12 Apr, 2024, 08:00 ET
ESPN experts define the best and worst players of the NBA season.
The NBA regular season is about to end and each conference has defined the 10 teams that still have aspirations of being champions.
Now, with each team that has played 80 games out of 82, it is possible to define who has been the best player of the year, the surprise, the disappointment…
ESPN experts define the best and worst of the season.
1- Who will be the NBA MVP?
The NBA’s most outstanding individual award has three candidates who remained at a very high level throughout the campaign. And all three are from teams in the same Conference because the excitement is in the West: Luka Doncic, from the Dallas Mavericks, Nikola Jokic, from the Denver Nuggets, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The order of the listing is not coincidental, since the MVP award will remain in the hands of Doncic. The Slovenian, absolute owner of his team, not only increased his production, but also got along better with his teammates. And in the final stretch of the season, starting on March 7, he was the standard bearer of a winning team: 16 wins and only 2 losses.
Luka is one of the most attractive players to watch in the league: he scores from long distance and close to the rim, he delivers the assists that the play demands and also those that arise only from his imagination and talent. Additionally, he rebounds and improved in his weakest facet: defense.
The statistics support these perceptions: Doncic is the leading scorer with 33.9 points per game, he is second in the assists table, with 9.8 per game and is sixteenth in rebounds with 9.2, but if we focus on the guards, he is the best in that area. There has never been a player in NBA history with these numbers in a season.
The 73 points he scored against the Atlanta Hawks give the final touch to the masterpiece that Luka painted in the 2023-2024 season. “The MVP goes to Doncic,” Nikola Jokic said after facing him on March 17. If the Joker suggested it, it seems to be the end of the discussion.(Pablo Cormick)
2- Who should be the NBA MVP?
In this case, who should win the MVP and who will win the MVP is the same person. Nikola Jokic has had another outstanding season leading the champion Nuggets, who performed in the regular season as one of the best teams in the Western Conference; only Boston has a better chance of winning the championship according to ESPN BET, while Jokic is a heavy favorite to win his third MVP.
The injury that sidelined Joel Embiid all but guaranteed Jokic the award, as Giannis Antetokounmpo lost some momentum for the award and Jayson Tatum fails to make perhaps his best case (on an individual level). Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards are coming from less to more, and in the future they emerge as favorites for the award, but the present still belongs to Jokic. (Victor Lopez)
3- Which was the player who gave the most pleasant surprise?
While I was close to saying James Harden, who has been a big part of the LA Clippers’ success, I’m going to go with Jalen Williams, who looks like a genuine star. Although last year, he finished second in the voting for Rookie of the Year, the leap in quality that he has taken this year was unexpected, at least for me. He has become one of the most fun players to watch, he always seems to be under control, and shows the mettle of a veteran. He has improved in all aspects of the game, including his ranged aim; He’s now making 43 percent of his three-pointers. He can be relied on defensively, and along with Shai Gilgeous Alexander, they make up one of the best duos in the league. A duo that will make the Oklahoma City Thunder a protagonist for many years. (Sebastian Martinez Christensen)
4- What was the biggest disappointment?
No player has been more disappointing this season than Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole. Two years ago he looked like a rising star and Thompson’s heir apparent on the Golden State Warriors; However, after signing a $128 million contract, his performance has been so poor this season that he was benched on a Washington team that has the worst record in the league. Ultimately, if you weren’t able to maintain a starting role in Washington, you are definitely the most disappointing player of the 2023-24 NBA season. (Alfonso Mancilla)
5- Who was the least valuable player in the NBA?
Ha Morant. The Memphis Grizzlies point guard practically did not exist in the 2023-24 season. At first, due to the suspension of 33 games, 25 of them from the 2023-24 season, that the league imposed on him after appearing in videos published on social networks where he was seen carrying firearms.
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Finally, when the punishment had come to an end, the second pick in the 2019 draft and Rookie of the Year (2019) received a hard blow, as the Grizzlies announced that he would miss the rest of the season due to what was first reported. He thought it was a subluxation in the shoulder and it ended in a labral tear that required surgery, so on January 8 it was announced that Ja Morant would not complete the campaign. In total, the Murray State graduate only saw action on the court during nine games in which he averaged 25.1 points. Without a doubt, his loss was a blow to a franchise that is rebuilding and has its most solid pillar in Morant. (Roland of the Forest)
6- Who was the best rookie not named Victor Wembanyama?
Chet Holmgren. At the end of the season, he was far from Wemby, but he rose to the occasion and is a vital piece of a young team that has serious aspirations to fight for something important in the Western Conference. Holmgren met expectations: he is versatile, dangerous with his distance shot and takes advantage of his height to make a difference. In defense, he also manages to make differences despite the weight difference with other players his size. He is a faithful representative of the new biotype of thin, stylized and multipurpose athletes. 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists, with 52.9% shooting from the field, are really interesting numbers for a rookie. Beyond the statistics, the most important thing about Holmgren is the coupling of him as a Tetris piece to a winning structure. In this, even, he is a step above Wembanyama. (Bruno Altieri)
2024-04-12 05:52:33
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