i said this in another thread, the lakers competition over 3 games has been abysmal, playing the 0-3 sixers whose best guards are zhaire smith and furkan korkmaz (note: has gone 1-18 since his 40 point game vs celtics), the 1-2 knicks who rolled out allonzo trier and damyean dotson, and the 1-2 bulls who have no guards that are nba caliber. basically hart's been getting free reign to score against weak defenses. looking at the bracket the lakers have only been playing teams seeded 23, 24, and 30.
Compare that to the suns who have played the 2-1 magic, the 2-1 mavs, and the 1-2 kings. (seeds 9, 11, 21). All teams have solid big men.
Magic: Jonathan Isaac + Mo Bamba, Ayton drops 17/13 on 71% shooting, wins by 18
Mavs: Jalen Jones + Jonathan Motley, Ayton has his worst game with 10/8 but still shoots 67%
Kings: Harry Giles + Marvin Bagley III, Ayton drops 21/12 on 72% shooting, suns win by 8 after leading comfortably all game (were up by 15ish before garbage time).
My argument is that Ayton deserves it for getting matched up with really solid players and coming out on top every time with his team being undefeated WHILE shooting at an incredibly high percentage and playing fantastic defense as a rim deterrent. But it won't matter unless the lakers and suns meet in the finals, when the MVP is really determined.
The lakers will have to go through 2 other undefeated teams in the Rockets and the Nuggets both of which have great guards (and even the winner of the clips/wizards game, where hart will have to match up with SGA who's been great too.
Why did I do all this research? I'm bored and there's no basketball, and I'm weirdly invested in vegas summer league.