This squad plays team ball from top to bottom more than any other team in the league…but with the success of this team so far this season, Paolo deserves a bit of praise in this regard. Orlando is winning and he is the #1 player. He deserves to be in the conversation right now.
Not enough scoring outbursts, feel like we’re more like a defensive minded 2015 Atlanta hawks… nobody is a lone outlier scoring wise
He does not deserve to be in the conversation. Just like no one on the 2014 spurs deserved to be in the mvp conversation. Paolo is good, but to say he’s on an mvp level is just wrong. This team’s identity comes from its defense. Our offense is still hovering around 25th. He’s not better than Jokic, Embiid, Shai, Giannis, Haliburton, Doncic, Durant, Steph, or Tatum. He’s gettin there tho
Without Paolo, this team is lottery-bound. The value he brings to this squad and the impact he has on winning is why he deserves to be in the conversation.
It is “most valuable player”…not “best player” like you implied… The guys who have the most *value* are the ones who *impact winning* the most. That’s definitely been Paolo this season, considering he’s been clutch down the stretch and won a couple games on last minute shots as well.
And particularly for a guy who leads the best *defensive* team in basketball, you aren’t going to see huge numbers pop out on the box score night after night. Regardless of Paolo’s averages, he is the best player on the best team as it currently stands (There are only two teams in the league with a better record right now, and the Magic are on the longest win streak among the top teams).
Yes I’m hyped, and no I don’t think the basketball world will give him the props he deserves, but I’ve been watching this league long enough to recognize when credit is due. =)
“The guys who have the most value are the ones who impact winning the most.” Yeah, that’s still not Paolo.
I will once again go to my statement of “no one on the 2014 spurs was an MVP level player.” Paolo does not impact winning the most. Every impact metric shows him to be good, but nowhere near the levels of Jokic or Embiid. Everyone on the Magic is contributing. We have arguably the best bench unit in the league. The bench BPM has been insane.
Sorry, but Paolo should not be anywhere near the MVP discussion. Everyone should know by now that it means the best regular season player that season. That’s why they gave it to Jokic in 2021 and 22 despite not having the best record. I think you’re giving Paolo way too much credit for our success. We aren’t even a lottery team without him. That’s how good our defense is. And he’s not even the third best defender on our team.
Also, the game he had that big time shot over Caruso was a travel. Sorry it just was there’s no other way around it. We can’t complain about refs and then be okay with that.
I look at MVP by counting stats, and advanced metrics which include on/off numbers. Paolo is averaging 19.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, and 4.5 apg with around 3.5 turnovers. Good numbers. His BPM is 1.0. No MVP in history would’ve had one that low. His +- isn’t even the highest on the team. Ingles is over +70 while Paolo is over +20. Even with their limited minutes, every single person on the bench other than Black have the highest +-
It’s obvious where our success is coming from: a collective effort.
Paolo for MVP
Jokic, Embiid, Luka, Shai, Haliburton, Durant, Steph, Giannis, Fox, Tatum, Sengun, Lebron, Sabonis, Anthony Edwards, Brunson, Adebayo. All of these players I’d put for MVP before Paolo. But not all of them are even seriously in the conversation, especially Sengun and Brunson. To me, it really just depends on what u mean by “in the conversation”. If you’re outside of the top ten, I’m not counting u. Paolo isn’t even in the top 15.
Paolo is the most valuable player on one of the most successful teams. He is in the conversation, as evidenced by us having a conversation about it.
An arbitrary “top ten” might matter to you, but it isn’t stopping the conversation from happening.
=)
Idk about MVP praise, but him and Franz should be All Stars if we’re a top 4 team in February
Can I tell you one thing that I’ve noticed and love about Paolo, he’s an amazing teammate. I mean like genuinely he loves seeing his teammates make plays and succeed. I think that’s so rare to see from a potential super star player nowadays.