Post by eric on Apr 17, 2021 16:15:45 GMT -5
Nikola Jokic is the current betting favorite to win MVP and the Denver Nuggets are projected to end up the 4 seed in the West.
Why? I'll tell you. Here are the Win Share leaders among players on the top 2 seeds in each conference for the last twenty years:
Note how aside from the six asterisked players, this list is identical to who won MVP. And in reviewing those asterisks, we find a who's who of the worst aged MVPs in NBA history:
2017 Westbrook had worse stats than Leonard (are you shocked?) on a mediocre sixth seed Thunder team BuT hE AvErAgeD a TriPLe DoUbLE. This one aged so poorly that literally the next year when Westbrook still averaged a triple double and the Thunder were actually better he got a total of 0, count 'em, 0 first-place MVP votes and finished a distant fifth.
2011 Rose had worse stats than LeBron (duh) but also the greatest Laker between Shaq and LeBron - Señor Pau Gasol Sáez, who also shares the record for most EuroBasket MVPs with current sim leaguer Kresimir Cosic, makes me wonder why no one's tried to sign that guy. How well has this one aged?
2008 Gasol joins the middling Lakers and leads them to a #1 seed, but having only played 27 games for them it couldn't be him, so instead of giving it to the objectively and incontrovertibly correct choice they gave it to one of those little guys who run around dominating the ball, throwing up thirty shots a night. We're not allowed to talk about what a flagrantly boneheaded award this is for a few more years.
Nash.
2005 Nash was on the overall #1 seed. That's the good news. The bad news is he was behind two Heats, two Spurs, one Piston... and two Suns... and this was his BEST case for MVP.
2006 Nash was still not the best player on his own team... and the Suns were a #3 seed.
2000 Iverson received 1 first place MVP vote. So what? So Shaq received 120 of the other 120, leaving him exactly one short of a unanimous MVP.
2001 voters decided to double down on this bonehead move and give Iverson the MVP despite him trailing Shaq, Ray Allen, Duncan, AND Tim Robinson.
.
What really bears repeating is that even in this cavalcade of failures only twice in the past twenty years has an MVP gone to a non top two team.
'17 Westbrook and '06 Nash.
And they were both travesties.
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Why? I'll tell you. Here are the Win Share leaders among players on the top 2 seeds in each conference for the last twenty years:
2020 Antetokounmpo
2019 Antetokounmpo
2018 Harden
2017 Leonard*
2016 Curry
2015 Curry
2014 Durant
2013 James
2012 James
2011 James*
2010 James
2009 James
2008 Paul*
2007 Nowitzki
2006 Nowitzki*
2005 Stoudemire*
2004 Garnett
2003 Duncan
2002 Duncan
2001 O'Neal*Note how aside from the six asterisked players, this list is identical to who won MVP. And in reviewing those asterisks, we find a who's who of the worst aged MVPs in NBA history:
2017 Westbrook had worse stats than Leonard (are you shocked?) on a mediocre sixth seed Thunder team BuT hE AvErAgeD a TriPLe DoUbLE. This one aged so poorly that literally the next year when Westbrook still averaged a triple double and the Thunder were actually better he got a total of 0, count 'em, 0 first-place MVP votes and finished a distant fifth.
2011 Rose had worse stats than LeBron (duh) but also the greatest Laker between Shaq and LeBron - Señor Pau Gasol Sáez, who also shares the record for most EuroBasket MVPs with current sim leaguer Kresimir Cosic, makes me wonder why no one's tried to sign that guy. How well has this one aged?
2008 Gasol joins the middling Lakers and leads them to a #1 seed, but having only played 27 games for them it couldn't be him, so instead of giving it to the objectively and incontrovertibly correct choice they gave it to one of those little guys who run around dominating the ball, throwing up thirty shots a night. We're not allowed to talk about what a flagrantly boneheaded award this is for a few more years.
Nash.
2005 Nash was on the overall #1 seed. That's the good news. The bad news is he was behind two Heats, two Spurs, one Piston... and two Suns... and this was his BEST case for MVP.
2006 Nash was still not the best player on his own team... and the Suns were a #3 seed.
2000 Iverson received 1 first place MVP vote. So what? So Shaq received 120 of the other 120, leaving him exactly one short of a unanimous MVP.
2001 voters decided to double down on this bonehead move and give Iverson the MVP despite him trailing Shaq, Ray Allen, Duncan, AND Tim Robinson.
.
What really bears repeating is that even in this cavalcade of failures only twice in the past twenty years has an MVP gone to a non top two team.
'17 Westbrook and '06 Nash.
And they were both travesties.
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
