NBA players poll yields interesting results, some Raptors-related

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An anonymous poll of NBA players produced some intriguing results, ranging from who the league’s MVP should be, the most overrated and underrated players, coaches and more.

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The poll was conducted by writers from The Athletic and was released Tuesday.

The race for NBA MVP is expected to be razor thin, with Canada’s own Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seen as the slight favourite over three-time winner Nikola Jokic by the bulk of non-players.

However, the guys who play the game see it differently. The poll had 56.1% going with Gilgeous-Alexander, of Hamilton, who just led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 68-win season, and 37.4% going with Jokic.

Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has been named MVP twice, was a distant third with 1.9% of the votes, tied with Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and just ahead of LeBron James at 1.3% in his 22nd season.

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Last year, Jokic had a slight edge at 41.8% to 36.9% over Gilgeous-Alexander in the player’s poll and that held up in the official voting.

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“I love Jokic, but I just feel like Shai deserves it,” one player told The Athletic. “I thought Shai deserved it last year. Both of them deserve it. I think the benefit of the doubt has to go to Shai. It’s got to.”

Another argued that if you just looked at the stats, including the advanced metrics, blindly, Jokic would have a clear edge.

Players predicted defending champion Boston would go back-to-back (57.7%), with only 17.5% going with Oklahoma City and 10.2% picking Cleveland.

Other interesting results including 54.3% picking San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama as being the face of the NBA five years from now (and only 2.9% going with Luka Doncic).

Of the players surveyed, 14.4% picked Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton as the league’s most overrated player while Rudy Gobert and Trae Young were next. Canadian Dillon Brooks and Raptors star Scottie Barnes also received votes, as did LeBron James.

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Former Raptor Norman Powell finished third in voting for most underrated player (Detroit’s Cade Cunningham was the choice) with Barnes and Jakob Poeltl also getting some support in the poll.

The Raptors did not get any votes as either the NBA’s best (Golden State Warriors) or worst (Charlotte Hornets) organization.

Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic did not get any votes as best coach (players could not vote on their own coach), but placed seventh in worst coach in the league (his Raptors predecessor Nick Nurse finished fifth).

Players also seemed to think analytics and the resulting three-point explosion have been bad for the game (38.3% said it).

“Terrible. Analytics make people fit into a box and play a certain way. It’s why we shoot so many (darn) 3s,” a player said.

Also, 55.6% of players polled said that despite recent changes to make defending easier, the game is still too slanted towards offence.

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