According to ESPN's latest announcement: Nikola Jokic was elected MVP of the 2021-22 regular season. This is the second time in his career that he has been named MVP, and he is the fourteenth player in NBA history to complete the honor. Jokic averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game this season, helping the team to a 48-34 record and advancing to the playoffs as sixth in the West. Although eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in the first round, he performed well, averaging 31.0 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 57.5% from the field.
When the league announced the ownership of the MVP, Joel Embiid became the biggest jewel of the season. Indeed, Jokic's winnings are not too much of a problem, but Embiid's pitch is more perfect, and many voters will question his defeat. On the offensive end, he showed a comprehensive offensive means, good projection ability, good sense of fighting, and a stable number of appearances to let fans see a new Embiid.
He has also scored a 40+10 double-double in 13 games, and in 68 games this season, 56 have become the team's single-game scoring champion, relying on 49.9% shooting percentage, averaging 30.6 points per game, leading the league, he became the first center since Shaquille O'Neal to win the scoring championship, and the first international player to win the award.
Embiid on the defensive end, on the other hand, is even more terrifying, averaging 1.5 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. Although he is not mentioned in the list of the best defenses, the defense he shows is exactly at the NBA level. Standing in the team's restricted area, he can use his 7-foot height and slender arm span to interfere with his opponent's shooting, suppressing his opponent's interior shooting rate to less than 40%, while shooting only 40.6% from the middle distance.
In addition, his sense of protecting the basket is particularly strong, excellent foot movement and low defensive ability, so that the opponent's small play strategy is invalid, and the NBA can have such a weight, such an agile athlete is very rare; but Jokic's efficiency on the defensive end is far less than Embiid, and even because of his own defense, at the key moments of the first round of the playoffs, he was hidden by the coach.
Embiid's play on the offensive and defensive ends can easily blow up Jokic, which is also the most important factor in the team's successful rise this season, with a record of 51 wins and 31 losses, but the ownership of MVP has not been achieved. In the past four seasons, the two foreign players of Alphabet Brother and Jokic have dominated the NBA, and the two have completed consecutive feats, and the league's approach is undoubtedly aimed at local players.
There is no deliberate arrangement for the NBA to select MVPs, coaches, media and senior recommendations are involved, so it is a composite product, and there are many factors that European players can dominate the league. First of all, the U.S. players who play in the NBA are in an era of new and old alternation, after Curry, James, Durant, the league's hottest players are few, Tatum G3 19 of 4, Morant's injury and DeRozan's lonely slap, it is difficult to support the U.S. basketball store.
Secondly, in the small-ball era, 3D and front swing people are favored by many teams, the traditional sense of the center players are gradually marginalized, Ayton's maximum salary has not been achieved, Embiid, Jokic and Alphabet Brother, such as the former forward players, gradually become the core of the team's penalty area, better exposed to the spotlight; finally, the comprehensiveness of European players is far better than that of local players, Jokic's passing, organization and super high ball quotient have surprised scouts.