The Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks are still the class of the Eastern Conference, while the Denver Nuggets are starting to put some distance away from the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference. Everyone talks about Joel Embiid or Giannis Atetokounmpo winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.
Nikola Jokic has to remind everyone that he never left the chat, or even went into away mode.
The first Serbian to win the MVP award, Jokic is the two-time defending winner of the league’s top individual honor. Should he pull off the three-peat, he would join Bill Russell (1961-63), Wilt Chamberlain (1966-68) and Larry Bird (1984-86) as the only players in history to reach such a milestone.
Despite the award being a regular season marker that is handed out during the postseason, Jokic would still like to be playing when Commissioner Adam Silver presents the award this summer. When Jokic won his first MVP in 2020-21, the Nuggets were swept out in the second round by the Phoenix Suns. Last year, the Nuggets fell in five in the first round to the eventual-champion Golden State Warriors.
Russell’s Celtics won the NBA Championship all three years of his reign, Wilt won in 1967, and Bird only lost in 1985, when the Celtics fell to the Lakers.
The Nuggets as a franchise have yet to reach the NBA Finals.
“Joker's” first award made him the first player in the modern era (post-1966) to win as a former second-round draft pick.
Boston enters the All Star break with the best record in the NBA at 42-17. Milwaukee’s 11-game winning streak has them just a game behind in the East at 40-17. Denver’s 41-18 mark is percentage points behind Milwaukee, but four games clear of Memphis (35-22) for tops in the West. Already the Nuggets are nine games clear of the Minnesota Timberwolves for tops in the Northwest Division.
Nevermind Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving both whining their way out of Brooklyn to head out west, the class of the conference still goes through Jokic, Ja Morant in Memphis, and Luka Doncic in Dallas, even though Irving is now paired with the latter.
Denver is a league-best 27-4 at home.
Jokic is averaging a triple double for the season (24.8 points, 10.1 assists and 11.3 rebounds per game). His 63.2-percent shooting from the floor certainly helps the scoring average, but his 39.1-percent from beyond the arc is amazing for a player his size. Jokic is also an 89-percent shooter at the line, which is usually a number for a scoring guard, not a 6-foot-11 center.
Put that last number in perspective for a moment. Yao Ming only shot 86 percent his best year at the line (2008-09), and Dirk Nowitski was at 87 percent for his career, breaking 90 percent three times. Dirk was a 38 percent shooter from deep. Jokic is already past that mark midway through this year.
“Joker” has better numbers across the board, with the exception being rebounding, from his last two MVP seasons. The rebounds were at 13.5 per game last year.
Embiid ranks second in scoring (33.1), 10th in rebounds (10.2), but is on the third page of the leaders in assists (4.1). Giannis is third in points (32.5), tops in rebounds (12.3), but 29th in assists (5.5).
Jokic is fourth in assists, third in assists and 18th in scoring. All that while only playing 33.6 minutes a night. No other player is in the top 20 of all three, although Doncic is 21st in rebounding (8.8) from joining Jokic in that exclusive group.
The MVP is a numbers award in today’s NBA, so you would be hard pressed not to put Jokic as a favorite the final two months of the regular season to add to his hardware.
-JC24
Nikola Jokic has to remind everyone that he never left the chat, or even went into away mode.
The first Serbian to win the MVP award, Jokic is the two-time defending winner of the league’s top individual honor. Should he pull off the three-peat, he would join Bill Russell (1961-63), Wilt Chamberlain (1966-68) and Larry Bird (1984-86) as the only players in history to reach such a milestone.
Despite the award being a regular season marker that is handed out during the postseason, Jokic would still like to be playing when Commissioner Adam Silver presents the award this summer. When Jokic won his first MVP in 2020-21, the Nuggets were swept out in the second round by the Phoenix Suns. Last year, the Nuggets fell in five in the first round to the eventual-champion Golden State Warriors.
Russell’s Celtics won the NBA Championship all three years of his reign, Wilt won in 1967, and Bird only lost in 1985, when the Celtics fell to the Lakers.
The Nuggets as a franchise have yet to reach the NBA Finals.
“Joker's” first award made him the first player in the modern era (post-1966) to win as a former second-round draft pick.
Boston enters the All Star break with the best record in the NBA at 42-17. Milwaukee’s 11-game winning streak has them just a game behind in the East at 40-17. Denver’s 41-18 mark is percentage points behind Milwaukee, but four games clear of Memphis (35-22) for tops in the West. Already the Nuggets are nine games clear of the Minnesota Timberwolves for tops in the Northwest Division.
Nevermind Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving both whining their way out of Brooklyn to head out west, the class of the conference still goes through Jokic, Ja Morant in Memphis, and Luka Doncic in Dallas, even though Irving is now paired with the latter.
Denver is a league-best 27-4 at home.
Jokic is averaging a triple double for the season (24.8 points, 10.1 assists and 11.3 rebounds per game). His 63.2-percent shooting from the floor certainly helps the scoring average, but his 39.1-percent from beyond the arc is amazing for a player his size. Jokic is also an 89-percent shooter at the line, which is usually a number for a scoring guard, not a 6-foot-11 center.
Put that last number in perspective for a moment. Yao Ming only shot 86 percent his best year at the line (2008-09), and Dirk Nowitski was at 87 percent for his career, breaking 90 percent three times. Dirk was a 38 percent shooter from deep. Jokic is already past that mark midway through this year.
“Joker” has better numbers across the board, with the exception being rebounding, from his last two MVP seasons. The rebounds were at 13.5 per game last year.
Embiid ranks second in scoring (33.1), 10th in rebounds (10.2), but is on the third page of the leaders in assists (4.1). Giannis is third in points (32.5), tops in rebounds (12.3), but 29th in assists (5.5).
Jokic is fourth in assists, third in assists and 18th in scoring. All that while only playing 33.6 minutes a night. No other player is in the top 20 of all three, although Doncic is 21st in rebounding (8.8) from joining Jokic in that exclusive group.
The MVP is a numbers award in today’s NBA, so you would be hard pressed not to put Jokic as a favorite the final two months of the regular season to add to his hardware.
-JC24