Hoops Tonight - MVP: Jayson Tatum or Giannis? Anthony Davis dominating on D, Paolo Banchero a star?

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the season. So we're gonna take a look at m v P Most Improved Player, Defensive Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year, and then tonight's slate of games is jam packed. I'm gonna be recording an instant reaction right after the games tonight. I'm not sure if it will actually go up on the YouTube feed tonight or tomorrow morning, but keep an eye on the feeds. We will have an instant reaction there. Um, you guys

know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least it for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you

get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. So starting with m v P, this is not my favorite award just because of the inconsistencies over the years, but I wanted to make sure that for me personally when I'm picking him an m v P, that I was consistent with my criteria. So a few years ago I nailed it down to three specific criteria and then I kind of like combine

those three when I'm ranking the players. So those three criteria that I use are who is the best player in the world, like regardless of situation, who would be the guy you'd want for a season and a playoff run for instance, Like that's the rankings list that I do over this over the summer. Where you land in that list is one chunk of the pie for me, and then the second chunk of the pie is who's

the best player on the best team. This is like your stereotypical m vps that you've seen over the years, like Steph in two thousand fifteen or James Harden in two thousand eighteen, where maybe that guy wasn't necessarily considered the best player in the world at that point, but he was clearly the best player on the best team in the league at that point. So that's the middle chunk of the pie. And then the last chunk of the pie for me is who is more directly valuable

to their team success. This is where I'm looking at like point differential stuff like how good are they with you on the floor versus when you're off the floor. These are your stereotypical m v P cases like Nicola Yokits last year, Russell Westbrook in two thousand and seventeen, where they are a lower seed but they're playing extremely good basketball and elevating an average supporting cast to a

mid level playoff birth. So I'm gonna factor all three of those things in for all these players and kind of combine them as I ranked the players. So number one at this point in the season I think is clearly Jason Tatum. So to keep it simple, Jason Tatum is clearly in the conversation for best player in the world.

I wouldn't put him directly there right now. I think Steph and Janice are clearly ahead of him, But he's every like he has every case to be at the top of the group of guys that's right behind them. So this season, Tatum is averaging thirty two, eight and five on shooting. If Kevin Durant was doing that, if Steph Curry was doing that, if Lebron James was doing that, we'd all be calling them the m v P. Once again,

he's paying like a Tatum tax. That's more like a Austin Celtics tax, where people are underrating how good he's been just simply because of who he is and who he plays for. But he has unquestionably been one of the best players in the league this year. So he's doing really well in that first chunk, and then the second chunk, which is team success. The Celtics are the best team in the league by a mile. They're eighteen and four, They're playing at a sixties seven win pace.

They have a two game lead on the rest of the field. They have the best net rating in the league by one point seven points per one hund possessions over second place, and they're on a five game winning street. So they're clearly the best team in the league, and he's clearly in the conversation for best player in the world.

And then when we look at how valuable he is to the Celtics, there plus twelve per one hundred possessions with him on the floor and their plus four per one hundred possessions with him off the four So to simplify that, they're unbelievably good when he's on the floor and they're just pretty good when he's off the floor. That's a significant differential. So he's checking all three boxes and resounding fashion. This is a classic m v P case.

Obviously he has to maintain it through another three fourth so the season, but right now I think he's the clear m v P at this point. Alright, number two, Janice, So when we're talking about that first chunk best player in the world, Janice is actually the best player in the world. I had him number one on my list coming in this year, So he's got that box completely checked. Um, he's averaging a career high thirty one points per game with twelve rebounds and six assists. His efficiency is down

a little bit this year. This is actually Janice's first time being below sixty true shooting since two thousand eighteen. But a big part of that is injuries, you know, with Pat Conatson being out, with Chris Middleton being out, even Drew Holidays miss some time. The spacing isn't quite as good around your honest, and his usage is higher as a result of the fact that they don't have as much offensive creation, so that's typically going to cause

you some issues inefficiency. As we look at the team, the Bucks are fifteen and five, only two games back from Boston, so in the team success portion, he's also got that pretty well checked. As far as differential goes, there us nine points per one possessions when he's on the floor, and then they're even when he's off the floor, so it's a similar differential to Tatum. So as we

look out, his case is also very very good. I think Tatum is just having a slightly better season, and I think his team is slightly better, so that gives Tatum the nod here, but it is close, and I do think that Janice I predicted that Janice would win

the MVP before the season. Obviously, at this point, with what we know about Joannest and with we with what we know about Jayson Tatum, and given the small gap between the two, I still predict that Janice will eventually end up getting the m v P award, But I do think if the season ended today, it would have to go to Tatum alright. Number three Devin Booker, Is he in the best player in the world conversation? No, I'd say he's probably closer to ten than he is

to one. So that's the major week portion of his case. But he is having by far the best season of his career, and is he and he has taken a leap from star to superstar in my opinion. I did a whole video on him yesterday that you can find on my Twitter feed at underscore json LT, breaking down his high level offensive initiation that he demonstrated in a comeback win over the Sacramento Kings earlier this week. He's averaging a career high twenty nine points per game with

five rebounds and six assists. He's shooting, He's got a sixty shooting percentage, which is insane, and I believe this is the best playmaking season and best defensive season of his career. Now, he's had seasons where he's averaged more assists, but they were on really bad Sons teams where he's

a lot more heliocentric um. In this particular season, when you factor in the stakes, the level of competition, and just you know, with them being in a winning concept, I think this has been the highest level playmaking I've seen from him. So again, not not doing strong in that specific criteria, but he's also a lot higher there than people would probably realize. Looking at the team. The Sons are fifteen and six, they're the top seed in

the West. They are plus nine point nine points per one possessions with him on the floor and minus one point four points per one hundred possess with him off. That's an eleven point three point differential. That's m VP level stuff. They're an outstanding team with him on the floor, and they're a negative team with him off the floor. So you know, as we look as we zoom out with Devin Booker, he's got the team success thing, and

he's got the value to his team thing. He's just a little week in that actual hierarchy of the NBA. That's why I have him down at number three, number four Steph Curry, so at a minimum, he's the second best player alive. I used to think that there was a chasm between Janice and the rest of the field, in large part because Steph had a great playoff run.

But he didn't have a great regular season last year, and he had some poor shooting at certain points during the playoffs, so like it was one of those things where you know you're you. You still view Steph in great esteem, but you don't view him as the same type of regular season weapon as Janice, right, But he completely put that to rest this year. He's having just a completely ludicrous offensive season that has he raised that chasm.

In my opinion, I still give a slight nod to Jannice is the best player in the world, but Steff is clearly a better offensive player than your Honice. He's arguably the best offensive player that's ever played, and he's arguably having the best offensive season that any player has ever had. And that might be enough for some folks to put him up at number one. I just have him barely behind Janice at number two, So he's doing really well. In that first criteria, the Warriors are eleven

and eleven. This is where Steph is gonna lose a ton of ground in these rankings. They didn't defend nearly well enough during that five game road trip on the East Coast and they went oh and five and it dug them in a big hole. But the team does appear to be putting some things together and he could move up this list if the Warriors move up the standings.

The differential is where Steph is completely insane, and this is his long shot to win m v P. So the Warriors are plus eleven point two points per one hun possessions with step on the floor, and they are minus sixteen point five points per one hund possessions with him off the floor. That is a twenty seven point seven point differential with stap on versus when he's off. He is so vital to everything they do offensively in terms of pure value that third chunk, he has a

chasm between him and the rest of the field. So in a year like last year, he probably would have won m v P. But the problem is that you have some more clear cut candidates this year, So the Warriors are definitely going to have to win more games

in order for Steff to get it. But if it's close, if the Warriors are a two set out West and He's got a twenty eight point differential and Tatum's got an eight point differential, I could see some voters gravitating back towards step especially with the legitimacy of him having just won his first finals MVP and his fourth championship. Alright,

Number five, I have Luca don Chet. He's kind of similar to uh to Jayson Tatum in the sense that like he's in that group of players that's right below Janis and Steph clearly in the conversation for best player in the world, but also clearly not the best player in the world. He's averaging a career high thirty four points per game with nine rebounds and nine assists, a career high sixtry shooting percentage. He's also been defending a lot better as of late after a pretty rough start

to the season. But the team, once again not his fault. It's a supporting cast thing, similar to the step thing. But the Mavericks are ten and eleven and that's just not gonna get it done. That's where he's getting hurt. On the differential side of things, the Mavericks are plus four point three points per one Hunter possessions with Luca on the floor, and they are minus five point two points per one Hunter possessions with him off. That is

a nine and a half point swing. So he's playing m VP level basketball, and um, you know, he's he's good enough in the hierarchy of the league. But the Mavericks are just gonna have to win more games for him to ever be considered, which is why when I saw him as the preseason favorite on fan Duel, I just didn't understand that, and I thought it was a bad bet. I just never thought the Mavericks would be

able to win enough games. And you know, one last note on the Luca thing, and I talked about this a little bit in our Technical Difficulties episode on Tuesday. That's why I'm gonna rehash it here a little bit. But it bothers me that we have a tendency to jump down and denigrate players when their team struggles when it was an obvious roster situation, like it's basically the same roster except for without Jalen Brunson and last year with Jalen Brunson. They were three wins away from the finals,

and the role players fell apart in that series. Luca also didn't play very well. But those things are intecrate, intricately related to each other. My point there is is like it's clearly a roster issue and everyone's jumping down Luca, and the thing is is, like I get it as it pertains to his play style and how aesthetically it

can be not the most attractive style of basketball. We used to say, you know, I say we basketball media used to to say a lot of similar things about Lebron in the Spurs and like the two thousand two fourteen range, it was like the Spurs were playing the beautiful game and then the Miami Heat was like really good defense and Lebron James creating everything and a lot of like basketball fans would talk about how you know, they preferred the player movement, they preferred the ball movement.

And we've also heard it. We've heard that with James Harden over the years. We've heard that with Tray Young over the years. We've heard that with Luca Dontage over the years, and Luca just gets lumped in with Trey and James harden as those like heliocentric, ugly style of play players, but he's so much better than them with his versatility offensively, which is why he actually goes up a level in the playoffs rather than you know, declining like most players have, like Trey Young has, like James

harden has, And so I don't like good. If you want to talk about how you don't like the way Luca Dontech plays, that's fine, but the actual impact you can't overlook that. That's unassailable. Luca don Che is a proven playoff performer and he's in his early twenties. Like where was Lebron at four? You know, where was Michael

Jordan four? I I don't think he's discussed fairly. Um, And this is gonna be a crap season because the maps are gonna suck and everyone's gonna use it as an opportunity to act as though Luca Dunch doesn't play

the right way and then watch what happens. He'll be playing on some team with a legit costar, you know, the legit co stars that every other NBA champion in NBA history has had, you know, like Kawhi Leonard doing it with Pascal Siakam in that ridiculous team, or you know, uh Janic's doing it with Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday, or Lebron doing it with Anthony Davis, or Steph doing

it with Kevin Durant. Everyone's playing with great players, and yet you're judging Luca for losing games with Spencer Dinwoodie and off the streets, Kemba Walker coming in to try to save their offense. Like, I don't think that's fair. Should he be the m v P. No, But that's why I have him down at five. But let's let's cut him some slack for what's happening with the Mavericks. All right, moving on, Defensive Player of the Year. So

there's gonna ruffle some feathers, but hear me out. I think Anthony Davis is the clear choice for Defense Player of the Year at this point. So obviously, the Lakers as a team have underperformed, but their defense has been excellent. Their seventh and defensive rating in their second In half court defense, Anthony Davis is fourth in the league and blocks.

He's the only player in the entire NBA averaging over one and a half steals and one and a half blocks, and the big difference between him and the other guys we're gonna talk about on this list um which I won't reveal at this exact moment in time, but the biggest difference between him and the other two guys that I have in this list is Anthony Davis is not just a rim protector. He's also an outstanding UH interior defender.

As it pertains to defending passes. He keeps his hands high and low to disrupt pocket passes, to disrupt kickout passes, to disrupt drop off passes to the dunker spot, or things along those lines, which is why he's the only player in the league that's averaging over one and a

half steals and one and a half blocks. It kick starts everything the Lakers do in transition, and he leads the entire league and rebounding, so he's finishing defensive possessions for the Lakers at an astounding rate, which is a big part of defense. If you can't finish the defensive possession, you have to play defense. Again, rebounding is part of defen it. So Anthony Davis, if you especially when you look at the supporting cast, he's not being flanked by

Janis Antenna Coupo and Drew Holiday. Sorry, like he's just he's got Lebron James, who, yeah, when he tries hard like he did on Wednesday, is an above average defender, in fact, a good defender when he tries hard. But then on Monday night he was an absolute disaster and gave really poor effort and it arguably costs his team

the win. Right, So, like, the Lakers are playing with an average defensive supporting cast at best, and Anthony Davis is just about single handedly anchoring them as the seventh best defense in the NBA and the second best half court defense in the NBA. It's it's just him in a bunch of veteran minimum contracts and a Lebron James that only plays hard when he feels like it's on the defensive end, A D makes it all work, and he, to me, he's the clear cut defensive player of the year.

If you were if you were let's say a Brook Lopez fan, and you were griping with this specific take, the big thing that you would hone in on his A D S transition defense. The Lakers have the worst transition defense in the league, and Anthony Davis has been one of the culprits for that, although he's been better in the last couple of weeks. Number two, I've Brook Lopez. So he is the rim protector in the Bucks drop coverage scheme, and he is protecting the hell out of

the rim. He is averaging two point nine blocks per game, which is second in the league. And the Bucks have the best paint defense in the league. They're allowing just forty four and a half points in the paint per one possessions, which, like I said, is first place in the league. He's doing an incredible job. I don't want

to undercut that, but guys, just let's be honest. Like playing defense at the rim next to janis Antenna Kompo, who is the best defensive player in the world in my opinion, he's just saving resources for his job over the course of the season. Andrew Holiday, who is one of the top six or seven defensive players in the entire world. It's just a different level of work than Lebron James cleaning up for Lonnie Walker, who has been

a career bad defensive player. Right, you know guys that are old and us their prime, like Russell Westbrook and Lebron James and a bunch of Editan minimum guys. It's just a different level of challenge that Anthony Davis has, and he has turned them into a good defense in spite of all of that. Number three, I have Joel embid He's also been one of the best defensive anchors in the league this year. He just hasn't played often enough. I think he's only played in fourteen games this year

because of injuries. Among players who are playing at least thirty four minutes per game, no player in the entire NBA has posted a better defensive rating than Joel Embiid at one oh three point seven, which is two points better than the second place. If he could play sixty five plus game um uh, sixty five plus games, he does have an outside chance of getting this award. All Right, Rookie of the Year Number one, I have Pala bunkro He's already an incredibly gifted NBA score He's averaging twenty

three points on fifty five cent try shooting. He's also scoring zero point nine eight points per isolation, which is slightly above average, which is really impressive for essentially a teenager. UM He's scoring one point to one points proposed up though, which is in the ninety one percentile counting passes. So he's when we talked to I did a breakdown a

Palabant Carol like two weeks ago. But it's like his ability to use hesitation dribbles to get defenders at a position because he has a decent pull up jump shot, although that's his biggest area of opportunity right now. But then he's so big and strong. It's insane for a guy his age, a rookie to have a combination of strength, size and skill that is already causing problems for the vast majority of NBA defenders. Is super impressive and like he waits to have little gaps appear, and then he

plays a super physical brand of basketball. He'll hit that gap with his right shoulder and just punched through with strength and go all the way to the rim. He's really gifted in the post, going over both shoulders, and he passes surprisingly well for a young player as well. Um number two and number number two I have Jade and Nivy and number three, I've Ben mathurin their numbers. Aren't that far apart. Ben's actually been a little bit better statistically but I just think Jade and Ivy is

a better player. His role is a different The Detroit Pistons are actually having him create a lot more, whereas Ben Mathurins and more of a play finishing type of role um with Indiana. And if you actually look at their self creation numbers, I vs are way better. So and pick and roll including passes, Jade and Ivy's given U zero point nine points per possession. Ben Mathurins given USE zero point six six. That's a pretty significant gap.

That's like average for Ivy, too bad for Ben Mathin and I so Jad and Ivy is giving U zero point eight nine. Mathen's given you zero point eight. So you know, shout outs have been Matthren. We talked about him a lot on Monday or Wednesday when we talked about the Pacers. He's been a lot better than I expected him to be, especially as a jump shooter. But I just think Ivy is a better player for now, and I think Ivy has more like high end superstar

potential as well. All right, last, but not least before we get out of here tonight, most improved player. So I have Lori markin in at number one. I know there's been a lot of hype around Bull Bull, and we're gonna talk about him in a second, but I think Lori markin In deserves the award through one fourth of the season. Obviously, he's averaging a career high two points and nine rebounds, is shooting a career high sixty

true shooting percentage. He's taking a d jump shots this year for two D eight points, which is five percentile. He's also shooting off the dribble, which is kind of a new part of his game. He's scoring efficiently out of the post and out of ice so and he's been really solid in crunch time as well. He's been one of the highest scorers this season. I think he's like thirteen in the entire NBA when the game is

within five points with less than five minutes left. He went from inconsistent role player to legitimate foundational piece for a franchise in one summer, which to me is what deserves the award now. Kind of similar to the MVP thing. There's a bunch of different interpretations of this rule, because like bow Bowl, the actual gap between what bo Bo was and now is bigger. But I prefer to reward players who go from role player to star, then players who go from end of the bench to role player.

I just think that's what the awards specifically should be targeting. Um. I did have bow Bull at secon it uh. He averaged a two point seven points per game for his career in three seasons in Denver, and now he's averaging thirteen point one points per game with the Orlando Magic on sixty seven percent true shooting and with some good jump shooting in there as well. Um And more importantly, he's actually been pretty productive for the Magic on the scoreboard.

His net rating, meaning the point differential per one hunter possessions, is fourth on the team among rotation players. He's got a really good handle for his size. That's the big thing that stands out to me when I was watching film this morning. He also plays relatively well in the physicality for being a really thin player. Kind of reminds me of Katie a little bit, where like, even though he is thin, by being the physical aggressor, he gets

himself UM through those physical scenarios pretty well. I I just think, you know, and this is where, because as is always the case, when stuff like this happens, we all go off the rails and you know, I saw Stephon Marbury, and Stephon Marbury's famously says all sorts of crazy stuff. Um, but Steven Marbury is like, oh, he's gonna be a top tier star and next two years. Okay,

let's slow down a little bit. You know everyone was talking about you know why is why is uh Victor Wemban Yama getting all this attention when bull Bowl is doing all the same things. No, he's not. Okay, Like, let's let's calm down. I really enjoyed watching that film on bull Bowl this morning. He has absolutely taken a significant leap. It's good to see him getting a legit green light in an opportunity to actually show what he

can do without fear of making mistakes. I'm on board just like everyone else's, but let's slow down a little bit. I do not think that he has enough fluidity, especially going from handle to jumper, to be a top tier superstar or even really anything close to that. And you know the other thing too, is like Victor woman Yama, you can see the difference. Like just go look at like five or six pull up jump shots from bow Bowl, and then go look at five or six pull up

jump shots from Victor wemban Yama. Bow Bowl looks like a big man who's shooting a pull up jumps shot. Victor wembon Yama looks like a two guard. He's got an incredibly fluid and quick and confident release, which is the like for instance, Bobo has only taken two threes per game this year, Victor women Yama is going to attempt seven threes per game as a rookie. In all likelihood, he's going to be a high volume three point shooter

because of the fluidity and quickness of his release. And then again, like, you want to know why there's more hype around Victor women Yama. He's an eighteen year old dude who's not in the league yet and bow Bo is a twenty three year old who's in his fourth NBA season. Like, it's totally different prospects in terms of future development for both of those two guys. So let's just enjoy Bobo's game like normal people and not make

outrageous comparisons. Um. And then the last guy I wanted to shout out on the most improved player I put third on my list was Anthony Simons. He's up from last so last year he had average a career high seventeen points per game. This year, he's bumped that up to twenty four points per game. And most importantly, he's actually generating a lot of quality shots. He's turned himself

into a legit NBA shot creator. The Blazers have scored three D fourteen points on three hundred and six of his pick and rolls, which is in the sixty nine percentile. He's also run ninety ISOs for ninety six points, which is in the seventy percentile. You could actually make the case that Anthony Simmons is like legitimately better than c. J. McCollum at this point. So yeah, only a quarter of the way through the season, a lot can change. We'll probably touch based on this again here in about a

month and a half. But that's all I have for today. Is always I sincerely appreciate your guys. The volume