we are now just a few weeks away from the end of the 2025 NBA regular season and by this point the MVP race is usually all but wrapped up but what do you do when there's two MVPs history says you vote for the guy who was leading his team to the most wins of any team in a decade while putting up Prime Michael Jordan numbers very clearly the best player on the best team which should make this decision pretty obvious except it's not because history has never seen a season like the one poic is having it's better than this one and this one and this one in fact it is possibly the most impactful season anyone has ever had two all-time great campaigns and only one trophy it is the greatest MVP race in recent history and it has left voters completely torn questioning what it even means to be the NBA's most valuable player today's video is sponsored by DrftKings it's that time of year my friends the NBA season is getting more intense by the day playoff spots are on the line and every game 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isn't the only ingredient to the MVP recipe but it's a big one and right now yic and Shay aren't just having the two best seasons in the NBA they're having two of the best seasons of all time just looking at some simple box score numbers Nicole yic jumps off the screen like the obvious favorite a near 30o triple double on nearly the best efficiency in the entire league and the first player to ever be top three in points rebounds and assists numbers that make Shay season look a bit pedestrian despite being historic 33 5- six on at least 60% true shooting is a statline that is only been achieved by three other players in the history of the NBA Michael Jordan James Harden and Luca donic across five different seasons although none of them were as efficient from the floor as Shay is this season however box score numbers by by them themselves have never been quite enough to compel voters of these five previous Seasons only one of them ended up winning the MVP Michael Jordan in 88 and to pull it off he had to also be the best defensive player in the league in the case of jic there's only been one season in modern NBA history that compares to his Russell Westbrook in 2017 and that season he was The Runaway MVP receiving 69 of the total 101 first place votes the glaring difference between these two seasons the mile wide Gap in their efficiency nearly a decade and some of the most absurd statistical Seasons later and the upgraded version of Westbrook's MVP season not only doesn't warrant a runaway victory for the award it may not even win it but these numbers hardly even scratch the surface of the impact and value these two provide every game if we take a deeper look into some of their more advanced numbers we can see just how remarkable Shay and yokich have been this season and why the MVP race is as close as it is to put into perspective the caliber of season these two are having LeBron at his absolute statistical Peak had a box plus minus of 13. 24 Steph Curry at his absolute best had a BPM of 11. 94% every advaned metric by about a mile but this season Shay has threatened jokic's spot and even dethroned him at times as the best player in the league a feat that in and of itself is probably the most impressive thing he's done All Season On Any Given night either one of them can look like the most impactful player on the planet and even looking at Advanced numbers The Edge is only slightly in jokic's favor crafted NBA has joic as the best player in the NBA this season with Shay right behind him and then a really big gap and then everyone else estimated plus minus on the other hand has Shay as the best player in the league this season with joic right behind him and then huge gap everyone else a quick glance at any of these catch-all statistics will tell you that jic and SGA are both historically and almost equally as dominant this season fortunately for those who are put to the difficult task of choosing between jic and SGA for MVP these numbers have never been a direct indication of who will or who should win the award over the last two decades the best best or most impactful player in the NBA in any given season According to some of the best Advanced metrics ended up winning the MVP award only about half of the time many times these are cases where the individual numbers were backed with regular season team success but rarely have the numbers alone regardless of how great they were been enough to be crowned the most valuable player in the league in fact if putting up the best stats automatically made a player the MVP voting for the award wouldn't even be necessary so in terms of sheer individual numbers there is isn't a very compelling case to be made in either direction jokic's numbers are better but without more context their dominance from game to game is virtually the same so we need to add more context how are these performances impacting their team and to what extent does their historic production lead their team to success [Music] in most cases when two players are having incredible Seasons the tiebreaker in the eyes of fans and voters comes down to how well their team is playing the second ingredient to the MVP recipe win and win often 25 of the last 30 MVPs went to players who clinched either the first or second seed in their conference and right now the Thunder aren't just winning more games than the Nuggets they are the fourth highest winning team in modern NBA history but recently team success has held less weight in the MVP discussion than it has in the past three of the last four MVPs going to players outside of the top two seeds Nicole yic being just the second player in over 40 years to win the MVP despite his team not even cracking 50 wins in a full season back in 2021 as if the voters have made the decision that the MVP isn't limited to Simply the best player on the best team but rather the player who has the largest impact on a winning team and right now there is one player in basketball who is impacting the game far more than anyone else here are the current top eight leaders in the MVP race yic Shay Giannis Tatum Mitchell Curry Mobley and LeBron and here are the net ratings of each of their teams sheay has put on a masterclass All Season leading the Thunder to be not just the most dominant team this season but the second most dominant regular season team in NBA history in terms of net rating and for many people the overwhelming team success the Thunder have had this season is enough to push into the lead for the MVP but value isn't just when your team wins it is how much your team depends on you to win if we look at each team's net rating when their MVP candidate is on the floor it is clear that the Thunder are easily the best team in the league when Shay is on the court with an absurd net rating of plus 18.
3 this means that when Shay is on the floor the Thunder are nearly 20 points better than their opponents per 100 possessions followed by the Cavs with Moy the Cavs with Mitchell and the nuggets with joic but the most revealing measure is the difference a player makes for their team when they're on the court versus when they're off the court where Nicole yic jumps out as by far the most valuable and important player to his team in the entire league his presence on the floor is the difference between the Nuggets being a net negative 8. 2 points bordering the worst team in the NBA and a plus 10.
