Howard Beck

You can't overthink this.

He's been absolutely dominant, just as dominant as he was last season.

He's averaging 32 points, four and a half rebounds, six and a half assists.

He's shooting almost 40% on threes and almost 60% on twos.

Super efficient, and he's played 38 games out of 40, so he's only missed two games, so he's played more than most of the other guys that you might want to consider, but, you know, Jokic, Doncic, others, Wemby.

But also, like, even if the Thunder have, like, slipped a little lately, and they have...

They're still on pace for 68 wins, and that's despite missing Jalen Williams for 19 games, Chet for six, Dort for nine, Hartenstein's missed six, Caruso's missed a dozen games.

Like, Shea is the constant.

Shea is their engine.

Shea is dominant.

He plays both ends, and he's just done the most, I think, to substantiate his case over the first 40 games.

Derek White, fairly, I think.

Did you mention Anthony Edwards?

He's the only other one I really even considered.

Yeah.

I think I said off the top, there was like eight candidates.

And if this were the typical, it's the end of the season, we've got a five-man ballot to fill out and you're trying to figure it out.

And yeah, probably it's like Shea and Jokic at the top again.

If Giannis doesn't miss too many games, he may get back in this conversation.

I didn't consider him really for this exercise because of all the games missed and because the Bucs record is horrendous.