The definitive MVP argument for Nikola Jokić

An electric regular season is nearing its end, which means two things:

1. We’re about to flow into an even crazier postseason.

2. It’s time to put the finishing touches on award races.

Chief among them is the MVP award, the NBA’s most prestigious regular-season honor. There have been plenty of great individual campaigns this season, but the MVP race has largely dropped to a four-player group: reigning winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, multi-time winner Nikola Jokić and a pair of megastars in Victor Wembanyama and Luka Dončić hunting for their first.

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This week, we’re breaking down the cases for all of them — or at least until Dončić suffered a hamstring injury that may make him ineligible for any awards. This series is less about who I think should win — I’ll reveal that on Friday’s episode of The Dunker Spot — and more about helping others either bolster their arguments for their favorite candidate, or understand the legitimacy of the other cases.

Let’s start by looking at Jokić, shall we?

All stats are updated through games played on April 6.

Tale of the tape

Nuggets record: 41-22 (65.1% win rate, 53-win pace); 10-6 without him (51-win pace)

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Notable per-game rankings (min. 50 games): 7th in scoring, 1st in rebounds, 1st in assists, 1st among bigs in steals

Notable Advanced Stats: 1st in offensive estimated plus-minus (O-EPM), 2nd in LEBRON, 2nd in Win Shares per 48, 3rd in estimated plus-minus (EPM)

The basic case: Who’s doing more, this efficiently?

I was half-joking about this with my esteemed Dunker Spot co-host Steve Jones Jr. last week, but it seems like people have gotten a little bored with Jokić.

From my view, the MVP discourse started with SGA and Jokić, then shifted fully to SGA as the Thunder looked like they would win 75 games. After a cooling period in OKC, we’ve heard cases for Cade Cunningham (get well soon) and Jaylen Brown. Wemby and Dončić (get well soon!) forced themselves into the national consciousness with their dominance, particularly since the All-Star break.

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In the midst of this, Jokić is averaging 28 points while leading the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/the-definitive-mvp-argument-for-nikola-jokic-142305856.html

Author : Nekias Duncan

Publish date : 2026-04-07 14:23:00

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