NBA MVP Ladder Week 24: A new name enters the fray

Week 24 NBA MVP Ladder: 1. Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets

Rank last week: 1

Pts/Rebs/Asts/Stls/Blks: 26.3/13.6/8.0/1.4/0.9

FG%/3P%/FT%: 57.6/34.5/81.1

Off EPM / Def EPM: +7.4/+1.2

The narrative has swung! ESPN’s straw poll, which showed Embiid with a razor-thin lead six weeks ago, now showcases Nikola Jokic as a clear front-runner for the award. He earned 62 first-place votes out of 100 (and, bizarrely, three fifth-place votes), and with less than two weeks remaining, seems to have gained serious momentum.

This is a good thing, in my opinion, as I believe Jokic has been the most valuable player in the NBA for virtually the entire second half of the season. 26/14/8 is absolutely silly stuff. And to be doing this well while still shooting 58 percent from the field seems impossible, especially given the lack of offensive talent surrounding Jokic.

But it’s not just the numbers. Jokic has an endless bag of offensive moves to score from anywhere on the floor, including from the foul line and from deep. Unlike Embiid or Giannis, Jokic can also pass guys open in a way that only a handful of people on this planet can. He’s an entire offense unto himself.

I’ve often seen people online complaining that the Nuggets, currently a six-seed in the West, haven’t won enough games to qualify Jokic for MVP. This absurd argument does a great job of telling you who not to follow on Twitter.

The Nuggets have currently won one fewer game than the 76ers and two fewer games than the Bucks. With records that close, it shouldn’t be an automatic disqualifier just because one candidate plays in a stronger conference.

We’ve already gone over Jokic’s statistical dominance at length in this space in previous weeks. Suffice it to say, pretty much every metric says Jokic is having one of the greatest seasons of all time, and he’s the deserving leader of the MVP race as the season hits its final stretch.