If you’re going to comment some generic answer about why do we always set unreal expectations for players I don’t want to hear it. It’s an NBA sub and I like the hypothetical.
If you’re going to comment some generic answer about why do we always set unreal expectations for players I don’t want to hear it. It’s an NBA sub and I like the hypothetical.
Maybe? I feel like people vastly underestimate how good the best player on a title team usually is. The last six Finals MVPs have been Jokic, Curry, Giannis, LeBron, Kawhi and Kevin Durant.
Almost 100% of the time the best player on a championship team has to be an MVP level player. I’ll go back to 2010 just to have a clean finishing point, but you can go back further too.
2010: Lakers (Kobe)
2011: Mavs (Dirk)
2012 and 2013: Heat (LeBron)
2014: Spurs (Duncan, but tbf this was mostly team ball)
2015: Warriors (Curry)
2016: Cavs (LeBron)
2017 and 2018: Warriors (Curry and KD)
2019: Raptors (Kawhi)
2020: Lakers (LeBron)
2021: Bucks (Giannis)
2022: Warriors (Curry)
2023: Nuggets (Jokic)
Every single one of those teams had a player who had won an MVP, except for the Raptors who had Kawhi, a guy who very well could’ve won an MVP if he had ever played enough in the regular season for it. With that in mind, the only players not on that list already I could see be the #1 on a championship team is Luka, Embiid, and Tatum. In the future I could see a few different people get to that level like Ja, Ant, even Zion if he ever stays healthy long enough to put it all together.