Just a post-hoop session discussion my friends and I were having about Tatum. We were speculating what the Tatum “revenge” season looked like and his potential for an MVP.
Tatum is obviously an elite two-way wing and one of the most versatile players in the league. However, I just don’t see the Kawhi/PG/Tatum archetype winning MVP again. Not when you have heliocentric players like Luka and Jokic who can put up 30-10-10 with regularity. Then you have your bigs like Giannis and Embiid who can go 35/15/5 on a given night. Shai had a great campaign last year, but he’s got the ball way more than a wing.
Advanced stats are becoming more appreciated, but a lot of voters are gonna be looking at the base statistics. And 27/7/4 with great defensive metrics don’t seem to hit the same.
I don’t know if I ever see Tatum winning one. He’s a great player because he’s really good at everything and the kinda frame that allows him to regularly guard 3 positions and all 5 on spurts. Which again is great but I don’t think he has any of the wow factor required for MVP and I don’t know if he has another level he can reach.