

It’s a joke lol. SGA mvp odds actually went up 😭

Pretty cunty of Luka to make his kids lose their father if you ask me