There are still days until it is officially announced, but the third MVP of Nikola Jokic is taking shape. Finishing as the best player of the last day of the regular phase in the Western Conference is nothing more than the icing on the cake of a new excellent season for the Serbian, who, barring a last-minute surprise, will take the best player award.
Although his Denver Nuggets have not finished in first position in the Western Conference, tied at the top with the Oklahoma City Thunder with a balance of 57-25 for both but the tiebreaker for the latter, the season of the ‘ Joker’ has been absolutely impressive: 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 9 assists and 1.4 steals on average in the 79 games he has played.
If anything, he even has an absolutely crazy game-winner in his repertoire of highlights this season.
This year there is no longer ‘voters fatigue’. Or what is the same: that those in charge of choosing the winner of the award wanted someone new as the best player in the NBA. Joel Embiid He won it last year in that way, taking the award in a more than controversial way, with racial issues involved and with the general feeling that “Embiid is going to win it, but everyone knows that Jokic is better.”
Speaking of those in charge of choosing the winner, many of them have already begun to reveal the open secret. Big names on American television have already announced their vote for the highest individual award and the majority is overwhelming in favor of Jokic. Who are your competitors? Other great protagonists of the wild Western Conference like Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Slovenian has been penalized by the fact that his Dallas Mavericks have not finished higher in the standings (fifth with a 50-32), the Canadian has been penalized by falling short in the one-on-one with Nikola Jokic. Despite this, both Luka Doncic as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander They have had a spectacular campaign, good enough to be considered MVP candidates… which in itself is an award. The Slovenian has been the NBA’s top scorer with 33.9 points on averagea statistic that acquires superlative value when taking into account that he has also been the second who has distributed the most assists, with 9.8 average basket passes in the 70 games played. SGA, for its part, has been the best player on the best team in the best Conference, averaging 30.1 points (bronze medal for him), 5.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists. Numbers clearly lower than Doncic’s but both punished by a factor that, more or less explicitly, is always there: his youth. Neither of them is over 26 years old, so they will have time to win their MVPs… who is going to win them if not? The gap between the two of them and the rest of the NBA’s great stars is certainly enormous. Old glories like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are fading, so it will be up to the two of them to be the face of the NBA… and receive the MVPs that that entails.
All this until Wembanyama – the only one of the youngsters who seems to be at the level – is even more than what he is at the moment… but we’ll talk about that when the time comes.
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2024-04-16 05:15:00
#ready #Nikola #Jokics #MVP
