After a successful regular season MVP last season, Jokic is once again a favourite for MVP this season. While the playoffs are currently in progress, the league has reportedly officially announced that between candidates Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo, Jokic has finally stood out as the regular season MVP of the season. This is also the second consecutive season that Jokic has won the MVP Award, and he has set a series of achievements.
First, Jokic became the 13th player in NBA history to be able to connect with the MVP, and only James, Curry and Antetokounmpo in the active league can do this. Second, Jokic became the fifth center in NBA history to win multiple MVPs, rivaling the top interior lines in NBA history, such as Abdul-Jabbar, Russell, and Chamberlain. Although Jokic is currently in full swing after being named the MVP of the regular season again, it is not easy for him to get an MVP this season, after all, the Nuggets are facing an extremely difficult situation this season.
After suffering a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee in the regular season last season, Murray was reimbursed last season and was unable to make a comeback this season. After only 9 games this season, another core of the Nuggets also suffered a back injury and reimbursed the season, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to the Nuggets, and it also means that Jokic must lead the team alone this season. In this case, Jokic has played well this season. In the 74 regular season games for the Nuggets, Jokic averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game, shooting 58.3 percent from the field.
Under Jokic's leadership, despite the Nuggets' ups and downs, they eventually entered the playoffs in sixth place in the West at the end of the regular season, successfully avoiding the playoffs, which was already quite difficult. In the first round of the playoffs this season, when facing the mighty Warriors, the Nuggets were completely suppressed on both offensive and defensive ends. Although Jokic averaged 31 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 57.5% from the field, he had no choice but to fight with two fists, and the Nuggets were eventually eliminated by the Warriors with 4:1.
Although the individual performance has been extremely good, after winning the MVP, Jokic still suffered a lot of questions from the outside world. There were a lot of fans who started to fight for the other two candidates, with one fan saying: "Embiid is closer to the championship ring than Jokic." The NBA's MVP selection has become a laughing stock. It's ridiculous, Jokic and the Nuggets are both out, and Embiid is still playing the playoffs. NBA voters should look at basketball games, not stare at data tables. Embiid's trophy was robbed. From the words of these fans, it can be seen that their doubts about Jokic come from the following points.
First, Embiid and Antetokounmpo performed equally well. The former played in 68 games for the 76ers in the regular season this season, averaging 30.6 points, 11.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 blocks per game, shooting 49.9% from the field. The latter played in 67 games for the Bucks in the regular season this season, averaging 29.9 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, shooting 55.3% from the field. Judging from their comparison with Jokic, the two players have a higher average of points per game than Jokic, but Jokic's performance is more comprehensive than the two of them, and the three are comparable in stats.
Second, the Nuggets' record became one of the most questioned points for Jokic. In the regular season this season, although Jokic was against the sky, because the other players on the team could not give him much support, the Nuggets' final record was only 48 wins and 34 losses, only sixth in the West. The Embiid-led 76ers and Antetokounmpo's Bucks also recorded 51-31 in the regular season, ranking fourth and third in the East, respectively. Such a record has made Jokic a lot of questions, after all, in the selection of MVP, the record is a very important criterion.
Finally, in the eyes of many fans, Embiid and Antetokounmpo are still fighting in the playoffs, and the teams led by the two have also drawn 2:2 with the Heat, who rank first in the East, and Celtics, who are second in the East, and still have the hope of competing for the championship. But Jokic and his Nuggets were easily eliminated by the Warriors in the first round by a 4-1 victory, believing that the staff who selected the MVP were only referring to the data, and even directly said that Embiid's MVP trophy was robbed. In short, Jokic's current MVP has been dissatisfied by many fans.
But this is really very unfair to Jokic, and objectively speaking, his MVP trophy is truly deserved. In terms of individual performance, Jokic in the regular season this season is undoubtedly the best player in the league. According to statistics, Jokic's six basic statistics this season are all ranked first in the Nuggets, when Jokic is on the floor, the Nuggets total plus-minus of +444, when Jokic is off, the Nuggets team plus-minus is only -255. His influence on the Nuggets is unmatched by two other players.
In terms of leading records, as far as the Nuggets' lineup this season is concerned, they can still rank sixth in the West at the end of the regular season, which has proved how good Jokic is, and the NBA history has a precedent for Westbrook to achieve only sixth place in the West in 2017 with a record of only six in the West. The other two candidates have helpers such as Harris and Harden, Middleton and Holliday on their side. Gordon, Jokic's best scorer, averaged just 15 points per game. It is worth mentioning that although the 76ers and Bucks are ranked better than the Nuggets, the records of the three teams are actually not much different.
In addition, the talk of Jokic going out early in the playoffs without an MVP is even more nonsense, and the regular season MVP is never based on the performance of players in the playoffs. In any case, it has become a fact that Jokic has been elected the regular season MVP this season, and some fans have teased embiid that he will vent his anger in the following playoffs after losing the MVP, after all, he also lost to Jokic in the MVP competition last season. In short, for Jokic, his performance in the past two seasons is fully worthy of the MVP of Lianzhuang.