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You make significantly better long form content than I could have imagined I think the split into this channel being long form and the 2nd channel being for 20 minutes or so has improved your videos a ton
I am President of a regional power. I was about to oversee the construction of our glorious new super weapon. Then I saw: hour long Rusty Buckets. The regime can wait.
To be fair, it probably will ALWAYS be that way. The most basic and fundamental idea in basketball and most sports has always been the goal of scoring more points than the opponents. Scoring in itself is the most important aspect to gain for offense and basketball as a whole. But considering that, there is a reason why we consider more than just scoring and even winning in mvp conversations. Each player at the top of the discussion is one of the best scorers on some of the better teams (trying to consider Luka), so we factor in the rest of their stats, narrative, etc.
@@spoodyR3Imagine a player averaging 40 PPG but getting swept and the other player avg 25 PPG but winning the whole thing as the best player. Would be way more unfair to the guy who won the championship tbh
At this point you became one of my favorite channels on youtube, not just for basketball but overall, the change in format was amazing and I really help it reflects in numbers rusty.
I love the long form content that allows you to approach a subject from multiple sides and really flesh out your argument with evidence and narratives.
Man I think you have a great understanding of what’s important in sports. Great use of clips and delivered in a great story format. Plus that Russel Westbrook introduction made me smile ear to ear. Love it man
The thing I hate about modern MVP discourse nowadays is that players are getting penalized for playing on contenders with deep rosters or adequate help. Like if you want to win a championship, your MVP level player probably has an all star level teammate, but now thats suddenly "too much help" to be in MVP consideration
Long time viewer here. I feel very sentimental about this channel because of the time I discovered it. Just wanted to say am glad these long videos have amazing scripts, understanding of context both in the NBA and the world in general, great video editing and music. Don't ever stop Rusty
People always argue Wilt's 100pts game was made up, but they were counting points back then and writing down which jersey number scored how many points.
It’s one of those awards where sometimes it’s spot on. The person who won it was completely deserving. On the other side of that coin it goes to someone who is still deserving but the voters for one reason or another don’t think so. Rusty puts it well with voter fatigue, but I think media narratives play a bigger role than people may admit. Edit: he essentially says the same thing lol.
I started really getting into the NBA during the 2016-2017 season. And if you weren’t watching OKC games at the time and seeing what Russ was doing I truly feel for you, he was the most exciting and spectacularly athletic player I’ve ever seen bar none. I remember staying home “sick” from school to watch his games
guys this is extremately good content, could be something you watch on a streaming platform or something, I absolutely love this, congrats to all the team, keep it up!
Hard agree on DWade. Man is the 3rd best shooting guard in NBA history, and is one of the best defensive players under 6'5 in NBA history. He's the definition of a player who was MVP caliber but never won the award because of circumstances out of his control. Having to contend with Nash, Shaq, Dirk, LeBron, and Kobe with MVP at his peak for the award. It's hard to win MVP even when having an all time season like 2008-09....because the Cavs won 23 more games with LeBron being the superstar despite Wade having better numbers (sans rebounds).
@@fortynights1513 It makes sense though. As a Miami fan I am biased towards Wade. But LeBron carrying that team to a better record than the Big 3 Celtics, late 2000s Spurs, Kobe B2B Lakers, and Melo/AI nuggets is wild. I know Cleveland's defense was crazy but still, it's a wild thing that it happened.
As someone who's new to basketball (playing fantasy because my friends needed an 8th) I love your down to earth, non sensationalized videos. Always incredibly interesting and insightful.
There’s no narrative around Luka cuz no one watches the mavs 😂 if people realized how depleted the roster was for the first half of the season I think there would be atleast some narrative there, there were several games where guys like AJ Lawson and Greg Brown were STARTING (I know what you’re thinking, WHO?!?) but yah it’s a really tough sell if they stay at 7 or 8 for sure even as a mavs fan I would think that’s a bit flukey even considering how close the 8th seed is to the 4th seed atm
... that was always the point of the award, you give it to the guy who was the most valuable in the season - not for a damn 4 year stretch or his 10/15 years of legacy lol
Exactly, or player of the season. It could be framed as "which player will we remember most from this season?" - which doesn't necessarily align with the most impressive numbers.
There's another factor in SGA's favor that I don't think you mentioned. He's North American(Canadian). The last 5 MVPs have all been from other continents, and I think people are hungry for a less "foreign" player to win it. It normally wouldn't matter, but this race is so close that I think it matters a great deal.
My biggest problem is voter fatigue I think jordan and Lebron fans can both agree that both players should have way more mvp idc ab voter fatigue idc if Lebron won the award 20 times I want to see the player who deserved it and had the best numbers win the mvp idc how many times he wins and if a 9 seed is averaging 35 10 5 idc he deserve it over the 2 seed 25 8 2
Man OKC Russ made me start watching hoops again. I had just got instagram at the time and i would always see the crazy shit he was doing that year. Russ was so much fun in his younger days. No one ran the court like him and no one played as hard. Him and KD in OKC was dope af
Tatum getting bonus points for being the best player on the best team and being in Boston while Jokic doesnt get any for being defending champ and finals mvp seems a little meh. Good video though.
He's modeling how the voters think, not what he thinks. He's trying to predict the MVP, not deciding his own. He spent the video talking about how the voters decide on MVP. If he wanted to choose who he thought should be MVP, I think he would have more and different criteria.
I do appreciate how close it is between jokic and sga compared to jokic and embiid. I unfortunately have agendas to push and think jokic is still winning his 3rd
@@sikkouvol.1996mvp is not whos better Thas yall problem it go to the most valuable player that season not whos better and also nothing to do with playoff success
Your vocabulary and presentation skills have advanced dramatically over the years! Thanks for putting out amazing content and I love the long-form documentary style man keep up the great work!
There's a timeline wher Joel Embiid still wins MVP because the very fact of how much the Sixers suck without him shows how high his value is for the team and Adam Silver hand up giving the trophy to him on a hospital bed for narrative and entertainment purposes
I feel like if they did a list like that every year, they would have to basically put the mvp as number 1. Otherwise to the casual public it could devalue the award
I feel that if Ant had slightly better stats, he would be in the MVP race, the narrative and the winning is currently there, all that's missing is the stats. There is no better narrative than emerging face of the league leads the worst franchise in North American Sports to their best or second best record. Its the perfect story that NBA wants to push, all that's missing are the stats.
I just started watching after the split. So I don’t know anything different. However, I must say your content is among the most interesting, intelligent and well researched I have seen on the platform. I truly appreciate your opinion and I watch your videos very intently to make sure I understand the full weight of the topic. I’m very glad to have found your channel, keep up the outstanding work!
Value and the NBA MVP. Certainly topics worth debating. Some say best player on a top seed, others say the best statistical player on a good team in context. Question out of curiosity (I ask because I get a variety of responses), who is the best player who never finished top five in an NBA MVP vote in their career. Here are the players who have finished top five (counting those who did it in the ABA): ABA Players (24): Connie Hawkins Doug Moe Mel Daniels Larry Jones Willie Somerset Jimmy Jones Rick Barry Spencer Haywood Roger Brown Bob Verga Zelmo Beaty Charlie Scott Dan Issel Artis Gilmore Billy Cunningham Julius Erving George McGinnis Ron Boone Joe Caldwell Willie Wise Bobby Jones Mack Calvin James Silas David Thompson NBA Players (98): Bob Pettit Paul Arzin Bob Cousy Mel Hutchins Dolph Schayes Bill Sharman George Yardley Bill Russell Maurice Stokes Elgin Baylor Wilt Chamberlain Oscar Robertson Jerry West Sam Jones Jerry Lucas Nate Thurmond Lenny Wilkens Dave Bing Wes Unseld Willis Reed Kareem Abdul Jabaar Walt Frazier John Havlicek Dave Cowens Tiny Archibald Bob McAdoo Bob Lainer Elvin Hayes Bill Walton Pete Maravich George Gervin Walter Davis Moses Malone Bob Dandridge Larry Bird Dennis Johnson Dan Roundfield Robert Parish Gus Williams Magic Johnson Sidney Moncrief Bernard King Isiah Thomas Terry Cummings Dominique Wilkins Hakeem Olajuwon Michael Jordan Kevin McHale Charles Barkley Clyde Drexler Karl Malone Patrick Ewing David Robinson Scottie Pippen Shaquille O’Neil Penny Hardaway Grant Hill Tim Hardaway Glen Rice Gary Payton Tim Duncan Alonzo Mourning Allen Iverson Jason Kidd Kevin Garnett Chris Webber Tracy McGrady Kobe Bryant Jermaine O’Neil Peja Stojakovic Steve Nash Dirk Nowitski LeBron James Chauncey Billups Chris Paul Dwight Howard Dwayne Wade Kevin Durant Derrick Rose Tony Parker Carmelo Anthony Blake Griffin Joakim Noah James Harden Stephen Curry Russell Westbrook Anthony Davis Kawhi Leonard Isaiah Thomas Damian Lillard Giannis Antetokounmpo Paul George Nikola Jokic Luka Doncic Joel Embiid Devin Booker Jayson Tatum Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
@@howclicheKyrie. Interesting choice. Haven’t heard him before. He has averaged 25+ points and 6+ assists a few times, so stats aren’t exactly an issue for him. But the thing that hurt him in this context is that he has not typically been the best player on his team, and unlike some of the players on here who were the second best on their teams under normal circumstances (like Pippen, McHale, or Havlicek in 1973), Kyrie hasn’t really played on any team that was said to have played one of the best regular seasons ever, and the best team he was the best player on is arguably the 2017-18 Celtics who had a 55-27 record and were the second seed. Interestingly, Kyrie Irving has somehow never received an MVP vote in his career. Also, the point guard in Boston the season prior, Isaiah Thomas would finish fifth in the MVP vote, and the team won two fewer games, but were the one seed in their conference.
@@howclicheWe can now add Jalen Brunson to that list of top five finishers. And among current players who don’t appear on that list, I say Anthony Edwards is quite likely to finish top five at least in the future should he continue to play at a high level
You hit the nail on the head with people not relying on watching mainstream media for discourse. Overheard a guy watching your video on scoring in the elevator of my apartment.
Why is Chuck's case listed as an example of disrupting the trend of the award valued winning most if his numbers is comparable to MJ that year and his team won more? Just because it stopped MJ from 3-peating?
Narratives need to go away, MVP needs to come from an efficiency perspective. And both sides of the ball need to be weighed equally. Im sick of people voters turning it into an offensive award.
I think we might be in need of a new award. The MVP award might stay for the best player on the best like in the past and the new award would be something like an most impactful player award (MIP), which would be the player that has the most impact on winning aka carries his team the most.
My problem with Bill's MVP as an example is that at that time the players were the one that voted on MVP and most players hated Wilt, that is clear from almost any player that played in that era.
love the video, to me the tempo was perfect. that said i think the second camera angle is too low at the start when you sit down ;) keep up the good stuff :D ~ Shai for MVP
Imo MVP is the person who impacts their team the most while also bringing them to the highest level (with a few exceptions such as Westbrook literally averaging a triple double while dragging the thunder to the playoffs or jokic having one of the greatest statistical seasons of all time) but unfortunately since the mvp voting is amongst people like Kendrick Perkins or Stephen A it kinda just ends up being “Who do I think had the most aura this season”
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