Overreactions due to small sample sizes are certainly nothing new for NBA discourse, but in the past few weeks, things have really jumped the shark. Nikola Jokic has shown some warts since returning from his knee injury, for sure. The defense hasn’t been good, the shot has been off, and the turnovers have been more frequent than you’d like.
But the way he is being talked about and dismissed in the MVP race completely has now swung way too far. If you want to say that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has cleared enough hurdles to hold off the Joker and win the award for a second straight season, that seems reasonable enough.Â
The SGA vs. Jokic debate has been a reasonable one for the most part, and he has proven to be a worthy adversary. But lately, the conversations have moved to other players passing the Joker, like Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, and even Jaylen Brown.
This is where things swing too far. Doncic has been on a crazy heater lately, but his defense is as bad as Jokic’s, and he was bringing negative energy to the Lakers for half the season. Wemby is clearly on the rise, but his numbers and minutes are nowhere close to those of the other candidates. Brown is having an amazing season for Boston, but let’s get real.
Jokic is being taken for granted again
In many ways, the final level of superstardom is being taken for granted, and it feels like we are there with Jokic. Rather than marvel at his greatness, people want to nitpick the blemishes, ignoring the absurd season he’s having and what he’s doing every time he touches a basketball court.
We arguably saw this start to happen in 2023 when Joel Embiid robbed Jokic of a third straight MVP, and we saw the Joker respond with an epic run to a Finals MVP. We started to see some of it again last season with SGA popping up and taking the league by storm. But Shai stamped it with a Finals MVP and has been even better this season.
Doncic has had some great playoff moments, but hasn’t proven he can take a team all the way to the promised land, and Wemby has no playoff experience whatsoever. Those are both possible playoff opponents for the Nuggets in the first couple of rounds, and you best believe the Joker will be ready.
This is a guy whose last four games have been 33/15/12, 23/21/19, 23/17/17, and 22/14/14. For most players, that would be a career-defining run. For Jokic, it’s just another regular-season week in March. As much as everyone wants to move on to younger, more fun stars, Jokic is still the best player in the league, and he’s going to remind people of that in the playoffs.