A GM can't vote for his own team, so the non-Dubs votes are their own guy and one other GM who thinks his team has a shot.
Also interestingly...
Fifty percent of GMs who voted in the survey believe Cleveland's LeBron James will win the MVP. Russell Westbrook, last year's MVP, wasn't one of the top five vote-getters in this year's survey, which is likely a reflection of the Oklahoma City Thunder adding fellow All-Stars Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
So how can Russ be the most valuable player with a bunch of blah around him but not among the five most valuable players with a couple stars?
A GM can't vote for his own team, so the non-Dubs votes are their own guy and one other GM who thinks his team has a shot.
Also interestingly...
Fifty percent of GMs who voted in the survey believe Cleveland's LeBron James will win the MVP. Russell Westbrook, last year's MVP, wasn't one of the top five vote-getters in this year's survey, which is likely a reflection of the Oklahoma City Thunder adding fellow All-Stars Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
So how can Russ be the most valuable player with a bunch of blah around him but not among the five most valuable players with a couple stars?
My guess is that the GM's didn't think that Westbrook was the most valuable player with a bunch of blah around him.
I think Russ won because of his counting stats rather than some intangible notion of "value" and they know he isn't going to hit those stats with Melo & George.
thrill wrote:I think Russ won because of his counting stats rather than some intangible notion of "value" and they know he isn't going to hit those stats with Melo & George.
I think it's a sign of giving too much credence to role. Imagine if LeBron was in the Russ position last year on the Thunder and they said "Go do everything. We will even have the bigs box out so you can grab rebounds without breaking a sweat. Go have a 40% usage rate." What does that look like? 35/15/15 as a season average? 40/15/15? 40/15/20? LeBron was 26.4/8.7/8.6 with a 30% USG last year on a team with Kyrie to be the PG, Love to score, and Thompson and Love to rebound. He trailed Russ by 3.2 PPG / 1.7 APG / 2.1 RPG only.
Imagine if in 2005 it was like "Sorry, Albert, you aren't the most valuable because you play with Edmonds and Rolen and Carpenter and Molina and Walker, and we are giving the award to Derrek Lee because he led the league in batting and slugging and OPS and he had to do it all for the Cubs because they failed to put anything else around him." Or if the Ballon d'Or refused to consider Ronaldo because Real Madrid has so much talent, while Jamie Vardy is kind of everything to Leicester City.
I like the Balon d'Or because it's just about greatness, which is an equally subjective thing, but at least it ends up going to the right guy. That's a very funny comparison, because american sports writers would totally talk themselves into the Leicester narrative being more impressive than Madrid because one team was "supposed" to win and the other wasn't. Riyad Mahrez won Premier League POY that year, but was 7th in the Balon d'Or.
NBA writers in particular just get bored of voting for the same guy every year, even when they should.
The Sixers will be one of the most fun teams to watch, right? Especially on nights when Embiid plays? Is Simmons going to be a point forward like Giannis?
Farewell Friends wrote:The Sixers will be one of the most fun teams to watch, right? Especially on nights when Embiid plays? Is Simmons going to be a point forward like Giannis?
Yes yes and yes*!!
*Like Giannis he'll be a long point-forward/guard thing, but I think Giannis has the 1st or 2nd highest ceiling in the NBA (Embiid) and I wouldn't necessarily think Simmons will be Giannis-like in quality, esp as a rookie.
