Over the past five years, Nikola Jokic has held the title of the best player in the NBA, winning three of the last four MVPs and, somewhat ironically, winning his first championship and Finals MVP in the one year he did not take home the regular season MVP honor.
This year, Jokic is again part of a two-man MVP conversation, but finds himself second on the odds sheet to Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This weekend, the Thunder and Nuggets played a back-to-back where both stars made their case for MVP, with SGA putting up 40/8/5 in a blowout of Denver on Sunday before Jokic put up 35/18/8 as the Nuggets returned the favor on Monday. It was, in effect, a battle to a draw between the two players in terms of the MVP race, which should benefit Gilgeous-Alexander as the presumptive favorite going into the final month of the regular season.
After the Nuggets win on Monday, Jokic was asked about the MVP race and offered a measured take on the battle between himself and SGA, noting it’s out of his control and that no matter the outcome, it’ll be a deserving MVP taking home the trophy, via Bennett Durando of the Denver Post.
“I cannot control it,” Jokic said. “I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, it’s enough. If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.”
Jokic is no stranger to the MVP conversation after the past four years and has seen some incredibly toxic MVP debates over that time — most notably in 2023 when Joel Embiid won. His approach has long been to let his game make his MVP case, which shouldn’t be confused with him not caring or striving for the award, but simply that he isn’t very interested in talking about why he should win — his coach will do that for him.
The truth is, this year both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander have spectacular cases for the award. Jokic is a three-time MVP who, as he said, is playing the best we’ve ever seen him play. He’s averaging 28.9 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 10.5 assists per game on 57.7/43.0/80.9 shooting splits, which is simply preposterous. On the other side is SGA leading the NBA in scoring at 32.7 points per game to go along with 6.2 assists and 5.1 rebounds on 52.5/37.3/90.0 splits, while leading the team with the NBA’s second-best record and providing high-level defense. There isn’t really a wrong answer, which is part of the problem and leads to extremely contentious arguments that Jokic himself seems to want to avoid.
