CP3 for MVP?

I strongly advocated CP3 for MVP last season, when it was clearer that he was the best player in the NBA.  And even for people who still felt that Jokic deserved it more, then the argument was like okay, let's give Chris his flowers while he can still smell them.

Jokic is looking forward to who knows how many more MVP-level seasons into the future.  Meanwhile just out of respect of age, we don't really expect Chris Paul to remain as effective throughout the 2020s.  And even after perennially all-starring himself throughout a lengthy NBA career, still he's never won an MVP to date.

And yes, even though he isn't an All-Star starter this year, the argument can still be made - CP3 for MVP.  And that's because, truth be told if I were starting a team today I'd probably build it around Giannis or  Mobley, or if I wanted to go with a P-guard either Morant or Luka.  So I can't argue that Paul is like the hands-down best player.

But what I can say is that out of all players currently active, he possesses the strongest intangibility factor.  In other words, having Chris Paul on your team automatically makes it better offensively + defensively, which has proven especially true with the Suns.  And you can call it 'making his teammates better' or however you want to say it, but just him being on the court makes the Suns contenders.

This is the type of career twilight which Lebron is also now supposed to be enjoying, i.e. being surrounded by a couple of young all-star level players, buttressed by a balanced (i.e. youthful) bench unit.  As an old star you don't want to be out there with a bunch of equally-aged fogeys, no matter how great they may be - especially if you're not the beneficiary of the powers-that-be's favor as in days past.  But one thing you have to give LBJ credit for is at least he wasn't afraid to try.

The only other player I can think of who has just as much of an inexplicable yet beneficial impact on his team, beside CP3, is of course Kawhi Leonard.  If Kawhi is on your squad, like you could even beat the Splash Brothers in their prime.  And any defense he is a part of tends to be instantly potent, especially on the perimeter - which btw most offense is waged these days.  In fact with that in mind, the main beneficiaries of his recent absence have, in my opinion, have been the selfsame Suns.

CONCLUSION

The main reason I can't currently advocate CP3 for MVP, even if he is my sentimental favorite, is because I honestly feel that Joel Embiid deserves it more.  He and Jokic are in the exact same type of predicament - being centers on teams which, as they currently stand, feature no other players even remotely in the All-Star conversation.  So maybe at the end of the day, what the MVP race will boil down to is which team, the Sixers or Nuggets, have the better record.  But that said, no one expected the Sixers to be shit this year without Ben Simmons or any Simmons' trade.  But if not for the fact that the Heat have a clearly-superior roster (when healthy) and all equally well-coached/executed, then the Sixers may even be considered the best team in the East.