A handful of players get consistently mentioned whenever the ‘best player in the league’ conversation comes up. Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of them. So is three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic are right there, while Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards are new challengers for the crown.
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Any team in the NBA would kill to have one of these players on their roster. But when it comes to deciding which one is actually the best, it really just comes down to personal preference.
For instance, how else could you compare a big man like Jokic to a wing like Edwards? They play two completely different styles, yet both are extremely effective in their own way. So picking one between the two is impossible, unless you’re Rich Paul, that is.
When players play the same position, then it’s a bit more of an apples-to-apples comparison, even if personal preference and experience still matter most at the end of the day. On the latest episode of 7PM in Brooklyn, Chris Paul showed that.
CP3 was asked which player he’d rather have running his team: SGA or Luka? In an instant, he chose the Oklahoma City superstar.
“Oh, he didn’t even think about that,” Kazeem Famuyide exclaimed. “Well, that’s your man, you know what I mean?”
Paul was teammates with SGA in Oklahoma City back during the 2019-20 season. So he’s definitely a bit biased and has spoken glowingly about SGA in the past. The defending scoring champ and Finals MVP has done the same about Paul, too.
Still, it’s more than just their closeness that made Paul choose him over Luka. “Shai just loved to be in the gym. He [is] gonna do all the work and take care of his body, and I think that year that we played together, he also started to see that defense matters,” he said.
“So you ain’t gotta be a lockdown defender or whatnot, but when you’re playing defense for your team, your teammates just want to see that the stars actually try, actually try on defense,” added Paul, who never mentioned Luka by name while praising Shai’s good qualities, but he didn’t have to to get his point across.
Luka has long been criticized for two things: Not keeping himself in optimal shape and not caring about defense. Those are the two aspects of SGA’s game that Paul lauded here.
Though SGA led the league in scoring last year, Luka has surpassed him through more than two-thirds of this season. The Laker is averaging a league-best 32.8 points per game as of today (0.1 better than SGA last year). SGA is currently at 31.8.
However, Shai’s defensive reputation is so much better that it has to count for something. But Luka fans will point to SGA’s superior supporting cast as something that unfairly tilts the argument. While it’s true that Sam Presti has conducted a master-class in team-building with the Thunder, SGA is the straw that stirs the drink and makes them a possible dynasty in waiting.
The good thing for NBA fans is that these two will be battling for years to come. SGA is still only 27, and Luka will be too, later this week.
