Rob Mahoney

It allows them to crowd passing lanes.

Like when you look at,

who the next highest players for the Thunder are in terms of minutes played.

It's all guys who don't need the ball to be effective in their various ways.

And a lot of that is because Shea can navigate tight spaces.

He can create for you in all circumstances, the foul drawing, whatever you may think of it.

makes him almost immune to a bad shooting night.

He's just so resilient as a scorer.

And when you think about what makes the Thunder effective, naturally you go to defense first, but he is making that defense possible.

He is kind of like the number one reason why they have the most dominant turnover margin in the league because he doesn't turn it over and he allows you to play lots of other guys, himself included, who force a ton of steals and force a bunch of turnovers.

I mean, I do think we are conscious of and hyper-conscious of voter fatigue in ways that we probably weren't.

And I say we as like a basketball community in previous eras.

And so there are constant conversations about should Nikola Jokic be allowed to get this many MVPs in this stretch because it puts him in this particular era and whatnot.

And so you do get this sort of baton passing around, I think, as a result of some of that.

but also this has felt like the start of a Thunder era.

We're going to see how long it stretches.

We're going to see what they do in the playoffs, what it ultimately means, and if this is more of a dynasty or more just a team that's consistently good all the time, but maybe doesn't win every year.

We'll find out.

this is Shay's moment.

And I say that as somebody who I think I voted for Nikola Jokic in five straight years.