SGA For MVP? – What Would Realistically Have to Happen?

SGA For MVP? – What Would Realistically Have to Happen?

Uh well in honor of uh JJ reck scoring 21 points on January 1st in 2012 I did kind of have a list but I’m gonna start with this Shay gilis Alexander will win the MVP the Nicole yic Joel ENB discourse will lead to a split and that will also

Lead to an opt out or it will just become a shay guilis Alexander Luca just debate and Shay will win that out wow I like it wow wow that is a bold prediction you said you wanted bold I came with the goods what y’all think of

That one I got more I got more I have a a very quick question for you Steve what’s up if Shay does in fact win the MVP will you be happier that you are right or more annoyed by how I will act if Shay

Wins MV uh the answer is yes it’s a very strong yes like seven emojies yeah the fire yeah yeah yeah cuz you’re going to do cartwheels and maybe maybe I’m coping I don’t know all right so you guys may not know this and I may have mentioned this in passing to you on

One of the podcasts but I said before the season that myself and Tommy we were going to stay away from any any MVP talk until the 50 game mark my bad because it just got it got too much last year and now we’re like talking MVP on these

Debate shows five games into the season and it’s just like pointless whatever however because this is the Bold prediction of 2024 we are allowed to talk about the MVP so let’s let’s sort of break down because I I think Shay obviously has a case right now for

MVP let’s break down what it would take outside of outside of uh the split vote with jic and embiid and the discourse around that let’s let’s talk about that I think OKC likely would have to be in the top two in the west I think with the way Denver’s

Starters are are playing right now Murray yesterday in that Christmas Day game looked like playoff Jamal Murray has for the last five games I think assuming Health with them they’re going to be in the top two or three in the west um Minnesota still playing

Well and if OKC ends up sort of in that two or three spot Shay has a case the problem is if joic also is in that two or three spot all right how are you sort of De delineating between the two cases I think with embiid in particular Philly I I think there’s

Momentum there this is just talk narrative for a second there’s momentum there because of the expectations right everybody expected Milwaukee to be awesome everybody expected Boston to be awesome and those teams have been really good uh Boston in particular with their starting lineup 15 and one as of this

Recording the expectation around the Sixers with the nonsense and the drama in training camp and then Harden getting traded I don’t think that they were expect to be as good as they are 20 and five as of this recording with embiid so as long as they’re playing well it’s

Going to be hard to take away embiid’s case um so it reminds me a little bit of last year where it’s like I I think Shay is is clearly the third guy to me right now in in this MVP discussion and if you guys disagree with that I’m I’m welcome

To to talk about that but I think for me he’s the third guy right now it reminds me a little bit of last year where you know when I had the vote at the end it’s like embiid yic Giannis I ultimately went with Giannis um you

Know I I I I broke it down on on the podcast but I I’m just trying to Envision a sario so talk me through this Envision a scenario where Beyond just a split vote about the MB yic back and forth and the last three MVP votings them going one

Two how does Shay get the MVP H well I’ll go first I know Nas has a whole lot to say my thing is it it’s in beads right now because we are what 26 days in this month of December this man’s still averaging I agree with you

As of right now I have December 26th I agree with you 40 points a night in the whole month I I think I go back to the Chicago game where Joel and be played well and the Sixers lost and the Sixers have some setbacks or the league catches

Up to them and maybe they don’t fall to the four seed but the winning isn’t as much I think he maybe things move on I do agree I think OKC second I I want to clarify that you’re saying they they still are the third seed but maybe there’s more separation yes so maybe

Boston Milwaukee sort of separate one two okay all right so it’s it’s less hey we’re a game and a half behind Milwaukee and more we’re five or six games out let’s say hypothetically OKC would have to be the two seed to me uh I think there would be momentum for Shay if OKC

Is that two seed based on expectations and based on the workload that he has for that offense I think I it’s splitting hairs because of how much joic drives Denver but this there’s always to me an unknown quality or unknown quantity Where we didn’t expect you to

Do this and for you to do this night in night out and drive the way that he does improve the way that he has in the mid-range to go from what 47 48% to in the 50s on volume um to be able to combat defenses who still and this is

Nas will tell you this was my take like hey eventually the league is going to catch up to Shay they’re going to throw something at him more help and he’s been like that’s fine I will continue to drive and if I see y’all showing help early I will just step back and shoot

And I have no problem doing either thing y’all have not figured me out yet and that’s where in my mind I’m like okay if OKC’s number two no one saw it coming he’s still performing at this high level I feel that momentum might be stronger than a yic who’s doing incredible

Things um but there’s a known quantity to that is where my boldness comes in okay so if embiid in the Sixers take a step back OKC gets that two seed I think he rises above okay all right that’s reasoned the what is your what is your sort of take

On all of this um like I again I don’t think that’s too farfetch like it is bold just considering how well embiid and yic have played and just just generally what the discourse has been but like I I could get there to Shay like I think that’d be a fun pick um

With both of you guys like he’s probably number three for me right now um in terms of trying to Envision what the Shay case would look like I think just very quickly like I would go to some of the onoff stuff if how depending on how

Much the voters care about that kind of thing and to where like if you go to PVP stats they allow you to filter with just the games that that players played so you don’t get the this guy missed eight games the team was off what without or

Whatever and so looking at that uh Philly is a plus 13.2 with Joel on the floor and they’re plus 13.9 with him off which speaks to how well Tyrese Maxi is played and how well that bench is played so it’s not a you shouldn’t denigrate Joel off of that but if you’re getting

Into this team can’t survive without what this guy is doing you can at least argue okay Tyrese Maxi plus bench has been able to carry the load to a degree that Joel embiid has not seen in his career to this point meanwhile Shay plus 12 with him on they’re minus six with

Him all and then yok you still have plus 12 with him on minus 12 with him off in terms of on off stuff and so from there again like plus 13 for B plus 12 for Shay that isn’t that big of a difference so if you are assuming like

OKC fit is top two and Phillies in third or something like that and then you factor in the defense in which I think yoka has been fine this year I think Shay has a fringe all defense case I think Joel and beid should be in the defensive player of the year discussion

But we have had the stretches where Joel’s just kind of chilling defensively not that it still can’t be effective because of how fierce R protector is but if he does if he loses some of the loudness with his defensive player the year case and you have Shay leading the

League and Steals on top of dropping 30 efficiency efficiently for a team that a lot of people didn’t anticipate um to be this high up in standings like we had the conversation earlier in the year where you asked what would OKC’s highend be for me and I was

Like I think they can get home court and I have somehow undersold that with how they played so far this year and so you put all of that by the way it seemed it seemed like a a a step not a step out on

A ledge but it it seemed like a bold a boldish prediction at the time yeah like that that was like to me that that aligned with where I thought their ceiling could be and that they’re to me they’re closer than they’re closer to it if you know what I mean by it they’re

Closer to it than I even realized and they’re they’re awesome they’re like nearly there yeah so you’re gonna get you’re going to end up with a case where Shay has the scoring stuff and the playmaking he’s going to have the efficiency he’s going to have the all

Defense case you’re going to have the onoff stuff like you’re looking at if you want to look at like EPM right now like number one is Joel and be number two is Shay and so any sort of slipage from embiid or you know we’re removing the

Discourse portion of it right now but if you bring that back into the table it becomes a little bit more realistic that Shay could get this thing

In this clip, Steve Jones Jr. of the Dunker Spot presents his bold prediction for 2024 – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will win MVP. Now that is bold so the guys discuss what would have to happen to make the Oklahoma City Thunder star win MVP over Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.

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