The new Athletic nba player poll on GOAT, most overrated, best defender, mvp, and ect

[Kblaze8855]

[Kblaze8855]

[Kblaze8855]

[Kblaze8855]

There are a few more. Player you would least like to fight and some others. And quite a few players explained their selections. It takes a minute to properly steal an athletic article. Even the archive sites will sometimes include a pop up. I’ll give you the written part in a little bit.

[Real Men Wear Green]

"Most overrated" is always a tricky question. Everyone thinks Jordan Poole is overpaid and/or outright sucks, so how could he be the most overrated? I can't remember him ever winning an award for anything.

[SouBeachTalents]

I wonder what clown said Paul Pierce was the GOAT

[RRR3]

MJ fans INSIST he’s still the consensus GOAT

[SaltyMeatballs]

Kobe having 9.8% of the votes for GOAT is crazy. Fans often measure greatness by how aesthetic a player’s game was and how iconic they were. Kobe checks off both of those boxes but he doesn’t have any case for being in the GOAT convo

[Nowoco]

I stopped reading after Kobe got 10% of the GOAT vote. That tells you everything you need to know about the credibility of this poll.

[Im Still Ballin]

Man, they really don't like Rudy, don't they? Did players think this about Dikembe? He's the obvious historical player comparison and I think he made more money relative to the cap than Rudy.

Is it the type of player he is, the money he's made, and awards he's won, or all of the above?

[tpols]

I stopped reading after Kobe got 10% of the GOAT vote. That tells you everything you need to know about the credibility of this poll.

Agreed with this.

The fact Kobe didn't get at least 30% kinda disqualifies the poll for me.

[Kblaze8855]

Mvp explanations

Jokić voters
• “He’s Jokić. He affects the game in many ways that people just can’t understand — both offensively and defensively, honestly. His defense has gotten a lot better.”
• “He’s unstoppable.”
• “To be this effective the year after winning a championship, when it’s supposed to be harder, is impressive.”
• “Nikola Jokić is MVP. Consistent, still winning, still affecting the team in a number of ways. And it’s noticeable when he’s off the floor.”
• “He’s changed the game. His defense is underrated. He just knows the game so much.”


SGA voters
• “No one expected the Thunder to be what they are this season, and he’s the head of that snake. And he’s consistent every single game — same numbers, and they’re incredible numbers. And he plays on both ends of the floor.”
• “I think he’s the most consistent No. 1 option on his team without a consistent helper. Like, there isn’t really a clear second superstar even though Jalen Williams is coming on as well. I think what he’s doing every game is the most impressive, and it translates into wins.”
• “Obviously, he’s scoring the ball. But the way he shares it and has his team involved is very unselfish. And I think he’s up there in steals as well (tied with Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox for the league lead at two per game). And he’s been doing it all season long. …He’s just been really consistent in the style of play that he has. He’s just been dominating the game, and it’s not just points. It’s rebounds, assists, and he’s done a great job of leading that team over there.”
• “Underdog. Just with what OKC is doing, nobody would be mad if they were a 10 seed with their roster. If they were a 10 seed, nobody would be like, ‘Oh, they’re having a bad year.’ They’d be like, ‘They’re still rebuilding.’ … With what he’s doing, I think that’s my MVP.”

[Kblaze8855]

Best defender(Wemby)

Victor Wembanyama said last month that his friend and fellow Frenchman Rudy Gobert would be a worthy winner of the 2023-24 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. But Wembanyama also added that, in future seasons, he, and not Gobert, would be the front-runner.
Their NBA peers, however, feel Wembanyama’s time has already arrived. Players voted the towering Spurs rookie as the league’s best defender right now.
Wembanyama led the league in blocks, averaging 3.58 per game. His next closest competitor, Utah’s Walker Kessler, recorded 2.41 blocks per game.
“He just makes it so hard to finish at the rim,” one opponent said of Wembanyama.
Another player said: “He’s changing the game. Players — you can’t say ‘scared’ — but he’s changing their shots. He deserves it.”
The Grizzlies certainly looked terrified in this three-on-one Wemby highlight that went viral earlier this month.

Grizzlies 3-on-1 against Wemby pic.twitter.com/TEdtKfpYNq
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 10, 2024

Gobert, who would join Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the only four-time winners of the DPOY award if he wins it this season, finished fifth in our vote (6 percent). As you’ll see later on in this poll, this isn’t the last time Gobert is questioned by his peers.
Jrue Holiday, the top vote-getter by a wide margin in last year’s poll, placed second in the voting this year at 12.9 percent, barely trailing Wembanyama.

Wembanyama voter
“He really, like, affects everything in the paint. He has dudes not even trying to go to the rim. He damn near leads the league in blocks right now, and this is his first year. He’s doing it in limited time too.”

GO DEEPER
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Holiday voter
“I think guard defenders are more impressive because they’re on the ball all the time. As a big man, you make up mistakes by helping off your man. So it’s easier. Protecting the paint is somewhat easier than staying in front of the ball.”


Lu Dort voter
“(He) guards multiple positions, (is a) physical defender, guards without fouling — even when at the beginning of the season when the referees were calling fouls. Now, it helps him even more, because they’re not calling fouls.”

[Kblaze8855]

Most overrated:

There’s just something about Gobert’s game that his peers don’t like. Maybe the skepticism stems from a lack of playoff success, as none of Gobert’s teams have advanced to the conference finals. Or maybe it all traces back to the bubble in 2020, when the Clippers’ Terance Mann buried all those 3s over Gobert in the West semifinals and sparked serious scrutiny about the perceived limitations of the big man’s game.
Gobert has the elite résumé, though, with the three DPOY awards, three All-Star appearances, an All-NBA Second Team selection and three All-NBA Third Team nods. He has the receipts from this season, as he was the indisputable anchor of a Minnesota defense that was the best in the league while Gobert finished second in rebounds (12.9) and sixth in blocks (2.1) on a team that came just two wins shy of earning the No. 1 seed in the West (it finished third). And as our resident Timberwolves expert Jon Krawczynski wrote in January, the truth about those Jazz teams was that their lack of perimeter defense was the real problem that was exposed in those playoffs. These Timberwolves don’t have that deficiency.

GO DEEPER
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Still, Gobert joins Draymond Green (2019) and Trae Young (2023) as the latest winner of this undesirable award.

[Kblaze8855]

Derek White was folded most underrated

Seven seasons in, Derrick White’s top claim to NBA fame is finishing 16th in the media’s 2018-19 Most Improved Player voting and being named to the 2022-23 NBA All-Defensive Second Team. Jalen Williams, in his second season, placed second in last season’s Rookie of the Year voting but was also routinely mistaken on opposing telecasts for the Thunder’s “other” Jaylin Williams. Both Jalen Williams and White were lightly recruited coming out of high school.
So yes, in other words, they’re very familiar with the experience of being underrated. And while both are receiving more acclaim, they’re not the ones commanding the brightest spotlight on their respective teams.
White plays in the shadows of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porziņģis and Holiday. Williams, meanwhile, is on a dynamic young Thunder team where Gilgeous-Alexander commands most of the spotlight alongside big man Chet Holmgren.
One of the players who voted for White said, “I say that every single day: He’s one of the most underrated players in the league. They talk about him more (now), but they still don’t talk about him enough.”
Said another: “(White) defends really well (and) does a little bit of everything on offense.”
It’s notable, too, that Gilgeous-Alexander finished fourth in the players’ most-underrated voting even though he’s a virtual lock to be an All-NBA First Team selection by the media for the second season in a row.
“I don’t know if you can even say it anymore because he’s starting to get his due, but from a players’ perspective, it doesn’t feel like it’s covered enough,” an SGA voter said. “But what Shai has done this year, just how his progression has gone … I don’t know if you can call him underrated, but it almost feels like how for all those years they were talking about Damian Lillard (during his Portland years), how he was kind of flying under the radar (because of Steph Curry). But if you asked players, (they would’ve said) he’s one of the best guards in the league, in the top two. So I’m starting to see some of that with how we’re talking about Shai.”