All of the talk about Jokic being the best player in the NBA has gotten me thinking: How much does defense matter when assessing who is the NBA's best player?
Jokic is pretty decisively the best offensive player in the NBA, but he's at best neutral at the defensive end. Offense has almost always been given precedence over defense in these things, but I don't really see why that should be. Is Jokic sufficiently superior to Giannis and Embid at the offensive end to justify calling him the best player in the NBA? I'm not good with basketball's advance stats, but I think it's really hard to say that he is.
Jokic is pretty decisively the best offensive player in the NBA, but he's at best neutral at the defensive end. Offense has almost always been given precedence over defense in these things, but I don't really see why that should be. Is Jokic sufficiently superior to Giannis and Embid at the offensive end to justify calling him the best player in the NBA? I'm not good with basketball's advance stats, but I think it's really hard to say that he is.