Here's the thing, 13: if you want to change someone's mind you might want to have a go at actually making an argument rather than just going ''LOOK! LOOK! ALL THESE ARTICLES THAT AGREE WITH ME, THEY'RE TOTALLY NEUTRAL AND UNBIASED!''
Like, am I supposed to take it seriously that Earl Monroe thinks a New York player is the MVP? Really? Earl Monroe, who spent 9 years in New York and won a chip there, thinks the New York guy should be the MVP favourite? Well knock my socks off. I never would have guessed.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool that New York - which has been starved for good basketball for a long time - now has two teams which are both going to make the playoffs and one that has finals aspirations. I think that's cool and I'm glad their fanbase has something to get hype over instead of spending literally all of their time thinking about the next free agency, but that doesn't mean the Randle For MVP talk isn't an overreaction. It is. He is not the MVP, he's not top 3 in the conversation, and as I said before he's probably not top 5 either. He's having a great year but he isn't even All NBA second team, let's be real about this.
Jokic:
- Averages 26/11/9 on 64%TS all without dominating the ball
- For the 38-21 4th seed in the West (Knicks are 4th seed in the East with a 33-27 record)
Leads the league in:
- WS and WS/48
- BPM
- VORP
- EPM and estimated wins added
- LEBRON and wins added
- RAPTOR and wins above replacement
- PlayVal
While also being top 5 in ScoreVal, Offensive Rating On, Box Creation, Passer Rating, and still grading out at a mild positive on defense. By comparison, Randle doesn't fall into the top 10 of any of these statistics, and not even in the top 20 for some of them (he's 42nd in the NBA in EPM, for example), and despite all of that and his team winning fewer games I'm supposed to have him as a real MVP candidate? Be realistic for God's sake.