What is up, fellow thermonuclear appers. I am damn Pavalley coming at you with another incoherent rambling on the NBA's MVP race. Before we get started, please let me remind you subscribe to us wherever you consume us. Hit that sub button on YouTube. Also really help help us, you know, break the algorithm or make the algorithm. Love us back, like comment, engage with us, so hopefully the videos get out there more. Your sub is appreciated. Sub on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitch, wherever you get your podcast. If you've done all these things, cross subscribe one both on a podcast and on a YouTube platform. Tell people about us, Retweet our promos, shout us out on Twitter. I really appreciate all the shout outs we've been getting. I will retweet them, respond to them, but they are very much appreciated. You're the reason that Rant and I continue to pump out this content. It's a really big passion project at this point that is nowhere near profitable in any sense of the word. And we enjoy interacting with you on providing content. So help us continue to write provide content by doing all those things. Also join our discord. The link to that is in the YouTube and podcast description, and finally follow us on all the socials. The handles are in the YouTube and podcast description or if you're watching, they're on your screen. Now, this MVP race, this is like going I've been giving my ladder every other week. I do it for Bleacher Report, and so it feels like an instructive exercise. Like I said, I might stop doing it both here in four br as soon as it becomes irrelevant. But we're a month and a half into the season, and I do think there's always some topsy turvy nous in the NBA MVP race this early. This is more turbulent though than I sort of remember in recent years, where I think you could stretch it if you really wanted to. And when we're dipping into sort of the narrative case on top of sample that they are like six or seven guys who have you told me they're gonna win MVP or that they're your MVP right now, I'm not going to give you a lot of pushback on it. Now, I could be a little bit more generous and lenient than other people. So if we were to take the hard line stance, there's at least three candidates right now that I think even the most you know, conservative rigid people could agree on, and I would still stretch that to at least you have to include at least one other name in there. And I don't know what to make sense of it or how to make sense of it. Excuse me. And when I'm giving my thoughts, when I'm writing about it, when I'm digging into the details, I think, more than most this is not a compliment. More than most, my MVP ladders and thoughts tend to be like the stream of conscious maybe over honest exercises, and the entire goal for me is to give you insight into not just the process, but the tug of war. And it's I want to be honest and say, yeah, there's a huge jump, Like I don't know why I didn't have I admitted Jason Tatum wasn't in my first top ten, has firmly been in that ever since. The other reason, just like seeing these players jump, I think we've seen more bi weekly jumps when you look at a Jason Tatum, or when you look at a Steph Curry even or even falls like a Donovan Mitchell who is so high up to begin with, Uh, it's it's like I said, it feels like there's more turbulence there than there normally is at this point in the season. And I also want to be honest about it, not that yeah, I read other people, listen to other people, but I try not to let them impact how I'm thinking. It's also a continuous struggle to be well, how do you wait the supporting cast element? A lot of MVP is narrative driven, and it's like you look in Nakooka, She's like, well, the bench never kind of sucks even though a supporting cast is Okay, that's going to inflate his net rating swing? Did over steph Curry like the bench? It's gotten a lot better since they started moving Draymond Green to some of those second units. How much credit do you give him for having a bad supporting cast? Isn't it more important that you uplift a team that's really good? Isn't that actually harder to do when you look at it what a Jason Tatum is doing than conversely it's Luca and Dallas. How do you measure what has been a really bad supporting cast overall versus like, Okay, how good are they supposed to be. I also think it becomes an issue of, well, could these teams actually be better? Like what is is Luga Donchet succeeding in spite of the way the Dallas Mavericks are being managed? And so those are all the questions that just swirl about. I do think team success matters, but I think what we really need to remember here is that player minutes on the floor all they can control. Steph Curry, Luca, Donchet, Shay Gil Just Alexander, Jason Tatum. Those guys can't control what's happening when they're off the floor, and you're only gonna play so many minutes per game. And I think in a case like Steph, like Shay, like Luca, their teams are losing games during the ten to fifteen to eighteen minutes that they are not on the court right now, and so that has to be a factor too. So I'm trying to wait all of these you know, influence, statistical influences, anecdotal influences, what I've what I've seen. We know, I don't watch any basketball around these parts. I've never watched an NBA game, So I'm just making that ship up as I go along. But like in terms of also availability when we're this early in the season, you know what like if you haven't played a ton and you're like not even in the top ninety of minutes played. But I don't really know how to make a case for you over a lot of these names. And so with all that, like I told you, this was going to be a ramble because this has been one of the hardest early season. I've been doing the MVP ladders for Bleacher Report for a while now, and this is the hardest, like I said, that I can remember. And so I'm going to throw up the actual ladder on the screen for people who like to look at and see the player pictures. There. We'll begin with I call them my honorable mentions, and that's the you know, the guys who are you know, ten through six right here, because you're for MVP out really only goes five deep. And this is I just want to if the season ended today, this is what my ballot would look like. We're talking about. This video is going live on Tuesday, November twenty ninth. I'm happy this season is not ending today because I really want to make sense of all this. But but damn, I have the Aaron Fox ten. This is coming off of I did this before the King's lost to the Suns and Fox didn't have the best game. But I do think it's time he received peripheral MVP love for headlining one of the league's top six offenses and for now one of the Western conferences just six best teams bar none. I don't know that you know he's gotten enough credit for the way that he's changed his game. He's been his crunch time splits have been mostly out of this world this season. He is averaging just I mean, twenty five and six while converting fifty nine percent of his twos and over thirty eight percent of his threes. That's just bonkers. So he's in number ten for me. I still have done in Mitchell at number nine. Predictably, Darius Garland's returned to the court and to form has lightened Mitchell's playmaking load, but he's still Mitchell, still scoring like woe for the most part, role reigning off the dribble threes, He's delivering a much better defensive effort overall as well. When you dig into some of the on off numbers, the Calves are better off without him him on the court. That gets a little bit weird. I don't know that he's going to stay in the top ten much longer, just by virtue of how deep the Calves are at the top with Evan Mobile and a Jared Allen And like I said, Darius Garlands, feels like you might have you know you, sir Mitchell's maybe they're they're best player in the moment. Mitchell's had the better season overall. He's also been more available. Something to monitor there. I could see him falling off and I have John Morant at number eighth. He had me worried when he missed just one game with a store left ankle. I was all or the Grizzlies bringing it back too soon. Apparently not. His three point and free throw clips are still they still dipped from where they were through the first part of the season. But he remains just like this every level offensive force who enables Memphis to just absolutely rule. And it's oh, Desmond Bane isn't here. We don't have him. That's no problem. Like Jared Jackson Junior didn't have the smoothest return. Oh, that that's no problem. John Morant could be a lot better on defense, which is why I have him an eight, behind some of the names to come. But this dude is just He's a He's an offensive monster and just an absolute joy to watch. Devin Booker is at number seven. He was at number seven last time as well. This is the territory for me. By the way, we're in the top seven where it gets really difficult. The Suns haven't had Chris Paul or Cam Johnson, Jay Crowder never joined the team. There's still somehow first in the West with the top seven offense and top seven defense. What the hell? How are we not talking about this? Inspired performances from mcaal Bridges and more recently DeAndre and If helped, But Booker's imprint is all over this regular season machine. He's playing the best basketball of his career. Just dropped forty plus against the Kings. His efficiency from beyond the arc has tumbled a little bit over the past couple of weeks, but it's intact pretty much everywhere else, and Phoenix is averaging what would be the equivalent of like a top five offense whenever Devin Booker is double team and so like his decision making is really on point. I also think when you go back and look at his passing. The quality of his passes haven't changed, but the Sun's entering Wednesday, we're shooting forty nine point eight percent on his assist opportunities. That's fortieth out of the time fifty players in potential assists per game. So Devin Booker does rank in the top fifty of potential assists per game, but his teammates have one of the lowest conversion rates on those actual potential assists. That to me, it could be an issue of shot quality. What time are they getting those beasts in the shot cook But going back and watching, I just don't think it's there. I feel like the Suns have actually left Devin Booker assists on the table to the point where his numbers could be even gaudier than we see right now. Number six Nicole Yokich flat out. I know he's not gonna win the award this year. Voter fatigue is a thing, but I do think he belongs here. You could make a case for him to be even higher than his scoring dip overall for this season. I think has to factor in. He did apparently hear that because he came back after spending time in health and safety protocols dropped thirty one and thirty nine, and his first first two games back. I think it's become trending to cite his league best net rating swing, but the Nuggets bench is doing their damnedest to suck enough to prop that up. It's more instructive to note to me that Denver is hammering opponents by fourteen point eight points per one hundred positions possessions when he plays. That is the largest mark for any team like on this list with their star player on the court. No one I name after this. Their team is not gonna have a higher net rating with him on the floor. How much credit Yokas deserves for the defense success during these minutes is debatable. I land on some, but not all. He probably gets too much for many, yet not enough from others. It's weird slotting Yoka's hire again. It it's possible if you believe his overall scoring downtick exists by design this attempt to adequately arm the Nuggets and preserve himself for life in the playoffs. But I just I don't know that I'm quite ready to put him in the top five. I will say that who does come in at fifth? It feels like he's on a little bit of shaky ground. Maybe I'm wrong here. I've Yannis at five, I had him at one in the first MVP ladder. I did it like over a month ago at this point, and in the past two since he has dropped. I don't expect this. It's one. It's wild that putting you fifth on an MVP ballot is considered an insult, but I get it. As noted last time, though, I think Jannest to stay outside the top two is temporary that sentiment. It hasn't shifted at all the field in front of Yannest for the time being. Just have I know redditors with offensive or the indiscernible user names will claim I'm digging him too much for his struggles at the foul line sixty percent on the season and just on his looks away from the rim. That's just what happens at this level. Atta Kupo is a two time MVP and has set a certain standard for himself to which he must be held. The absence of Chris Middleton and the time missed by Drew Holliday, it doesn't change his calculus for me. Others on this list are lifting up more problematic supporting casts. They don't have a Brook Lopez flurring with all defense or Defensive Player of the year on or is playing next to them, and while and they don't have Javon Carter playing out of his mind. And while the Bucks offense has perked up in recent weeks, it still ranks fifteenth overall and hasn't fair faired nearly well enough in transition. That's not all on Jannis. His minutes represent an improvement over the offense is norm but it's not by these demonstrative degrees. Jannis has been far more bankable on the other end, where he once again probably belongs in the DPOY conversation. I know this is all going to sound like I'm saying Jannis is failing the Bucks. He's not finishing fifth on a mid season MVP ballot is idealistic for most, and Jannis is. Overall numbers, He's at about thirty one points five assists, seventy four percent shooting at the rim. They're gaga still. He is also since we last did this exercise, so two weeks ago, he's quietly cans fifty seven point nine percent of his mid range jumpers eleven of nineteen on those looks that's a good harbinger. When Jannis inevitably improves his marks inside the paint and at the foul line end or from deep like two of those areas, I think this becomes a different discussion. Ditto for when he also no longer barely ranks inside the top ninety of minutes playing right now, which was also a factor in this. Again maybe splitting Harris, but just the efficiency downtick, especially inside the arc get away from the rim, coupled with just the playing time so far, this is I don't find fifth to be an insult. Number four though, I think this is gonna rankle some people. Jay kojis Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. I don't care about their record. They did lose the Pelicans after I went through this exercise initially. I just look what's happened over the past couple of weeks. We've seen SGA's outside efficiency kind of trail off, and he seems like a half step less ubiquitous on the defensive end. That's the extent of a decline, and it's not even a decline. His numbers this season are brain bending. Thirty one point six assists, one point seven steals and one point three blocks, fifty four percent shooting on twos and thirty five point seven percent shooting on threes, and ninety two point two percent shooting from the foul line on career high volume at that charity stripe these numbers. Let's put this into context. There's only one other player in NBA history for an entire season who has averaged at least thirty points, six assists, one steal and one block on better than sixty percent true shooting. That was Lebron James, and it was last year. Shockingly, I wouldn't have predicted that it was last season. So yeah, SGA is having an iconic season right now. I would ignore any, and I did ignore any impulse that wants to suggest SGA's production is empty or the by product of a role he doesn't deserve Elsewhere. I didn't have to ignore those impulses, I guess because I didn't have them. That's more advice for other people. The Oclohma City funders still one the minutes that he's played this season, and they're posting a better offensive rating with Shay on the court than the Bucks notch with Jannis. You can call that Jerry picking Milwaukee. Is you have to get Chris Middleton back. Like I said, Drew Holiday missed those handful of games with a sprained ankle. But the Thunder don't even have a clear second best player, is it on? Like on a Knight type basis, it could be lu dort I would say it's probably been Josh Giddey lesson you wanted to be. It could be Jeremiah Robinson Earl at points, it could be Alexei Pokachevski Jiljis Alexander's surrounding uncertainty isn't any less of a barrier. Just because Oklahoma City operates on a bigger picture timeline against non championship expectations, perhaps the Thunder will start losing enough for him to fade outside the top five. Again. It's gonna come a point where, if they're going to continue to tumble below five hundred, he probably just won't play enough for this to matter. There are two and five records since the last MVP ladder isn't great, it's also not inundated with losses that screen frauds. Yeah, they letdown against the Rockets, okay, but they play the Grizzlies tough, almost beat the Pelicans like those are teams that you could lose to. Regardless, SGA's body of work is enough to float a top four finish for now, especially when you consider the all everything nature of his role. There have been over three hundred and twenty five players this year who are averaging at least ten minutes across at least ten appearances. Only Luca has seen a larger share of his shots go on assisted. Oh. By the way, according to in Predictable, Sja also leads the league and clutch win probability at it. He has been a top ten player to me this season, and I think it's it could be arguable, but if you're outside of the top fifteen, we need to start having real discussions. It's not egregious to put him here just because of the Thunders record. Maybe it becomes that way if he's available less as the Thunders start to lose more insofar as that happens, but for now, he can absolutely be this high. And look, he is this high. I have Jason Tatum at number three, which is actually a spot lower than he was last time I had him at number two. Steady is his stock, He's not you know, he drops the one spot, not because of anything that he's done. This is more to do with the names that are to follow. His three point clip over the past couple of weeks has ducked blow thirty one percent, but he offsets that dip with stellar shooting inside the arc and career best free throw volume. He's just doing. He's become such a much improved driver. His defense has also been instrumental to the Boston Celtics inching back up the stopping power hierarchy. They're thirteen in defense over the past two weeks, which is you know, they were in the bottom ten for a while. This is all despite they're still not forcing turnovers, but he does a lot of work on the defensive end. He's also averaging over the past two weeks six point eight assists per game. That is monstrous. The passing leap is real, watches passes, It's just there's so much less obvious the way that he has tightened his handle and is off the dribbled decision making. Overall, he's the real deal. The Celtics have lost just once since the last MVP ladder, and they have the league's best offense and net rating. Tatum props up that dominance without needing to monopolize possessions as a playmaker or scorer. His superstardom remains more scalable than most, and it allows Boston to manage dependence on any one functional feature never in doubt wins by the way like goes over the Hawks and the King's recently, also permit them to keep his minutes in check, which could repress some of his numbers during certain games. This is not to say that Tatum isn't wired to carry the whole show. He is, he has been. He's clearing thirty points per game over four point five assists with a bonker sixty two point five tree shooting percentage. Maybe he doesn't have the singular lifeline juice to leap frog one or both of the names that we're about to discuss when we're going longer term, But for perhaps the league's most complete player on its potentially best team, top five appearances on this ladder feel like his floor number two Steph Curry number five last time, and that was he went from number seven, I believe two number five when he did that. So you know that's not I mean, that's a that's a pretty big deal. Steph's finished the top the early season MVP ballots of ESPN, Zachlo and Kevin Pelton on the recent episode of The Low Post, I don't even really have like a great argument against that. Curry's numbers are reality warping. He's averaging thirty one point four points and seven point one assists per game while shooting almost sixty three percent on twos and over forty four percent on his eleven point seven three point attempts per game. Literally, actually, what the fuck? Using the Golden State Warriors record against him to me never made sense. I laid out why just with the Schache Gilders Alexander case, it makes even less sense now. Golden State's still hovering around five hundred and play in territory, but they have a top six offense and are five and two since the last MVP Ladder. This uptick is probably even skewed in the wrong direction thanks to that no hands on deck loss to the Pelicans last week. The Warriors have cobbled together more interesting bench units to help keep themselves afloat playing Draymond like I said before, and some of those lineups without Steph has really helped a ton, But Curry remains the driving force of everything. He now owns the league's second largest net rating swing, behind only Jokich, and he rings first and overall plus minus the on off splits aren't solely a matter of Curry benefiting from a crappy bench. Again, the Warriors are finding solutions, it seems, outside the starting unit. The degree to which Curry warps defense is just beyond comprehension. He opens up the floor for everyone even when he doesn't have the ball, and even when he's not moving. Golden State's effective field goal percentage climbs by twelve points with him in the game, the second biggest uptick in the league and the highest by a mile among all other nine names to appear on this list. Teammates are also shooting fifty eight point two percent on his assists opportunities, another best mark on this list that oozes awesomeness. Whether you're thinking, oh, well, his supporting cast sucks, they're still shooting fifty eight point two percent off his assist opportunities, or you could say, oh, they're great. They're still shooting fifty eight point two percent on his assists opportunities. It's not a mark that they would sustain without him awarding Curry the top spot to me is fine. I'd like to see the Warriors wins toughen up a bit. First victories over the Jazz and the Timberwolves are a good start. Beating the Knicks, barely beating the Rockets, and then beating the star list Los Angeles Clippers that rang. That springs a little hollow to me. It still wouldn't surprise me if Steph is number one next time or five minutes from now, he has a real, if not likely shot to become just the third player to win the MVP Award after his thirty fifth birthday. Michael Jordan and Karmelone are the only other players to have done that. Finally, Lucas One maintains the top spot, and I beg you, if you've made it this far, at least listen to why the MAVs they kind of suck. This is just squaring away Donte's place, and the argument is getting tougher by the week. For me, the Dallas Matters aren't obliterating opponents when He's on the floor, but they are comfortably winning those minutes. That feels like a minor miracle when looking at the circumstances under which he plays figuring out how to beef up MVP stocks because of spotty supporting cast. Like I mentioned, it's really really hard for me. Dallas is making it too easy, though. It's not just that the MAVs have obviously built an imperfect roster, it's how they manage it. Elected not to add another ball handler over the offseason after losing their second best player has led them into the arms of the previously unsigned Kemba Walker. Christian Wood's defensive lapses are presumably costing him playing time, but head coach Jason Kidd is totally cool with giving benefit of the doubt to the bricklaying exploits from Tim Hardaway junior Reggie Bullock. Dallas is sealing with this exact roster makeup. It remains to be seen, but it's higher than eleventh place in the Western Conference, and anyone attributing the Mavs's recent plunge to Don Chet's needs their own reality check. Whether you think he's capable of playing a different less ball dominant role, it's irrelevant. Dallas isn't even giving him the chance to try. Riding him into the ground. Is still their most efficient form of hope, and he's killing it somehow, someway, he continues to hit over sixty percent of his twos and brutalize matchups in the post while leading the league and scoring. He has also drilled thirty five point nine percent of his three point attempts since the last MVP Ladder, and most of those attempts are just these unassisted step backs, because that's the nature of his role right now. Equally important, there's been this weird internet ground swell calling for Dontez to involve his teammates more. He is third in potential assists per game. His teammates are shooting fifty point two percent on his assists opportunities. Again, among the top fifty players in potential assists per game, that's the thirty seventh highest mark, So it's low, and yet he's still elevating the play of his teammates. Non Dontchets players shoot forty five point five percent overall this year. They're shooting fifty point two percent when dontech is setting them up. That's a big deal. There's a discussion to be had about the shot quality of those looks. And then the Lake croc Lay crock grenades but the overarching point here stands done is not in any way, shape or form the problem in Dallas. And though his first place finish is not without vulnerability, because I really do believe that Steph Curry is coming, it is for now a worthwhile and necessary nod to his salvaging and organization that's done little to nothing in service of itself. Or donchitch himself, that'll do it for this MVP incoherent rambling, sermon, soap box thingy, whatever you want to call it. Please let me know who your MVP is. Where you think of the latter, Hit the comments on YouTube, at me, on Twitter at Dampa Valley. Remember subscribe if you haven't done so already to YouTube, Spotify, Apple on as many platforms as possible. Word of mouth recommendations meet a lot and they go a long way. Maybe retweet our promos on Twitter, shout us out, follow us on on the socials the links that are in the podcast of YouTube descriptions until next time, and as always, leave the shout out to the one, the only, the real MVP in our hearts. Frank Neila Kina