Kevin O'Connor

Good to talk, Danny.

I mean, look, I leaned Cade Cunningham over that fifth spot for All-NBA.

He was the engine of the team.

And I know Jalen Brown had a tremendous year with the Boston Celtics, rightfully on my second team.

And if Luka weren't eligible, he would have been on first team.

He would have been top five MVP.

But Cade was the engine of that team on top of being an elite defensive player as well as part of a great Pistons two-way team.

So I lean Cade over Jalen Brown, but ultimately either of those guys are both deserving.

Victor Wemenyama is the best defender since Bill Russell.

I mean, you said it earlier, the difference between him and the second best defender in the league is massive.

And so I think defense matters in this conversation as well.

Jokic didn't win his first MVP until he became a good defensive player.

Tim Duncan won MVP over Shaq in the early 2000s because of the defensive edge.

Michael Jordan won MVP in 1988 over Magic Johnson and Larry Bird because he was also the defensive player of the year that year.

So this has been a thing for decades.

And then offensively, that's where people understandably argue SGA over Wemby.

sga it is very tangible what he does he is the thunder offense with what he does with the ball on his hands web and yama it's things that go beyond the box score a lot of the times he does average 25 points per game he is a dominant score when he scores off of screens and finishes at the rim and all the stuff that you see in the highlights but it's the rim runs it's drawing two defenders into the paint it's

causing the Spurs to lead the NBA in history in corner three-pointers taken with the amount of tension that he draws in the defense, opening drives for Castle and Harper and Fox to get into the paint and make the pass.

That's all due to Wemby.

So even though it might go back, he runs back on defense and he gets nothing on the stat sheet,