NBA MVP race looks to be wide open in reshuffled league hierarchy

Nikola Jokic had a season like few other NBA centers have had in 2018-19, averaging 20.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 31.3 minutes per game while leading the Denver Nuggets back to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

The assist numbers made Jokic just the second center, along with Wilt Chamberlain, to average at least seven dimes per game.

Honestly, Jokic could probably be higher on this list based on merit,  but voters haven’t paid a lot of attention to Denver over the years.

The Nuggets have never had an NBA MVP, or come particularly close to having one, and they have had a total of three major award winners in their history — Dikembe Mutombo (1994-95) and Marcus Camby (2006-07) were named Defensive Player of the Year and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was Most Improved Player in 1992-93.

Jokic shot 51.1 percent overall last season and 30.7 percent on 3.4 3-point tries per game. The 3-point shooting was a drastic drop from the previous year, when he canned 3.7 attempts per game at a 39.6 percent rate, so that should realistically improve this season.

And Jokic will still be the focal point for the Denver offensive attack, a sort of point center through which coach Mike Malone runs most of their sets.

If Jokic can up his numbers into the 22-23 point and 12-13 rebound range while maintaining the assist pace, two things are likely: The Nuggets will win a lot of basketball games and Jokic will win a lot of support in the MVP race.