Tag: NBA MVP

Winner’s Circle: NBA MVP is a regular season award, so why are we talking about the playoffs?

Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic made their cases already.

Welcome to the Winner’s Circle, a weekly column by Bet For The Win senior writer Prince J. Grimes. Here, you’ll read about stats and trends that can help you make informed betting predictions for the week ahead and beyond. Got something you want to see in the next Winners Circle, shoot Prince a message and check back next week for the response.

I’m sold. The NBA Play-in Tournament should be here to stay.

I wasn’t much of a fan when it was first introduced a couple years ago because frankly it’s a little silly to give the Nos. 9 and 10 teams in each conference a shot at making the playoffs. But upon further review, there isn’t much difference between them and the No. 7 and 8 teams. In most years, 7 and 8 don’t give us any excitement as they make the playoffs simply to get swept in the first round. They barely even earn their spots in the playoffs, often finishing under .500 and only outlasting the teams under them. At least with the play-in tournament, they can play some meaningful basketball and give us something worth watching…and betting on. Playoff futures provided value all the way to the end thanks to the play-in.

And there’s another component to this that I hadn’t considered until this year. The play-in serves as a catch-all for teams that were incomplete throughout the season due to injuries or other circumstances, a place where we get to sort out who’s putting it all together at the right time. The Cleveland Cavaliers were great all year but banged up towards the end, which is why they slid into the play-in group. As fun as they were to watch, nobody wanted to see an incomplete Cavs team in the playoffs. And the Nets were in the play-in because they were incomplete a lot of the year but got healthy at the right time. They were able to prove their playoff worth to create one of the most exciting No. 2 vs. No. 7 matchups ever. Through the play-in tournament, these things were sorted out.

The same thing likely would have happened in the West with the Clippers, who had been incomplete all year. They got Paul George back just in time for the play-in and seemed on track to make a playoff push until he was ruled out of the second game due to COVID-19. They lost to the Pelicans, who were a more complete team for one game, but would the Clippers have beaten New Orleans with Paul George and given the Suns a better series? Maybe. These are the things the play-in tournament sorts out. The stakes are higher, which makes the basketball better. Everybody wins.

Here are a few more things I’m looking at in the week ahead.

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OKC Thunder social media: Josh Giddey ratios a random

Oklahoma City Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey ratio’d a random on Twitter after tweeting about what constitutes as an MVP.

Oklahoma City Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey — who was officially ruled out for the remaining eight games in the regular season on Saturday — went to Twitter to express his definition of what the MVP should be.

Using an old Peyton Manning quote, Giddey said that the most valuable player is the player that makes the most players valuable. This basically means that the player that helps makes his teammates better should be the MVP. Which is quite the argument to make considering Giddey’s strength as a player involves passing and playmaking abilities.

Giddey would then respond to an account saying that they saw Giddey’s deleted tweet of him quote tweeting the Manning quote. Giddey would respond by saying that he can also see this ratio.

For those who don’t know, a ratio means that a reply to a tweet vastly outnumbers the likes and retweets, which means that the replied tweet is considered poor by public opinion.

Giddey rarely uses Twitter so it was nice to see some personality from the 19-year-old, who is arguably the best TikToker in the NBA.

Nikola Jokic posts a wild one-of-a-kind stat line as the latest blow thrown in the MVP battle

Don’t tell Jokic’s teammates he’s not this year’s MVP.

The MVP battle has been a heavyweight fight this season, with centers Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic leading the way almost from the start.

And while Embiid has been the betting favorite for several weeks, and remains so with -120 odds on Tipico Sportsbook, Jokic landed the latest blow sure to close the gap.

On Sunday night, Jokic lifted his Denver Nuggets to a win over the New Orleans Pelicans with a stat line never recorded before in NBA history. He had 46 points (16-22 FG), 12 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and four blocks to become the only person to hit each threshold since steals and blocks became official in 1973-74.

And if the 46-point triple-double on 70% shooting wasn’t impressive enough, he scored 30 — 30! — of those points in the 4th quarter and overtime alone. Truly amazing stuff from the reigning MVP.

Jokic’s odds this season remain the second-shortest at +210, but after Sunday’s game, his coach and teammates made it clear he’s second to no one.

Hopefully Jokic left something in the tank for Monday. The Nuggets will be playing the second night of a back-to-back to make up for a postponed game against the Golden State Warriors (+8.5).

Embiid also takes the floor Monday night, at home against the Chicago Bulls (+6.5) and their MVP candidate Demar DeRozan (+1200).

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Don’t pencil in Joel Embiid as MVP just yet. Giannis Antetokounmpo is lurking

The Greek Freak isn’t as far back as the Embiid and Jokic hype would lead many to believe

While Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic have dominated the conversation around this season’s Most Value Player award, another player has been flying under the radar and is perhaps closer to striking than people realize.

That was until Monday, when he very much put the league on notice. Again. 

Two-time league MVP and reigning Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 50 points on an unreal 17-of-21 from the field in a win over the Indiana Pacers. It was the fourth 50-point game of his career and a performance reminiscent of his 50-point outburst in the closeout Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

Entering Thursday, Antetokounmpo has +350 odds on Tipico Sportsbook to claim a third MVP award, the third shortest behind Embiid at +155 and Jokic at +300. He’ll have a chance to further entrench himself in the race when his Milwaukee Bucks (-6.5) host Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.

NBA MVP Odds

Joel Embiid +155

Nikola Jokic +300

Giannis Antetokounmpo +350

Stephen Curry +750

Ja Morant +1200

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That Antetokounmpo is a distant third is somewhat a sign of how much his greatness is taken for granted. While Embiid is no doubt having an incredible season, picking up where he left off in last year’s injury-riddled campaign, the assumption that he’s a lock this year is a little misguided.

Antetokounmpo is having a season not only very much on par with Embiid and Jokic’s, but also similar to his own previous two MVP campaigns.

The Greek Freak enters Thursday as the league leader in scoring at 29.4 points, slightly ahead of Embiid’s 29.3. And he’s doing it while shooting a better percentage from the field and averaging more rebounds and assists.

The advanced numbers also favor Antetokounmpo over Embiid, as he averages more win shares per 48 minutes and has a higher player efficiency rating. This is where Jokic’s case strengthens, too, as he ranks higher than both players in WS/48 and PER while also averaging more rebounds and assists.

However, the final case for Antetokounmpo is the one category that has always mattered a lot, and that’s team success. The reigning champion Bucks are 36-23 with a .610 winning percentage, better than both the 76ers at .596 and Nuggets at .569. Embiid and Jokic have perhaps overcome more adversity due to teammate injuries and absences, which helps their cases. But the Bucks haven’t been completely healthy either, and there’s still a lot of season left.

It may be boring, but if Antetokounmpo continues at the pace he’s been playing since Christmas, averaging over 32 points per game — and the Bucks continue to pace the 76ers and Nuggets in the standings — his MVP resume will be as strong as any other candidate. 

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Nuggets coach Michael Malone thinks Nikola Jokić is one of the most disrespected MVPs. Does he have a point?

There’s actually something Malone can do to help.

Before the Denver Nuggets took on the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, their head coach took on MVP prognosticators for what he perceives to be a snub of the reigning Most Value Player, Nikola Jokic.

“I think he is one of the more disrespected reigning MVPs that I can think of in terms of the attention that he gets,” Michael Malone told reporters before the game. “If you open up the dictionary, and you look up the word consistency, there’s going to be a picture of Nikola there. And that’s going back to the Bubble. That’s going back to a 72-game season last year, and this year we knew Jamal [Murray] was going to be out for an extended period. When you add a Michael Porter, when you add a P.J. Dozier to that [injured] list, it even becomes more incredible what he’s doing.”

What prompted Malone to bring this up when he did is unclear, though the Denver Post related his statement to the Nuggets being snubbed of a Christmas Day game. According to StatMuse, Jokic was the first reigning MVP to not get a Christmas game since the NBA expanded the Christmas schedule to five games in 2008, something the Nuggets took notice of when this year’s schedule was announced in August.

It could also be the public discourse around who will win this season’s MVP, which often begins with Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant before coming around to Giannis Antetokounmpo then Jokic. On Tipico Sportsbook, Curry has the shortest odds to win the award at +140, followed by Durant at +200, Antetokounmpo at +650 and Jokic at +1300. A December poll by ESPN of 100 media members also had Jokic fourth.

From that perspective, Malone has a point. Jokic is playing just as well as he did last season, even better in some respects, and his on-off numbers are through the roof, which proves his value to the team. So why wouldn’t he be favored again, if that is indeed what Malone is insinuating should be the case?

Nikola Jokic 2021-22 2020-21 (MVP)
PPG 25.7 26.4
RPG 14.1 10.8
ASP 7.0 8.3
FG% (3P%) .563 (.354) .566 (.388)
PER 32.2 31.3
USG% 32.3 29.6
WS/48 0.275 0.301
On-Off per 100 possessions +21.6 +6.4
+/- per 100 possessions +8.6 +6.6

All stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference

The reason is because winning usually matters in these conversations. That’s where the argument would ring hollow. Whether or not it’s Jokic’s fault, the Nuggets are just 20-19 and in sixth place in the Western Conference – with zero margin between them and the first seed of the play-in tournament. Curry and Durant lead top-two teams in their respective conferences, while Antetokounmpo’s Bucks are in fourth place, just 3.5 games back of first in the East.

The Nuggets were a third place team when Jokic won the award last year. It was absolutely deserved, but in a way, showed how much respect he actually garners. Jokic was just the second player in the last 15 years to win MVP on a team that didn’t finish with a top-two record in their conference. The only other exception was Russell Westbrook when he averaged a triple-double for the first time.

Malone credited the Jokic disrespect to his game not being “sexy.” Maybe that’s the case in terms of how the award is discussed through the year, but it doesn’t hold weight where it matters: voting. Jokic’s game wasn’t sexy last season, either, when he won MVP by a very large margin.

His style of play also may have factored into the Nuggets not playing on Christmas, as the NBA is in the business of selling games. But there’s also the aforementioned absence of Murray, which more likely had something to do with that – knowing the Nuggets were going to be shorthanded coming into this season. With a full compliment of players last year, they did play on Christmas.

At the end of the day, maybe Jokic is overlooked in some respects with how the MVP award is discussed. But in the past, the award has usually gone to one of the best players on one of the best teams, not the player who did the most with less. Unless we want to change how it’s voted on, the Nuggets should win more if they want Jokic to repeat as MVP. If Malone wants to help, that’s how he can.

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Al Horford is on board with including Damian Lillard in the MVP conversation

After Damian Lillard’s game-winner vs. the New Orleans Pelicans, Al Horford tweeted that the Portland Trail Blazers star belongs in MVP conversation.

It’s unsurprising that Oklahoma City Thunder center Al Horford thinks Damian Lillard belongs in the MVP conversation.

We’re only two nights removed from Lillard accounting for 18 points in the final five minutes of the Portland Trail Blazers’ win over the Thunder, a stretch in which he hit four 3-pointers and assisted two others to stymie an OKC comeback.

It marked the fifth straight Blazers victory, a streak that has since been extended, and was sandwiched between a pair of other dominant performances by the point guard.

On Sunday, Lillard put up 34 points to lead Portland over Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. On Tuesday, he took over at the end of the game to beat the Thunder, finishing with 31 points. The next night, he put up 43 points, 16 assists and scored the game-winner against the New Orleans Pelicans.

That final performance prompted Horford to quote-tweet reporter Nate Jones, who had posted that “no one is playing like more of a MVP right now” than Lillard.

Horford agreed.

So far, the NBA MVP conversation has largely centered around Joel Embiid, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Kevin Durant.

Lillard has entered the chat.

Serious Most Valuable Award conversation is still distant — we have a whole second half of the season to play — but right around the corner is the All-Star Game.

Voting for the starters will be announced Thursday, and the second guard spot next to Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry will likely be either Lillard or Doncic.

It appears Horford thinks it should be Lillard. It’s clear why.

Rockets fans roast Giannis for sharing his video edit with Olajuwon

Many Rockets fans on Twitter didn’t take kindly to Antetokounmpo’s edited video of himself alongside Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan.

With his recent MVP win for the 2019-20 season, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo joined NBA legends Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan as the only players in league history to win the awards for MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

“Just being in that conversation and in the same sentence as them, it means a lot to me,” Antetokounmpo said after the announcement.

At the moment, though, there is one obvious outlier among that trio. Jordan and Olajuwon combined for eight NBA titles in the 1990s, whereas the “Greek Freak” is still looking for his first after another early exit from the playoffs. When Olajuwon won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the 1993-94 season, he capped it with the first championship of his career and in the entire history of the Houston Rockets.

So when Antetokounmpo posted an edited video to his Twitter account on Wednesday of his own highlights mixed with Jordan and Olajuwon, many users felt compelled to note the clear difference.

It was a remarkable 2019-20 season for Antetokounmpo, who averaged 29.5 points (55.3% FG), 13.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game.

But until the 6-foot-11 forward wins a title, there’s an obvious gap between the Milwaukee star and the sport’s all-time greats.

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Former Warrior Kevin Durant reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo winning MVP over LeBron James

In an appearance on the Joe Budden Podcast, ex-Warrior Kevin Durant weighed in on the MVP race between Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James.

Kevin Durant knows what it takes to earn the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. During his 12 year career, the former Golden State Warrior brought home one Maurice Podoloff trophy (2014) and two Finals MVP awards (2017 and 2018).

After suffering an Achilles injury in the 2019 Finals, Durant was sidelined for his first season as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. With Durant recovering from injury, the NBA’s MVP field was left between Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and James Harden.

On Friday, the league announced Antetokounmpo won his second consecutive MVP with 85 first-place votes and 962 total points. The Milwaukee Bucks forward is the first player to win back-to-back MVP awards since Warriors guard Stephen Curry won in 2015 and 2016. James placed in second in the voting with 16 first-place votes and 753 points.

In a recent appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast, Durant spoke about the competition between James and Antetokounmpo for NBA hardware. After Budden said he believed James should have won, Durant chimed in on the 2020 MVP race.

Via The Joe Budden Podcast:

The criteria is the regular season, but I understand. I feel the same way you feel. I think that they should evaluate the whole season — playoffs included. If you include the playoffs, the Bron is easily the MVP. But I see why, with the rules now, why Giannis was the MVP. His numbers were crazy.

Listen to Durant’s explanation on The Joe Budden Podcast via Spotify at the 106:40 mark.

On his way to earning the title of back-to-back MVP, Antetokounmpo averaged 29.5 points on 55.3% shooting from the field with 13.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists, one block and one steal per contest in the regular season. “The Greek Freak” placed in the top-five in both points and rebounds per game.

Antetokounmpo helped lead the Bucks to a league-high 56 wins. Despite a top seed for the Bucks and impressive numbers from Antetokounmpo, their run through the postseason didn’t last long. The Miami Heat eliminated the Bucks in the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs in only five games.

While Antetokounmpo and the Bucks begin their offseason, the James led Los Angeles Lakers are trying to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals at Disney World.

During the Orlando Bubble playoffs, the 35-year-old is averaging 25.6 points on 54.7% from the field with 10 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks in 12 playoff games. Although he missed out on the MVP, James still has the chance to leave the Orlando Bubble with hardware.

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