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What’s good, family. It’s the homie Sykes, back again, to usher you into tonight’s playoff action. But before we dive in, a word on MVP voting.
People are ready to flip the voting process upside down after learning Nikola Jokic is set to become the 13th player to win back-to-back MVP awards.
The thinking is that a back-to-back MVP shouldn’t be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs as Jokic was. And because that happened, Jokic shouldn’t actually be MVP. Now, because voters failed to predict the future of the playoffs (GASP), some folks are calling for major changes to the voting process.
The main change people are looking for is to have players voting for the MVP, amongst other rewards. This has been an idea pitched around for years but, obviously, the Jokic MVP win has kicked the dust back up on it.
Folks from across the internet are arguing the time for change is now. You’ve even got a former player and coach in Nick VanExel suggesting this should happen.
But allowing players to vote is not the problem solver people think it is. The thing is, it already happens in a major area of the game. Players have an All-Star vote. And you know what many of them choose to do with it? Absolutely waste it.
Here’s a quick list of players who were voted by other players as All-Star starters this year: Raul Neto, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, PJ Washington, Brandon Clarke, Nic Claxton, Jarred Vanderbilt and Juan Toscano-Anderson.
This stuff is on the record. It’s recorded. No disrespect to those guys, who are all fine players. They’re certainly not All-Stars though. Yet, here they are with player votes.
Not sure if this is breaking news to anyone, but players have biases and agendas, too. Just look at what happened during the All-Star starter selection after James Harden forced his way out of Brooklyn. Kevin Durant refused to take him. That’s fine! It was hilarious. But, clearly, there’s a bias there that impacted his selection. And there’s stuff like that that happens all the time in the NBA between players.
Look, I don’t think it’s without reason to want to adjust the process or refine it in some way. Maybe clean it up a bit. Joel Embiid made a good case here (without disparaging Jokic, by the way).
But having a players-only vote doesn’t seem to be the answer, either.
The Tip-Off
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