Speaker 1: Welcome into NBA Pulse production of iHeartRadio in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Stock, NBA analysts for the Yes Network, and
Speaker 1: today is Fride Day, December first, and from our terrific
Speaker 1: four group of NBA journalists, We're joined now by NBA
Speaker 1: dot Com senior writer Michael C. Wright and Michael, we
Speaker 1: are kicking this December off with your new MVP ladder
Speaker 1: for the week. Nicola Jokic still remaining in that number
Speaker 1: one spot, Joel Embiid jumping up from number three to
Speaker 1: the number two spot. We got a tie. We got
Speaker 1: to tie three between Luka Dantic and Shay Gildas Alexander
Speaker 1: and then Giannis Adetta Kuko makes a big jump back
Speaker 1: up to the top five from number nine. But I
Speaker 1: want to first dig in to the top two because
Speaker 1: I feel like we have been talking about this for years.
Speaker 1: Nicola Jokis Joel Embiid, those two have been extraordinary this year.
Speaker 1: We are accustomed to seeing Jokic get triple double after
Speaker 1: triple double already seven on the season, but that is
Speaker 1: something that we saw out of Joel Embiid for the
Speaker 1: first time the other nights earlier this week against the
Speaker 1: Clippers was one to say shy Saturday at Oklahoma. But
Speaker 1: I first want to start with Joel because the thing
Speaker 1: we always see out of Jokic, and obviously he does everything,
Speaker 1: but the brilliance of his passing, Joel has taken his
Speaker 1: facilitation up a notch this season. How we've seen them
Speaker 1: run through the offense through him, how he's finding teammates
Speaker 1: a career high and assist so par of the season
Speaker 1: at six point six. When you look at what Joel
Speaker 1: has done this season and obviously the moving parts of
Speaker 1: what the personnel in the lineup looked like for Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: now it's more solidified. What stood out to you about
Speaker 1: the play of Embiid in particularly the last few games.
Speaker 2: I think, Sarah, it is sort of of a matter
Speaker 2: of Joel trusting his teammates more. And I mean that's
Speaker 2: pretty easy to do when you got a guy like
Speaker 2: Tyrese Maxy just dropping thirty like there's nothing watched this again,
Speaker 2: little two man game. Joel just leaves it for him,
Speaker 2: sets the screen. So I think that's a big part
Speaker 2: of it. But you know, Nick Nurse explained it the
Speaker 2: other night that hey, you know, teams are going to
Speaker 2: load up to try to stop Joel and b and
Speaker 2: you know, either he can take it himself or he
Speaker 2: can find teammates out there on the perimeter. And you
Speaker 2: know that's what's happening, Like, you know, teams collapse on him.
Speaker 2: He finds somebody on the perimeter, and he's got shooters
Speaker 2: all over the place. See from outside, it's been really
Speaker 2: interesting to see just I mean, you know, just go
Speaker 2: back over the last two or three years, Joel Embiid
Speaker 2: is a guy that's sort of dealt with a bunch
Speaker 2: of just different moving parts all around him. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just constantly something in motion. You know, you deal
Speaker 2: with the drama with Ben Simons, you deal with the
Speaker 2: James Hard and stuff that uncertainty, and you know he's
Speaker 2: been the one constant. But it seems like now with
Speaker 2: the new coach, Nick Ners, it just seems like there
Speaker 2: is like that perfect mix, like this perfect storm going on.
Speaker 2: And I don't even think, you know, what, how many
Speaker 2: games are we into the season, eighteen games in for
Speaker 2: the for the seventy six ers, I still don't we
Speaker 2: haven't seen the best of them yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think a big part of that, to
Speaker 1: your point is, you know, some uncertainty at the start
Speaker 1: of the season, and obviously with Nick Nurse, we have
Speaker 1: talked about this before you go into training camp and
Speaker 1: whether you want to frame the James Harden situation. You know,
Speaker 1: by all accounts they said, not a distraction. We show up,
Speaker 1: we play. You're still how you're you're working on your coverages,
Speaker 1: your schemes, what you're doing philosophically and both in the floor.
Speaker 1: That's an adjustment and that changes, and so I think
Speaker 1: you're to your point starting to see them catch more
Speaker 1: of a rhythm. Currently sitting forth in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: with twelve and six record a big game tonight I
Speaker 1: gains Boston seven thirty pm Eastern on ESPN. We'll see
Speaker 1: though currently Joel is questionable with an illness, but we'll
Speaker 1: see if those two matchup, because obviously always a fun
Speaker 1: one to watch the Celtics and seventy six ers battle.
Speaker 1: On the flip side of things, to Kulla Jokic extraordinary,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can't get numb to his
Speaker 1: greatness and how he somewhat has raised his game another
Speaker 1: level after what Denver did winning a championship last season.
Speaker 1: Twenty nine points over thirteen rebounds, over nine assists. I
Speaker 1: had already mentioned it seven triple doubles on the season,
Speaker 1: Denver sitting in that number two spot behind Minnesota with
Speaker 1: the thirteen and six record.
Speaker 2: Jokis throws it down his second dunk of the.
Speaker 1: Season, Jokic having to probably do more, or carry more
Speaker 1: or score more with Jamal Murray being out. Is there
Speaker 1: something different about the game and Yokic that you have
Speaker 1: watched or witnessed this year that's either surprised you or
Speaker 1: or just it has you viewing him differently in the
Speaker 1: ways in what he just understands and reads the game.
Speaker 2: I think just the playoffs, the playoffs from last season.
Speaker 2: I thought that like just the light came on, like
Speaker 2: this Eureka moment where he was just like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: I've mastered this thing, so I can I can just
Speaker 2: pretty much do whatever I want out here. I can
Speaker 2: move the pieces, you know, I can find guys, I
Speaker 2: can take over the game. I can do whatever I
Speaker 2: want when I need to to, you know, make sure
Speaker 2: my team, you know, comes out on top. And to me,
Speaker 2: that's been the biggest thing. It's just like he has
Speaker 2: figured out, you know, like you think about people like
Speaker 2: Chris Paul. Guys that can manipulate the game and bend
Speaker 2: it to their will. That's sort of what Nicola Yokis
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 1: What a fake game too. On that dribble, he almost
Speaker 1: telled it like he was going to pass it. The
Speaker 1: dribble was high enough where he could have done.
Speaker 2: That three in a row. The Rockets win on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a really good winning for them because,
Speaker 2: you know, Houston is a pretty good defensive team and
Speaker 2: so to I think they had like thirty seven assists
Speaker 2: with three turnovers, and Yokic had fifteen of those assists.
Speaker 2: That's I think only the second time that you know,
Speaker 2: a team has had that many assists and that few
Speaker 2: turnovers in the game, and a lot of that is
Speaker 2: Nikola jokicchy they you know, after the playoffs and the championship,
Speaker 2: you know, you saw how the Nuggets were celebrating. Everybody
Speaker 2: was celebrated on that team, and they celebrated all summer long,
Speaker 2: and so you thought Nikola Yokis might come back a
Speaker 2: little complacent. No no, no, no, no no. That man
Speaker 2: came back on a mission to go get him another championship.
Speaker 2: And so that's been really fun to watch and as
Speaker 2: we've discussed the Kola Jokics Joel EMBII, I think that
Speaker 2: is going to be the conversation when we talk about
Speaker 2: this MVP thing, and it's going to be that way
Speaker 2: all season. I think it's going to go back and forth.
Speaker 2: But as I mentioned earlier, I don't think we've even
Speaker 2: seen the best Joel and b and I think he's
Speaker 2: a guy that's sort of, you know, his game is
Speaker 2: sort of changing, and if he becomes the assist guy
Speaker 2: that it looks like he's about to man, those are
Speaker 2: going to be some interesting conversation because then everybody's going
Speaker 2: to be like, well, what about defensive impact? Like, We're
Speaker 2: going to be looking at every little metric to try
Speaker 2: to figure out that race. So it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: I do think that's the caveat of the assist factor.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious how much as the season progresses, the
Speaker 1: difference in what Nick Nurse has them doing, the compliment
Speaker 1: of the roster around him, and how much more responsibility
Speaker 1: Joelle takes on in that sascet, how that will change,
Speaker 1: because right now, I would look at it, we're so
Speaker 1: early in the season, you know, to even talk about
Speaker 1: stuff like this, but what Jokic is doing has wowed met.
Speaker 1: I mean, he really, like you said, the celebrations all summer,
Speaker 1: you finally get a championship. He's already got to MVP trophies.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a slow run up to start this season, and just
Speaker 1: how he's been picking apart the game. I also was
Speaker 1: you know, there was a podcast with Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon talking about their chemistry and how it's
Speaker 1: just different and how they figured things out. And so
Speaker 1: I think to raising the level of play of those
Speaker 1: around him, I would give so much of that to
Speaker 1: what Nicola does with this Denver team. But but overall,
Speaker 1: I think it's just been fun and interesting to continue
Speaker 1: to watch how they how they flourish, and how they
Speaker 1: change and adapt and add to their games. At this point,
Speaker 1: considering what a high, high level they're at the Tide,
Speaker 1: the number three spot between Luca Shake Gildas, Alexander with
Speaker 1: Shay and with Oklahoma City, how they're playing, do you
Speaker 1: think that that if Oklahoma City continues to stay in
Speaker 1: this level of play where they're at, how how much
Speaker 1: consideration could he have in this conversation because I think
Speaker 1: he's always been at the outskirts, so we always kind
Speaker 1: of have watched, but Oklahoma City has never been to
Speaker 1: the level in the standings in the West. If Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City continues to be the real deal, what does that
Speaker 1: do for shit? Man?
Speaker 2: I think last year he was like, like we started
Speaker 2: talking about it a little bit, but like like you
Speaker 2: were just saying, like Oklahoma City record didn't really justify
Speaker 2: his high feeling. You know, you couldn't really say, well,
Speaker 2: you know, Sga is an MVP guy will because the
Speaker 2: Thunder didn't have the record to match it. But now
Speaker 2: this is something else with this kid has done. And
Speaker 2: you know, I think I mentioned it to you, like
Speaker 2: I covered them the first week of season against the
Speaker 2: Denver Nuggets. It was in Oklahoma City. I think Shade
Speaker 2: was like two of sixteen. It was early early in
Speaker 2: the season. I'm like, oh, no, I guess he's not
Speaker 2: going to live up to it. But boy, was I
Speaker 2: wrong that this kid is amazing, like I said, and
Speaker 2: he's just dropping thirty like it's nothing, and like his
Speaker 2: shooting splits are crazy. I mean he's almost a fifty
Speaker 2: forty ninety guy. I mean, I think he's like thirty
Speaker 2: seven and a half percent from three point range. But
Speaker 2: he can get that up and not only that, Like
Speaker 2: you know, like last year he wasn't taking a ton
Speaker 2: of threes. He was just killing people in the mid
Speaker 2: range and at the basket. Well, he's kind of kicked
Speaker 2: up his threes a little bit and the percentage has
Speaker 2: gone down. But I don't know he And the funny
Speaker 2: thing about him is when you watch him, it's not
Speaker 2: like he's just this explosive guy that blows by people.
Speaker 2: He sort of got this hurky jerky game. It's sort
Speaker 2: of like Kyle Anderson and teams have a hard time
Speaker 2: guarding him. And so like right now, this team is
Speaker 2: a young team. It's you know, it's still sort of
Speaker 2: fighting its way. I mean, I don't know what phase
Speaker 2: we can say Oklahoma City is in in the rebuild.
Speaker 2: They have this young corps, but Sam Preston also has
Speaker 2: all these pigs and draft assets, and you know that
Speaker 2: they're so good, so good now as a young team
Speaker 2: that they can afford to sort of sit back and
Speaker 2: wait and see what happens before they decide to, you know,
Speaker 2: start trying to add more pieces.
Speaker 1: Michael lies always we appreciate your time on We look
Speaker 1: forward to continuing to see, read, watch all of your
Speaker 1: stuff on NBA dot com and as this season continues
Speaker 1: with the MVP latter NBA Pulse with Sarahustack is a
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