This Markkanen for MVP is just silly. And I really like Markkanen. I lived in Finland and have an affinity to all things Suomalainen. But come on. Just one stat, he is +2.6 per game for the season. The team is +6.0. That means the team is +3.4 with him off the court, or essentially no difference. The team is about as good with him on the court as off.
There is no single stat that can settle this argument. You just watch the games and it is clear that Markkanen is not an MVP caliber player. A nice young big? Sure. But probably not even as "valuable" as Julius Randle or John Collins. Certainly not Towns or A. Davis or even Zion. And those are just other PFs.
To be clear, I didn't say he would win MVP, only that he would get votes and that is only if the Jazz are a top tier team in basketball (which is also very unlikely).
But if you are going to use stats like that, then you are basically eliminating Doncic from the award since his on/off differential per 100 possession is only +0.5 (which is actually better than he was all last year). Mitchell is negative to start the year as well (most of the Cavs starters are, their bench has been why they've been winning). And Tatum is only ok at +5. Giannis is near 11 and Jokic just continues to dominate that stat as he is over 25 after finishing last year at an amazing 16.4.
It is obviously very early in the year and 1 game can have a dramatic effect on that, but over the last few years the two most VALUABLE players have been Giannis and Jokic and they will end up that way again. I can't see Jokic winning the award again, so I think Giannis is the pretty clear favorite to get his 3rd, especially if Dallas continues to be good, but not great. Now if Dallas ends up as an upper 50's or 60 win team, then I think Doncic will get real consideration to win it. The same would be true for Tatum and the Celtcis, but I do think the award is Giannis' to lose, especially as the Bucks keep winning at an incredible rate without Middleton.
