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50 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr 2024 \ parent \ on: Most Overrated Basketball Players Stacker_Sports
They all won MVP awards.
How can you do that and not be a winning player without being overrated?
I agree that they're all amazing players, but that doesn't mean they aren't overrated. I considered Allen Iverson for one of the guard positions, btw, and I loved watching AI.
How can you win an MVP and be most overrated? Maybe you could be the most overrated MVP there ever was but not most overrated player in general.
MVP means you were the most valuable player that season. You can't be rated more than most valuable. So, if they reached the pinnacle of potential expectations (MVP caliber player) I find it hard to argue they are most overrated.
Possibly they are overrated now. All of them other than Embiid are past the prime of their careers.
I understand what you are getting at. I dislike players who disappear in the playoffs as much as anyone. It pains me that my favourite pitcher in MLB in the past decade, Clayton Kershaw, has been an abomination in the playoffs. I don't consider him overrated though. He is one of the top 3 pitchers of the past decade plus and is a lock for the hall of fame. For whatever reason he just can't get it done in the playoffs.
That being said. As you may know, I like to rag on the Leafs for being great in the regular season, scoring insane amount of goals and then being awful when playoffs come around. I chalk it up to the fact that their core players aren't winners, they are stats stackers, so maybe we are actually arguing the same thing but in a different way.
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What I think is going on is that the MVP voters get swept up in the narratives of the moment or wild stats and they lose sight on what these teams are trying to accomplish.
I don't think most people honestly thought those guys were more valuable than Jordan, Lebron, or Jokic, even for those specific seasons. Harden's probably an exception to that, because of how thoroughly dependent Houston was on him and how many games they won.
Conceptually, MVP shouldn't be a "Who had the best regular season?" award. It should be something like "Who increased their teams title chances the most?".
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MVP is a regular season award though so shouldn't it be "who increased their teams place in the standings the most".
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I don't think so, although that's going to be a big factor, because it increases title chances.
Lebron carried several otherwise non-playoff teams all the way to the finals. To me, getting into the playoffs with and because of Lebron is more value added than getting the top seed because of Durant.
It's still a regular season honor, but it's recognizing improving title chances over winning regular season games (or just doing awesome stuff in the regular season).
That's why I think the Harden case is the most interesting. The only way to a title was beating Golden State and the only way to beat Golden State was with something like those Rockets teams and Harden was the only guy who could carry a team like that.
So, while Harden generally doesn't meet my perception of what winning basketball looks like, I do think he was the MVP for a couple of years there. No one else, other than Lebron and Kawhi, was giving his team any real chance of beating Golden State. And, of those three guys, Harden's supporting cast was by far the least impressive.
It's an interesting discussion and I'm still crystalizing my views on it, but I don't think guys should be winning MVP unless they're thought to be the reason their team has a shot at a title.
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