Throwback Column: The MVP of the MVB.
The bubble, in every regard, has been absolutely remarkable. In a world of uncertainty, the NBA has brought some normalcy to our lives. But even more than that, they brought something exciting to our days.
The bubble has been something that we needed. In the doldrums of everything, we have seemed to forget how valuable sports and fun are to our everyday lives. I am thankful for the people who came up with the action plans, the protocols, and the organizations themselves as it has been something that I didn't realize I needed so badly.
There really is something special about coming home after a long day of work, plopping down on a couch, and enjoying the joys of competition. It’s the contrast to what most of us experience on a day to day basis. Our days are fast paced without the joy of competing. What we need to do is slow down and embrace the competition. I, myself, just bought a recliner and that just turned into the Most Valuable Furniture of the bubble season and I can’t wait to watch the playoffs in this bad boy.
And surprisingly to most people it hasn’t felt like a training camp exhibition, low quality product that we expected as the production, the basketball, and the intensity has been at a really high level. This is because there have been people who have stepped up and made this what it is today. They are the people who really brought value to the most valuable bubble that we needed. But who is the most valuable person?
Honorable Mention:
Matisse Thybulle
Thybulle’s blog was the first thing that allowed us to really understand what NBA players' lives were looking like in this weird new world. The Vlog was fun, different, fit in the context of Generation Z, and carried us through the beginning of the bubble when we were starved for content. He’s still going, it’s slower, but it’s still very enjoyable.
Kristaps Porzingis
After tearing an ACL and growing used to a new team, Kristaps Porzingis was really slow to show the star talent that was so tantalizing when he was a Knick. It appears that, that version of Kristaps has finally shown up. His defense has been atrocious, but the offensive play of Porzingis has been fantastic.
In the six games that Porzingis played he averaged 30.5 points per game and a huge help to that was his willingness to get to the free throw line. Kristaps averaged 5 free throws a game in the regular season, but while in the bubble KP has averaged 9 free throws a game. That willingness to attack the basket is a sign of aggression that he was missing post injury and pre - weight room. My favorite example of this was when he scored 39 points against the Rockets because rather than just hanging by the three point line, which he had gotten in the habit of, he kept looking for opportunities to post and drive off the dribble. It was such a good mindset shift and made a massive difference.
Doris Burke
I don’t have much to say about Doris other than that she is the best and I’m glad to have her hilarious commentary back in my life.
Gary Trent Jr.
The secret thing about the last 8 games is that they were essentially functioning the same as the NCAA Tournament where any player can catch fire and improve their draft stock by about 15-30 spots. Gary Trent Jr. was that player in these first 8 games. GTJ in the regular season averaged 9 points per game on 44% from the field, 41% from behind the arc, and 82% from the line…. In the bubble he has averaged 17 points per game on 51 - 50(!!!!!!) - 77.
GTJ has been absolutely NUCLEAR for these 8 games and are a major reason why the Trailblazers locked up the 8th seed. Like a player who improves his draft stock in the tournament, Trent Jr just lengthened his career by 5 years.
Top 5
Greg Poppovich
In some regards this is an honorary reward as the Spurs 22 year, record tying playoff streak has finally come to an end. For other reasons, such as retooling a depleted and strange roster, this is a performance reward. One of the biggest changes was turning from a mid range focused, big team to a small-ball lineup featuring DeMar Derozan at Power forward. I always love when a coach recognizes that their roster has changed and rather than trying to force current-roster depleted players into a philosophy, they fit the philosophy to the players.
Poppovich has done this about 14 times throughout his career with the Spurs and it is an ode to how special of a coach he has been. He did it once again in the bubble and at the very least gave the Spurs a great shot of making the play-in game. They may have fell one game short, but most coaches without that shift would have never come close.
Luka Doncic
I’ve written more words about Luka than any other player this season. I don’t need to say much more, but he did average 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in the last 8 games. The percentages aren’t great, but that doesn’t matter, every game he shows how good of a player he really is. It’s a wonder to this day how he wasn’t the number one overall pick.
T.J Warren
When someone makes this shirt of you, it’s a pretty good sign that you had a good few weeks of playing.
As one of the few Pacer fans in the entire world, I can confidently say that I had some extremely low expectations for the Pacers after a nightmare of a restart. The key offensive player, Domantas Sabonis had a foot injury, Malcolm Brogdon missed the first game due to injury, and Victor Oladipo still isn’t fully looking right after a knee injury 2 seasons ago. The offensive prowess of the Pacers was not looking… great.
Enter T.J Warren. During the first three games of the bubble TJ Warren averaged 40 points a game on 60% from three! There was not a shot that he was taking that he was going to miss. I loved how he did it as well, Warren true style is an iso heavy, empty stat player but in these games he was attacking off dribble, hitting catch and shoot threes, and using space to hit the mid range. He completely carried the Pacers offense.
I would have him even higher, but he gets docked pretty heavily for his no show against Phoenix (who traded him for cash!), as I thought he would really try to stick it to them after his 51 point game. What was even more disappointing though was his game against the Heat. That game was supposed to be a legendary struggle after the Warren-Butler beef, but it did not happen. Warren struggled heavily and I am not sure if he just ran out of gas or the injury came in. In all other games though, he was incredible, averaging 35 a game on 60% from the field and 55% from the three. But, at this stage of the MVP vote, bad games stick out much worse than otherwise.
Maybe most disappointing for Warren is that he now has the same injury as Sabonis and it seems like he will be out for most of the playoffs, if not all of it. For the Pacers who seemed like they had a great shot at winning a series and being pesky in round two, this year may be done due to too many injuries.
Devin Booker
Where do I even start here? Do I start with the Suns as the team of the bubble? Devin Booker’s past? Devin Bookers 8 games? How this run affects the future?
Let’s start with the Suns being the team of the bubble. The Suns finished an astonishing 8-0 and for a team that everyone thought was completely irrelevant despite having Devin Booker, made a splash inside of our bubble focused lives. The suns were a fun, balanced team that began to show the potential of their young players. But more so than that, they became the team that everyone emotionally connected with. This was in large part due to the genius idea to have families introduce the starting lineup. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry the first time I saw it.It was something that was touching and seeing how the players reacted - made a difference. The Suns as an organization were SPECIAL in this short part of the season and it’s a complete shame that they didn’t even get the opportunity for the play-in game, maybe there should have been an undefeated stipulation.
Devin Booker was the biggest reason why this was all possible. For the past few years, I have felt like Booker was destined to be a good stats, bad team player. The Suns have never been anywhere close to playoff contention while Booker threw up phenomenal numbers. But, I think we have hit the age of Devin Booker. In this bubble Booker tapped into something I have not seen from his game and that was purpose… Previously Booker would produce and produce, but there didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to what he was doing while playing, he was just out there doing his thing. Now he has started to be purposeful in when and how he scores, which in turn has allowed him to be a cold blooded bucket getter instead of a guy that just gets buckets. The two biggest examples for me was his dunk on the 76ers where he drove the lane dunked over two defenders and his buzzer beater against the Clippers where he scored on Paul George. Those two moments were making the leap type of plays as it showed he wasn’t afraid of anyone at any time.
This stretch has made me absolutely fascinated about what happens next for Booker as he is just 23 years old. Previously I thought that he was gone as soon as possible, but these 8 games have completely changed my mind. At 23 years old, Booker has improved dramatically over the past 5 years as his offensive game has become diverse, he is becoming a better distributor, and is improving on the defensive side. For the Suns this is a miracle because, until this year, the roster has been poorly constructed and there have been 4 coaches in 5 years. That’s just a testament to Bookers talent and ability. Now the Suns seem to have put the infrastructure in palace to help facilitate a star player, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Damian Lillard
This choice was easy as soon as I read this and I thought it was totally reasonable.
“James Harden leads all players with 2,263 total points this season. Unless Damian Lillard scores 64 in Portland’s final seeding games on Thursday, Harden will be the only player in the NBA to reach 2,000 total points this season. It will be the sixth consecutive season Harden has eclipsed 2,000 points.”
On fire Dame might be the only player that is more fun to watch shoot than on fire Steph Curry and for the last 3 games of the bubble Damian Lillard has been like a forest fire. Over the course of those games Lillard dropped 51, 61, and 42 while hitting 21 three’s and missing just two free throws. He has been utterly unstoppable and is one of the few players in the league that everyone loves and twitter has been showing that. We all love Dame time.
All the things that make Lillard a special player have been very, very apparent in this stretch. I think the best way i can describe his play is that he plays like an android where it is all about precision. Lillard has been hyper focused on his target and is going to waste no motion in eviscerating the opponent. It’s one move and then the next and then finishing knockout, in all reality it feels like when Neo downloaded kung fu in the matrix, Dame just knows what to do in the best possible way to achieve the best possible result.
And it’s all fueled by hatred.
Thank you Paul George once again for being an absolute stooge and giving us this version of Damian Lillard. Could I believe that Lillard missed two free throws to lose the game against the Clippers and essentially knock them out of the playoff race? No, I could not. Could I also believe that Paul George would have the courage to mock him and call him out on social media after Dame hit the shot over him last year? ABSOLUTELY NOT. We haven't had a good NBA social media beef in a long time and this was one of the best ones we have had. It was even better to realize that they were in the same hotel complex as each other. This is peak NBA!
And that’s the kind of thing that Lillard thrives on. If it wasn’t for that, Lillard would not have gone on this android destroy the world mission and the Blazers probably wouldn't’ be in the playoffs. In most cases, some missed free throws would dock a guy from being the MVP. Not in this case, it turned out that it helped him.
Damian Lillard is the MVP of MVB because he in the last three games reminded us why we love the NBA so much. It is the incredible basketball performances, it’s the man on the mission focus, and it’s the human element of competition that makes it so good. Lillard has tied all that up into the last three games and has had us all on the edge of our seats.
Thank you seeding games. Now it’s time for the playoffs.