NBA MVP Ladder 3.0 all about respecting elders; LeBron James remains on top

After a sluggish start to the season, someone flipped the “on” switch for Nikola Jokic over the last four weeks. The Denver Nuggets have been the main beneficiary of Jokic returning to the form he showed while earning All-NBA honors last season, going 10-4 over the last 14 games and holding onto second place in the Western Conference.

Jokic has been filling up the stat sheets at will lately, averaging 23.0 points, 9.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 31.5 minutes per game in his 14 appearances since Dec. 21 (when Ladder 2.0 was published). He shot a cool 55.2 percent overall during that span, hitting 44.2 percent on 3.7 3-point attempts per game. Jokic also averaged 5.9 free throw tries a night, making 81.7 percent.

Included in that run were two triple-doubles and a career-high 47 points in a win at Atlanta on Jan. 6.

That has boosted his season numbers to 19.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 31.4 minutes per game over his 41 games thus far, with the Nuggets at 29-12, on pace to best the franchise’s NBA-era record of 57 wins set in 2012-13.

Jokic finished fourth in the MVP voting last season, when he finished ninth in the NBA in both rebounding and assists and was third in Value Over Replacement Player and fifth in Real Plus/Minus according to ESPN.

While he’s not quite at the same levels statistically he reached last season, Jokic’s play over the last 14 games has moved him past Dallas stat machine Luka Doncic on the MVP ladder.