Welcome into NBA Pulse production of iHeartRadio in the NBA. I'm Sarah Stock, NBA analysts for the Yes Network, and today is Fride Day, December first, and from our terrific four group of NBA journalists, We're joined now by NBA dot Com senior writer Michael C. Wright and Michael, we are kicking this December off with your new MVP ladder for the week. Nicola Jokic still remaining in that number one spot, Joel Embiid jumping up from number three to
the number two spot. We got a tie. We got to tie three between Luka Dantic and Shay Gildas Alexander and then Giannis Adetta Kuko makes a big jump back up to the top five from number nine. But I want to first dig in to the top two because I feel like we have been talking about this for years. Nicola Jokis Joel Embiid, those two have been extraordinary this year.
We are accustomed to seeing Jokic get triple double after triple double already seven on the season, but that is something that we saw out of Joel Embiid for the first time the other nights earlier this week against the Clippers was one to say shy Saturday at Oklahoma. But I first want to start with Joel because the thing we always see out of Jokic, and obviously he does everything, but the brilliance of his passing, Joel has taken his
facilitation up a notch this season. How we've seen them run through the offense through him, how he's finding teammates a career high and assist so par of the season at six point six. When you look at what Joel has done this season and obviously the moving parts of what the personnel in the lineup looked like for Philadelphia, now it's more solidified. What stood out to you about the play of Embiid in particularly the last few games.
I think, Sarah, it is sort of of a matter of Joel trusting his teammates more. And I mean that's pretty easy to do when you got a guy like Tyrese Maxy just dropping thirty like there's nothing watched this again, little two man game. Joel just leaves it for him, sets the screen. So I think that's a big part of it. But you know, Nick Nurse explained it the other night that hey, you know, teams are going to load up to try to stop Joel and b and you know, either he can take it himself or he
can find teammates out there on the perimeter. And you know that's what's happening, Like, you know, teams collapse on him. He finds somebody on the perimeter, and he's got shooters all over the place. See from outside, it's been really interesting to see just I mean, you know, just go back over the last two or three years, Joel Embiid is a guy that's sort of dealt with a bunch of just different moving parts all around him. You know,
it's just constantly something in motion. You know, you deal with the drama with Ben Simons, you deal with the James Hard and stuff that uncertainty, and you know he's been the one constant. But it seems like now with the new coach, Nick Ners, it just seems like there is like that perfect mix, like this perfect storm going on.
And I don't even think, you know, what, how many games are we into the season, eighteen games in for the for the seventy six ers, I still don't we haven't seen the best of them yet.
Yeah, And I think a big part of that, to your point is, you know, some uncertainty at the start of the season, and obviously with Nick Nurse, we have talked about this before you go into training camp and whether you want to frame the James Harden situation. You know, by all accounts they said, not a distraction. We show up, we play. You're still how you're you're working on your coverages, your schemes, what you're doing philosophically and both in the floor.
That's an adjustment and that changes, and so I think you're to your point starting to see them catch more of a rhythm. Currently sitting forth in the Eastern Conference with twelve and six record a big game tonight I gains Boston seven thirty pm Eastern on ESPN. We'll see though currently Joel is questionable with an illness, but we'll see if those two matchup, because obviously always a fun one to watch the Celtics and seventy six ers battle.
On the flip side of things, to Kulla Jokic extraordinary, I mean, I think you can't get numb to his greatness and how he somewhat has raised his game another level after what Denver did winning a championship last season. Twenty nine points over thirteen rebounds, over nine assists. I had already mentioned it seven triple doubles on the season, Denver sitting in that number two spot behind Minnesota with the thirteen and six record.
Jokis throws it down his second dunk of the.
Season, Jokic having to probably do more, or carry more or score more with Jamal Murray being out. Is there something different about the game and Yokic that you have watched or witnessed this year that's either surprised you or or just it has you viewing him differently in the ways in what he just understands and reads the game.
I think just the playoffs, the playoffs from last season. I thought that like just the light came on, like this Eureka moment where he was just like, oh, okay, I've mastered this thing, so I can I can just pretty much do whatever I want out here. I can move the pieces, you know, I can find guys, I can take over the game. I can do whatever I want when I need to to, you know, make sure my team, you know, comes out on top. And to me,
that's been the biggest thing. It's just like he has figured out, you know, like you think about people like Chris Paul. Guys that can manipulate the game and bend it to their will. That's sort of what Nicola Yokis can do.
What a fake game too. On that dribble, he almost telled it like he was going to pass it. The dribble was high enough where he could have done.
That three in a row. The Rockets win on Wednesday night. I thought it was a really good winning for them because, you know, Houston is a pretty good defensive team and so to I think they had like thirty seven assists with three turnovers, and Yokic had fifteen of those assists. That's I think only the second time that you know, a team has had that many assists and that few turnovers in the game, and a lot of that is Nikola jokicchy they you know, after the playoffs and the championship,
you know, you saw how the Nuggets were celebrating. Everybody was celebrated on that team, and they celebrated all summer long, and so you thought Nikola Yokis might come back a little complacent. No no, no, no, no no. That man came back on a mission to go get him another championship. And so that's been really fun to watch and as we've discussed the Kola Jokics Joel EMBII, I think that is going to be the conversation when we talk about this MVP thing, and it's going to be that way
all season. I think it's going to go back and forth. But as I mentioned earlier, I don't think we've even seen the best Joel and b and I think he's a guy that's sort of, you know, his game is sort of changing, and if he becomes the assist guy that it looks like he's about to man, those are going to be some interesting conversation because then everybody's going to be like, well, what about defensive impact? Like, We're going to be looking at every little metric to try
to figure out that race. So it's gonna be fun.
I do think that's the caveat of the assist factor. And I'm curious how much as the season progresses, the difference in what Nick Nurse has them doing, the compliment of the roster around him, and how much more responsibility Joelle takes on in that sascet, how that will change, because right now, I would look at it, we're so early in the season, you know, to even talk about stuff like this, but what Jokic is doing has wowed met. I mean, he really, like you said, the celebrations all summer,
you finally get a championship. He's already got to MVP trophies. I thought it would be a little bit more of a slow run up to start this season, and just how he's been picking apart the game. I also was you know, there was a podcast with Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon talking about their chemistry and how it's just different and how they figured things out. And so I think to raising the level of play of those around him, I would give so much of that to
what Nicola does with this Denver team. But but overall, I think it's just been fun and interesting to continue to watch how they how they flourish, and how they
change and adapt and add to their games. At this point, considering what a high, high level they're at the Tide, the number three spot between Luca Shake Gildas, Alexander with Shay and with Oklahoma City, how they're playing, do you think that that if Oklahoma City continues to stay in this level of play where they're at, how how much consideration could he have in this conversation because I think he's always been at the outskirts, so we always kind
of have watched, but Oklahoma City has never been to the level in the standings in the West. If Oklahoma City continues to be the real deal, what does that do for shit? Man?
I think last year he was like, like we started talking about it a little bit, but like like you were just saying, like Oklahoma City record didn't really justify his high feeling. You know, you couldn't really say, well, you know, Sga is an MVP guy will because the Thunder didn't have the record to match it. But now this is something else with this kid has done. And you know, I think I mentioned it to you, like I covered them the first week of season against the
Denver Nuggets. It was in Oklahoma City. I think Shade was like two of sixteen. It was early early in the season. I'm like, oh, no, I guess he's not going to live up to it. But boy, was I wrong that this kid is amazing, like I said, and he's just dropping thirty like it's nothing, and like his shooting splits are crazy. I mean he's almost a fifty forty ninety guy. I mean, I think he's like thirty
seven and a half percent from three point range. But he can get that up and not only that, Like you know, like last year he wasn't taking a ton of threes. He was just killing people in the mid range and at the basket. Well, he's kind of kicked up his threes a little bit and the percentage has gone down. But I don't know he And the funny thing about him is when you watch him, it's not like he's just this explosive guy that blows by people.
He sort of got this hurky jerky game. It's sort of like Kyle Anderson and teams have a hard time guarding him. And so like right now, this team is a young team. It's you know, it's still sort of fighting its way. I mean, I don't know what phase we can say Oklahoma City is in in the rebuild.
They have this young corps, but Sam Preston also has all these pigs and draft assets, and you know that they're so good, so good now as a young team that they can afford to sort of sit back and wait and see what happens before they decide to, you know, start trying to add more pieces.
Michael lies always we appreciate your time on We look forward to continuing to see, read, watch all of your stuff on NBA dot com and as this season continues with the MVP latter NBA Pulse with Sarahustack is a production of the NBA and iHeartRadio. Please rate, review, and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.