#1 Nikola Jokic – Denver Nuggets
At this point, the MVP award seems all but wrapped up for Nikola Jokic… they may have already made the award and engraved it with his name in it! There is just not enough time for anybody to overtake Jokic for the award and while he has the stats to back up why he should be the league MVP, perhaps his greatest achievement is that he has not missed a single game all season long.
He has consistently been the league’s best player and has not had to sit out of a game once, which is highly impressive. In fact, the last league MVP to play in every single game during the course of the regular season was when the late, great Kobe Bryant won his one and only league MVP award for the 2007-08 season.
All season long, Nikola Jokic has been the catalyst for the Denver Nuggets and is the main reason why they still have championship aspirations, even with Jamal Murray being out for the year with a torn ACL.
On the season, Jokic is averaging 26.4 points, 10.9 rebounds, 8.5 assists and is shooting 56.8% from the floor, 41.1% from three-point range and 85.5% from the free-throw line. Nikola Jokic has also posted 15 triple-doubles on the year, which is the second-most in the league trailing only Russell Westbrook and he has posted 57 double-doubles this year, which is the most in the NBA.
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This season, Jokic became one of nine players in NBA history to record 50+ triple-doubles, joining a list with the likes of James Harden, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Magic Johnson, Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson. One of the very impressive things about this list though for Nikola Jokic is that he and Wilt Chamberlain are the only centers on this list.
Nikola Jokic checks the box off on every metric being graded for the league MVP award and as a result, he will be named this year’s league MVP, making him the first foreign born player to win the NBA MVP award since Dirk Nowitzki in 2006-07 and the third foreign player ever to win the award, joining Dirk Nowitzki and Hakeem Olajuwon.
