Wemby is shoving himself down everyone’s throat by being really fuckin good

Wemby is being shoved down everyones throat right now to make it a conversation

You sure it isn’t because he’s perhaps the greatest defensive player we’ve ever seen, his team is something like 23-2 in his last 25 games, and he’s dominated the head to head matchups with SGA? Because that seems much more likely than just “totally astroturfed media conspiracy” or whatever you think is happening

If the Spurs take the 1 seed, which is possible right now because OKC has the tougher schedule, he should absolutely get MVP. For all the talk of the Pistons taking this big step up, the Spurs took a massive step this season. The weren’t even in the play-in last year. Honestly, I don’t see Shai as the better argument anymore. Wemby is now right there with him in many advanced metrics. Sure, he doesn’t play as many minutes, but he doesn’t need to. For the first couple months of the season people were saying Shai sitting out 4th quarters was a good thing, that also applies to Wemby’s minutes (and it’s only 4 less than Shai per game). I mean, I feel like if you are simultaneously a top 20 offensive player and the DPOY by a mile, your team has about the same number of wins as OKC, and you shit on OKC ⁴⁄₅ times, how is that not MVP?

Why would sga get it if wemby finishes with same or higher record?

I’d vote wemby for finishing 2 games behind OKC tbh. What they were last year and now, and almost entirely for wemby who’s playing like 29 minutes a game

That is a LONG guy to shove down someone’s throat, WhiteHeterosexualGuy

Why not?

None of that happened last year let alone every year lmao

Embiid also rallied hard in the last month of the season to get the MVP (which I argue is rightfully his) over Jokic. Plus the Spurs dominating the matchup against OKC earlier in the season also helps his case. It’s not like SGA has far and away the best season.

i mean wemby himself was advocating defense for the mvp vote like what 2-3 days ago?

that aint the media that’s the player

Wemby is the best defensive player in basketball while also averaging 25/11/3

Hes being talked about in these convos because he’s played his way into these conversations

The spurs are two games back with 10 games to go and they hold the H2H tiebreaker over the Thunder. It’s not impossible to think the spurs could snatch the 1 seed and if they do then Wemby absolutely deserves MVP

It’s been like this lots of years. Look at 2009 for example (not the only one). Top 5 was all worthy of MVP.

Lebron had a history year and won, but below him:

• Kobe lead the Lakers to 65-17 and had a great season. Came 2nd;
• Wade had a history season and one of the best 2-way seasons of this century and finished just 3rd only because of team record. Could have won and noone would have bat an eye.
• Howard was the best defender in the world, plus a brute force on offense and lead Orlando to a history season. Came 4th;
• CP3 had one of best 2-way seasons + playmaking from a PG ever and would have won MVP in another season, but just came 5th because of team record and other monsters in front of him.

All of them played 78+ games on 36+ MPG each. Numbers rarely seen these days.

The league hasn’t been talented just these days.

It’s always like that. There’s always more than one guy that is “deserving” every season… In really close seasons, it often comes down to narrative, voter fatigue, and the player who has never won one. I don’t think this season is particularly close. SGA is having a historic season that is arguably better than any season MJ ever had.

Eyh

The lack of only Americans in the top five shows that the sport was not being played at the highest level. The same top ten from a few years ago dominated by Americans would not be in the top fen today if they played now. If the world played baseball there would be way more elite batters and pitchers like ohtani. If the world played football I’m pretty sure not every quarterback in the top ten in history would be a white American. You would be seeing greatness at another level. Those other sports are not being played at the highest level yet imo. Talent pool too little.

Yeah mid 80s just chocked full of crazy talent

I mean you can think about it that way, I’m of the opposite belief, that outside of Jordan most of the players are seen as “much less” skilled. Sure bottom to top the league is much better on average, but that doesn’t apply to the all timers. Those guys would be great in any era, similar to players like Jokic/Luka/SGA.

As much as I like today’s players, line them up positionally and I think it kinda falls apart. Like would you rather have SGA or prime Magic Johnson? Luka or Michael Jordan who won the scoring title and the DPOY that year? Current Giannis or Bird two years coming off 3 consecutive MVPs? Wembys otherworldly defense and solid offense or Hakeem giving you most of that D and more on offense? Jokic vs insert all timer (Jokic probably takes this match up lol)?

I think if you say you’d rather have the new guys to the first three questions it’s not really worth talking about. I get thinking there’s an anti recency bias but imo you’re swinging too far the other way at that point

The entire list now is a lot of future hall of farmers too. The list will most likely not be 15 people long though.

I mean, the vast majority of the time almost all players who receive MVP votes end up Hall of Famers. Last year the only guy who wasn’t a surefire HOFer was Evan Mobley who received one last place vote. Year before that, all Hall of Famers.

Sometimes you’ll see one or two guys who won’t be there, but usually they are guys like Ben Simmons who was absolutely on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

2011 was really good too, 1-14 are all sure fire all of famers with joe johnson being on the edge.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2012.html

Yeah. The only downside is that regardless of who wins, people are gonna put an asterisk on it in the future saying they didn’t deserve it.

I mean. It sucks either way. It’s either Denver and Joker or OKC or the alien if we make it to the conference finals.

There’s a solid chance we have to play the 2 time conference finalist Wolves in round 1. Houston is the only team that I feel confident beating and even they’re physical AF.

It is when the other guy is 70.5%

Sorry! I didn’t mean to imply that. Jokic was just putting up an even MORE insane efficiency and with double digit assists.

Embiid was who I favored, actually, and I personally pretty strongly dislike the group think that Embiid’s eventual MVP was a pity MVP. I think he truly lost an MVP to Jokic because of the offensive unicorn numbers Jokic put up. Embiid, for all his shortcomings in the postseason and injuries, was my MVP whichever year that was lol.

Luka averages more steals, charges, and rebounds than Shai, Luka is actually an average defender at worse. Shai is surrounded by all defensive teammates, he’s not a special defender lolz

Luka bad on defense narrative only points that you don’t watch basketball. Celtics literally targeted SGA on defense in their recent matchup numerous times as well. Thats not me calling him a bad defender, but the gap is so small.