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00:00The MVP race is between two if it is not between one.
00:05It is SGA and Nikola Jokic.
00:08This is, look, these are two excellent candidates.
00:13There is no way to slice it.
00:15I believe that there is the camp who feels as if Jokic will not win this
00:23because of fatigue.
00:24I think that is very, I think that lacks a lot of awareness
00:29as to what SGA has been both sides of the floor
00:32for a team that flirted with 70 wins this season.
00:37I'll go to you first, J.Y.
00:39Do you feel that this ultimately will be SGA comfortably as the league's MVP?
00:45Yes, I do.
00:46And I think it has to do with the fact of,
00:48and I do think voter fatigue has a small portion of it,
00:52but it should not be the overwhelming theme
00:55because if that's overwhelming theme, you're right.
00:57You're disrespecting what SGA has done this year, right?
01:01So SGA's team is, I think, 15 games ahead in the Western Conference.
01:07That's wild.
01:08That's like winning, what, by like 30 games in Major League Baseball.
01:11Yeah.
01:11Yeah, about 30 games in Major League Baseball.
01:14Let's make sure I get my numbers right.
01:16But when you look at his stats and what he's done,
01:19getting you at 32.7 points per game, getting the rebounds,
01:22getting the steals, the blocks, 2.7 assist to turnover ratio,
01:26and at points, Hart and Stein was out of the lineup.
01:30Shet had missed significant time, and this team continued to roll.
01:34Sometimes it's not about what Joker did.
01:39It's about what someone else did,
01:41and their team was significantly better for the entirety of the regular season
01:46and has shown he should be on the all-defensive team as well.
01:51I think this honestly shouldn't be a race.
01:54If it is a race, it's because people honestly, Tom,
01:58are just looking at the stats of Joker averaging a triple-double this season.
02:02I, as we spoke about pre-show, I believe it should be SGA.
02:07Regardless of my personal belief that Cade Cunningham deserves some recognition
02:10for how amazing he's been this season, it's going to be SGA.
02:13And I don't want to say voter fatigue is a part of that.
02:16We've gotten to the point that we see what the team does in the standings,
02:20and at a certain point early in the year,
02:22the narrative is put forth that SGA is deserving of the award.
02:27Yeah.
02:27And it's not just that we put forth this narrative
02:29or the media in general puts forth this narrative.
02:31He's actually met those expectations, and he's exceeded them,
02:34and the team is so, so good compared to the Nuggets.
02:38So when we round it all together, a smidge of voter fatigue,
02:42this narrative, the stats, leading the league in points, all these things,
02:45it puts him in a spot where he actually does those things,
02:48but he actually deserves those things.
02:51Yeah.
02:51So I think one thing that you hit on, I think,
02:54is constantly lost in MVP conversations.
02:57If the Nuggets didn't have Jokic, they'd miss the playoffs.
02:59The gap between the Thunder and the Nuggets is almost 20 games.
03:04So, oh, yes, the Thunder would make the playoffs,
03:06but they would lose, like, 20 more games.
03:10So that doesn't work.
03:11The other thing with the voter fatigue is it's almost like a dirty thing.
03:14Like, oh, okay.
03:16If we want to go back in time and start handing out MVP,
03:19neither one of those guys have as many as they should.
03:25I don't know what it is about Nikola Jokic,
03:28seemingly Lamar Jackson a little bit for football fans,
03:32where every year we're just like, it's him.
03:38So I don't know.
03:38But last year we decided the award based on wins.
03:42Or three years ago we decided it was based on just triple-doubles.
03:48I don't – it's changing.
03:50It feels like they want to change it constantly.
03:53And I think that this is one of those things that ultimately feels –
04:00again, Jokic is having a great season.
04:02Jokic is having an unbelievable season.
04:05But it is not as if SGA is sneaking by here.
04:10If this was, respectfully, Donovan Mitchell, that's preposterous.
04:16He's not – I don't even think Donovan Mitchell has been the best Cav.
04:19Okay, but the Cav's record.
04:20I don't care about that.
04:21If you told me it was Jason Tatum.
04:23No, no, that's ridiculous.
04:26Tatum does not – Tatum is going to finish top five on the MVP ballot.
04:30He'll be first team all NBA.
04:31He's not in this race.
04:33It is required a phenomenal season out of Shea Gilgis-Alexander,
04:39and that is exactly what he has put forward here in order to win him the MVP.
04:45So that to me it is what it is.
04:48I'll take this chance then though to go a step further
04:52with where these guys stack up across this league.
04:58The consensus is Jokic is the best player in the world.
05:01We don't need to debate that point, right?
05:04I think that's, again, probably where everybody would land.
05:07My question is where you are on Shea Gilgis-Alexander relative to the rest of the NBA
05:12because I think we often look at the Thunder as this young, unproven team.
05:21But they, for me, check a box that the Rockets aren't close to checking.
05:28The Cavs probably can't check, which is they have one of the very, very, very, very,
05:33very best players in basketball.
05:35Yeah.
05:36I was the high man on SGA probably coming into the year.
05:39I viewed him as the second best player in the league, even ahead of Luka.
05:42He outplayed Luka in that series despite people rewriting history.
05:46I was the high man on SGA.
05:47I was the high man on SGA.
05:48I was the high man on SGA.
05:49I was the high man on SGA.
05:50I was the high man on SGA.
05:51I was the high man on SGA.
05:52I was the high man on SGA.
05:53I was the high man on SGA.
05:54I was the high man on SGA.
05:55I was the high man on SGA.
05:56I was the high man on SGA.
05:57I was the high man on SGA.
05:58I was the high man on SGA.
05:59I was the high man on SGA.
06:00I was the high man on SGA.