4 NBA storylines that will come to an apex in final stretch

1. Who’s taking home the MVP?

After Joel Embiid was forced to miss a string of games, the MVP trophy seems all but likely headed to Nikola Jokic. Many advanced metrics have him as the league’s top performer with absurd averages of 26.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. An eight-game winning streak has catapulted the Denver Nuggets to what was viewed by many as a prerequisite top-four spot in the Western Conference.

But if a 10-game absence from Embiid was all it took to put Jokic in the driver’s seat, it’s hard not to consider the fragility of that argument and how easily the award could swing back in Embiid’s favor if Jokic were to miss any amount of time.

This isn’t about hoping for any type of injury. In a season where plenty of big names have missed time, it’s an acknowledgment of how fragile the human body is and how easily that could affect a player carrying as heavy a workload as Jokic.

Expanding the scope of legitimate MVP candidates beyond these two complicates the discussion even further.

If Jokic is the frontrunner on a team that sits fourth in the west, surely Damian Lillard and his 29.1 points per game should have an outside shot with his Blazers sitting only 2.5 games behind Denver. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s historic greatness may have become the norm. That shouldn’t make it any less worthy of MVP consideration. Can James Harden earn some votes for the way he seamlessly integrated himself into and carried a Nets team missing its best player for a good chunk of the season?

There was no consensus MVP favorite heading into the season. Jokic might be leading things at the moment but he still has a long way to go to lock up the award.