04-12-2024, 05:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2024, 05:13 PM by dirkfansince1998.)
(04-12-2024, 04:00 PM)The Jom Wrote: Not even close. Makes me think my post must’ve been horribly written.
Joker has a huge advantage in the regular season due to there being so few real centers in the league. That advantage is considerably smaller in the playoffs because he’s playing the better teams, most of whom have some kind of quality defensive answer to the big-center problem.
Joker’s teammates definitely are good, and the altitude advantage seems larger in the playoffs when rotations shrink, especially if the team at altitude has home-court advantage. So it’s telling, I think, that his teams generally haven’t outperformed their playoff seeding. (At least that’s my recollection.)
He is reportedly the favorite this year. I have no basis for questioning that. I don’t think he’s ever been the best player in the league. Embiid either. Neither do I think either of them has had the best year, although I’m not really sure what that means.
To sum it up, if we time-transported an all-time great center into the 2024 season, say Olajuwon (a one-time MVP), I would expect said center to have vastly better numbers than Joker and dominate their matchups head to head.
But go ahead. Make him a three-time MVP. It’s not gonna hurt my feelings.
Center position has more top tier talent and depth than at any point in the 00s and 10s right now. And the mystical 90s had Olajuwon and Shaq as the only bigs that have a case over Jokic.
Not sure what you mean about "smaller advantage" in the playoffs. If we are just looking at Jokic he is even better in the playoffs but basketball is a team sport. If we are making excuses for other players I see no reason why Jokic should have won without Murray or before they traded for Gordon. LBJ couldn't do it. Jordan couldn't do it. Neither could any of the "dominant" 90s bigs. Shaq needed Kobe. Olajuwon needed Drexler and Jordan's first retirement.
Also not sure why Jokic being a center in the modern NBA is a reason to downplay his achievements. If anything it makes it even more impressive because perimeter players have dominated the last decade. We rarely see centers that can carry their team as the best player. Takes an incredible talent to overcome rules that favor perimeter players and limit the efficiency of post players.
We can search for reasons why Jokic's unique case makes all the metrics that we usually use to compare players invalid (would love to hear the case) or we can try to understand why his unique skillset is translating to all time great impact.