Now that 2019 is here, it’s time to start thinking about the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. The usual suspects are on the list of early candidates: James Harden, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, etc. Then there are few newcomers, too, like Paul George and Giannis Antetokounmpo. It’s an unsurprisingly stacked field early in the season that will thin out as the year goes on.
However, in the general conversation, one name that absolutely needs to be thrown around has missing: Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
He’s, of course, getting his due praise in the city of Denver. He gets chants, Nuggets fans go to war for him on the internet, and he’s putting up some pretty insane numbers going for 18 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game. Perhaps even more important than that is the team success, because while it would be one thing if Jokic was doing this for a mediocre team, the Nuggets surprisingly sit atop the Western Conference. Team success is a huge factor in the MVP award, and Jokic has spearheaded his team’s success.
So where is his push? Jokic rang in the new year with a 115-108 victory over the Knicks, a game in which he had 19 points, 15 assists, and 14 rebounds. The home fans gave him praise, and everyone spoke about his performance like it was nothing special, because anyone who watches him would know this is what Jokic just does.
“Another day at the office,” Harris said. “That’s what he does.”
“You cannot not hear that,” Jokic said. “I like (it) loud. I appreciate it. But let’s just go step-by-step.”
“The game just came to me,” Jokic said. “In the first quarter I didn’t score that much, in the first half I kind of find of my teammates. … I really don’t know. Everything is not that hard.”
None of this means that Jokic should be the favorite to win the award or anything, as definite flaws exist in his game. He started off the year defending well, but he’s regressed a little as the season has gone on. He will occasionally try to do too much and get a little turnover happy. He’s not the fastest guy out there, and good teams know to exploit that. It’s possible he’s not in the race by the end of the year, but the problem is that he’s not even considered a candidate at a point when anybody playing well is usually given at least a chance at the award. What does Jokic have to do to earn that same kind of buzz?
For starters, Jokic doesn’t talk himself up too much. He told the Denver Post that “everything is not that hard,” which is an amazing statement. So much of what Jokic does is viewed as something that’s easy and natural for him, as evidenced by him saying he wants to take things “step-by-step” in terms of the MVP award. Jokic needs to embrace his chances — talk himself up at a press conference, show some swagger, that sort of stuff. The NBA is a 24/7 league, and once the clock hits zero, Jokic kinda fades into the background.
The rest of it falls on the team. The Nuggets look legitimate despite injuries to some key players, and Jokic has been their best player as they sit atop the cutthroat Western Conference in January. Does anybody outside of Denver who isn’t a hoops die hard know this? Denver isn’t going to to get the most attention nationally, so they need to make people pay attention. Winning is a great way to do this, but again, an MVP push has to have more than this.
Ultimately, Jokic probably won’t win MVP. It’s also hard to see the Nuggets finishing the season as the No. 1 team in the West, but they’re at a point right now where they should at least be in the conversation. Instead, the Nuggets and Jokic feel anonymous, and that needs to be fixed.
