The 1st of 5 articles of me making a case for the Most Valuable Player for 5 separate players and the 1st one will be the odds on favorite to win as of May 17th. Nikola Jokic has been tearing through the NBA this year averaging 26 PPG, 11 TRB, 8 APG, while shooting 57% FG, 39% 3PT, and a true shooting percentage of 65%. Yeah I have my work cut out for me trying to make other cases for MVP because the stuff Joker has done this season is nothing short of special.
Winning
The meaning of “Most Valuable” has not factored into the MVP award in the last couple of years because of the fact they’re on very good teams that would’ve been good without them *COUGH GIANNIS*. But this year if Nikola Jokic wins MVP that meaning will be restored, Joker leads the league in win shares with almost 16 wins contributed because of him. 2nd place in win shares is 11 games with Rudy Gobert, and the supposed competition for Joker is Joel Embiid even though he missed time he had 8 win shares this season. When Jamal Murray went down with season ending injury nearly a month ago the consensus around the league was the Nuggets are screwed and the chances for a deep playoff run is done. But Joker said “nah fam” and averaged 24 PPG, 9 APG, 11 TRB, and a 63% TS and the Nuggets were 16-8 since the injury. Even though nobody wants injuries to happen it actually helped Joker’s MVP campaign a lot. I love that the return of the meaning “Most Valuable” Player is happening and now let’s summarize my case for Nikola Jokic for MVP!!
Freak of Nature
This won’t be statical here and I’ll try to explain to you how impressive these stats really are. Nikola Jokic weighs in at 284 pounds which is 20 pounds overweight for a 6’11 male and this isn’t like a Zion situation where the weight comes from muscle, it’s legitimately all fat. But the man moves like a point guard, passes like a point guard, shoots the lights out like the best of them, rebounds like one of the best, and his biggest slouch the last couple of years has been his defense and this year he dramatically improved. Before the takeoff of Julius Randle this year Jokic was in the conversation for Most Improved Player and that’s incredible if you think about it and if you look at the stats he really did improve in every major category. 284 pounder shouldn’t be doing the thing that he’s doing and for that reason he’s a f’n freak of nature.
Final Verdict
So right now I’m gonna list where’s he’s ranked in all of these categories, PPG (12th), TRB (7th), AGP (6th) as a CENTER, FG (1st), 2-pt FG (1st), GP (1st), Player Efficiency Rating (1st), Win Shares (1st), Offensive Win Shares (1st), Defensive Win Shares (3rd), +/- (1st), Value Over Replacement (1st), Triple-Doubles (2nd). Yeah that’s a lot of 1st places for Joker and shows how valuable he truly is. I’ve always believed that the MVP should go to the “most valuable” player instead of giving it to the best player on the best team. And yes wins have to count towards MVP but Jokic has a good record in the West and was statically the Most Valuable Player in the league.
TheDyspatch 