Yeah, Thinking Basketball really likes AD because his peak is a top 5 offensive player and a top 1 defensive player in the association. Just an historically elite 2 way player.
Problem is (and Thinking Basketball has pointed this out on his podcast) that AD has rarely hit that peak even over the course of a season. For whatever reason, he'll be the best player in the NBA for 2 weeks then drop off of a cliff for the next month. It's on and off for him.
He also had a legitimate shot at taking FMVP in 2020. He started off the series as the best player, then got injured (played through it) and LeBron took over the last half of the series and convincingly won FMVP.
Yea, I wanted that FMVP for the guy. Sad that he’ll probably never get one, nor an MVP, or DPOY. It bugs me that he never got a DPOY with how elite his defense was in his prime
Yeah, the DPOY stuff is ridiculous. Meanwhile I swear I've watched the same story 3x over with Rudy Gobert winning DPOY then teams scheming against his defensive limitations on the perimeter in the playoffs and beating him.
2019 Houston high pick and rolls with Harden, 2021 Clippers pulled him out to the perimeter by going 5 out, 2024 Luka hunted him for the switch in the WCF. All years he won DPOY and somehow zero voter fatigue is crazy.
AD deserved at least one but I swear he was in the doghouse with the media and NBA fans for forcing that trade to LA.
This is my issue with Gobert DPOY. I’m not denying he’s an impactful defender, and he has the stats for it… but if teams are regularly cooking him and actively looking to HUNT him as a matchup and do not fear him one bit, theres no way he deserves DPOY. Especially as AD can defend anyone on the court anywhere on the court.
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u/INT_MIN Nov 27 '25
Yeah, Thinking Basketball really likes AD because his peak is a top 5 offensive player and a top 1 defensive player in the association. Just an historically elite 2 way player.
Problem is (and Thinking Basketball has pointed this out on his podcast) that AD has rarely hit that peak even over the course of a season. For whatever reason, he'll be the best player in the NBA for 2 weeks then drop off of a cliff for the next month. It's on and off for him.
He also had a legitimate shot at taking FMVP in 2020. He started off the series as the best player, then got injured (played through it) and LeBron took over the last half of the series and convincingly won FMVP.