Congrats to Jayson Tatum on NBA Player of the Month honor

Due to the abbreviated NBA schedule in October, the league gives out their first Player of the Month honor for a combined October and November. Your Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum is the winner for the Eastern Conference while the Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic takes home the win on the Western side.

In terms of an early look at the MVP race, that will still remain a tough challenge for Tatum as Jokic is leading the league in total points, rebounds, and assists. In my opinion, in today's game where players sit a lot more, totals have more value than they used to. Tatum for his part doesn't miss many games though, so that's good.

If the Celtics can end up with the league's best record while the Nuggets' record isn't all that impressive that will help Tatum's chances. Last season the voters gave the award to Joel Embiid despite Jokic's more impressive resume, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are more likely to give the award to Nikola this season again. After the 76ers got bounced in the 2nd round again and the Nuggets went on to win the championship, a lot of voters had egg on their face.

The MVP award is supposed to be the most "valuable" not the best numbers, so winning counts. In Jokic's case he had the best numbers and he won the main prize of a championship. Then again the MVP is voted on before the playoffs.

Regarding Tatum one hopes an NBA championship is higher on his list of goals than an MVP award, though I will say striving to be an MVP can only make a player greater.

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