Welcome to Real GM Radio. Andrew Sallup from Combo's Quarters joining me today for our NBA first quarter awards.

We're going to go through the MVP race between Nikolokic and Shagildjus Alexander.

We're also going to hit our first quarter leaders for a defensive player of the year, six man of the year, coach the year, rookie of the year.

We're going to hand out an Emmy in today's episode. This is a fun one. We're doing a home-and-home podcast series this week.

So Andrew came on to my show, RealGM Radio. I also went on his show, CombosCourt, to talk

about some other big NBA storylines. I'll also be uploading that, the Combo's Court, episode,

to the audio feed here on RealGM Radio. He's doing the same over on the Combo's Court audio, to the audio feed here on Real GM Radio. He's doing the same

over on the Combo's Court audio feed. So make sure to check out Combo's Court. But first, enjoy

our run through our awards ballot. All right, Andrew Sallup from Combo's Court here, joining me on Real GM Radio.

We've got some quarter of the season awards that we want to jump through.

Man, this one is not easy.

I kind of love doing this exercise because it's a nice snapshot as we get to like 20 plus-ish game, seven weeks into the season of what's been going on. It's been a surprising year. It's been really some high-level team, high-level basketball being played so far this season. But, man, thanks for coming on the show. Let's jump right in. MVP. I want to start at the very top of this thing with the headliner award here. I'm not going to save best for last. To me, it's a two-man race between equally Yokic and Shagil, just Alexander. Would you agree? No. Okay. It's a one-man race with Yokic. I mean, he's leading everybody in rebounds. He's leading everybody everybody in assists and on top of all that he's

averaging a triple double and close and shooting close to 70% from the field 44% on catch and shoot

threes when that was probably his only weakness two years ago i mean i don't and i told you this on

on my show when i watched nikola yokitch play in Paris, all I could think was this is the best

basketball player with my two eyes. And with that said, I've seen Jordan play. So that's how

highly I think of Yokic. And I think he's clearly the MVP because I think sometimes we put a little

too much stock on team success when we're talking about individual accolades. I mean, Yokic is, might be the most valuable player ever, and he does it every single year and he's still getting better. It's crazy to think that he had the best year of his career last year and did not win the MVP, and it was only because Shea Gildedis Alexander also had one of the greatest seasons we've ever seen. And the way that I think about it, it's what we're seeing between Shea and Yokic right now. And why I do think it's a two-man race is we're just seeing two all-timers put together some of their all-time best seasons at the same time. It would be like watching Michael Jordan at his best versus LeBron James at his best. Now that's a little hyperbolic because Yokit and Shea have not hit the LeBron and Michael Jordan tier.

It's only hyperbolic. I do think it's a little hyperbolic when it comes to SGA, but it only is because of the resume of those two are so much better, not because of the actual basketball player, you know? Great point. Totally. And it's, the other way that I kind of framed it before, it's like

listening to Michael Jackson's thriller and then somebody asking you after the third track,

hey, is this the greatest album you ever listened to? And you're like, I haven't even finished it yet.

I don't know. Like you're asking me to put this in a historic context and it's happening in front of me.

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