00:00But we have what people believe are three MVP candidates in SGA, Wemby, and Jokic.
00:07But we really only have one if you listen to the odds,
00:12which is Shea Gildress-Alexander at minus 7,000.
00:1550-1 on Jokic, 50-1 on Wemby.
00:20And, Coach, I don't know if you think someone other than Shea should win the award,
00:26but I think the odds are, I don't know if I would have it at minus 7,000,
00:33but I completely expect SGA to win league MVP when the votes are all tallied up.
00:38Yeah, I mean, listen, that is what I was thinking,
00:43because obviously the way that they've played down the stretch of the season
00:46is why I would think that.
00:48But where I kind of was saying to myself, like,
00:53was there a pathway possibly for me for Wemby, right?
01:00Stephon Castle only plays in 67 games, right?
01:04You know, they've had injuries kind of sort of during the year.
01:0771 games, Darren Fox, 66, Devin Vassell, 68, Dylan Harper.
01:11They kind of navigated their way through it.
01:14And the way that Wemby, in my opinion, had dominated in his matchups versus Oklahoma City,
01:22and the way he is on both ends of the floor kind of said to me, like,
01:27huh, well, maybe we should just give it to Wemby.
01:30But then I started thinking about it.
01:31Well, then we can just give Wemby Defensive Player of the Year award,
01:34and we can go that route and then still give SGA the award.
01:37So I found this to be really fascinating.
01:40I thought the numbers should be shorter, but by the way he's played,
01:45by the way the team has played, and the amount of injuries,
01:47especially J-Dub missing the amount of time he has,
01:50it does make sense for SGA to win the MVP.
01:54Yeah, I think what's interesting right now is one of the things that helped Shea,
02:02in my opinion, win it, is his most threatening challengers from March until now
02:11were Wemby and Luka instead of Nikola Jokic.
02:19Because if you look at Luka, and again, we're not sure if Luka's even going to finish eligible, right?
02:28But Luka, brilliant season, 33 and a half points a game with eight rebounds and eight assists.
02:36But Luka had a bit of an up and down season despite all those points, right?
02:42I actually think people only talk about the defensive side of the ball with Luka in terms of struggles.
02:47I thought there were moments where Luka offensively was putting up numbers due to usage more so than greatness.
02:57I thought there was a stretch of time where that was true for the Lakers.
03:01Luka turned a corner, don't get me wrong,
03:04but I didn't think Luka was ever a real threat to win the award.
03:10And Wemby, while he is, barring health, a future multi-time league MVP,
03:21swooping in for a year three league MVP and DPOY in the same season,
03:29when he's played less than 30 minutes a night, it just didn't feel very likely to me.
03:35I think the only person who could have knocked Shea off the perch was Jokic.
03:42But that's just not the debate we've been having for a month and a half.
03:49Instead, Jokic is going to lead the league in rebounds, assists, top 10 in points a game,
03:56outrageous efficiency, and he's going to finish third, fourth on some ballots here
04:02just due to the conversation that we've seen.
04:06And I think it sets up pretty nicely for Shea as the number one overall seed in the NBA,
04:11again, to win this award.
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