I have wondered at times this season if there's as much of a gap between Sabonis and Jokic as the counting stats (and MVP awards) seem to indicate. Or more to the point, if Sabonis were on a team where he was the unquestioned top dog and was allowed to have a 31.8% USG rate and 19 shots per game, would he be in the MVP conversation every year too?
I don't think it matters -- we're obviously a better team with Sabonis and Fox -- that's just a very long-winded way of saying that I don't think the general NBA fandom hasn't caught on yet how special Sabonis is. He's regarded as a pretty good player but he's actually got a higher TS% than the Joker right now by virtue of his improved three point shot and last season he led the league in rebounds outright and finished 5th in assists. He's a phenomenal big man and maybe his best quality is that he doesn't hunt attention for himself and always seems twice as happy as everyone else whenever one of his teammates makes a big play.