Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic was rated highly across the board in the applicable categories that NBA General Managers voted on in a league-wide survey. But he was slighted in his chances to win his fourth MVP award, even after receiving such high rankings. I guess Jokic is just going to have to come out swinging, errr, passing behind the back more to prove them wrong.
The NBA conducted its annual GM survey, and Jokic's MVP chances came in at only 10%. That was still good enough for second place, but it's a far cry behind Victor Wembanyama's 77% and significantly lower than the 67% of the vote that Jokic earned before last season began.
Jokic deserved his fourth MVP last year, and he probably will after this season, but voter fatigue may likely cost him once again. Still, a top-two finish would be good enough to give him the best seven-year run in MVP voting in NBA history. But realistically, the voting by the GMs doesn't even make sense when you factor in where Jokic landed in the other parts of the polls.
Jokic is still on solid ground as the best player, depending on the category
Jokic came out ahead of Wemby as the best center in the NBA, garnering 63% of the vote, well ahead of Wemby's 37%. But in that same breath, the GMs ranked Wemby ahead of Jokic as the best international player in the league, at 53% to Jokic's 47%. Of course, Wemby led all of the defensive categories, but Jokic was far and away the leader in a couple of others that should count heavily at season's end when the vote really matters.
Did you see that pass I linked to in the first paragraph? Unless you've been living off the grid for the last couple of weeks, it's hard for Nuggets fans to have missed that insane pass from the Nuggets' first preseason game. The behind-the-back crosscourt pass around three defenders into the shooting pocket from the three-point line to the three-point line to Cameron Johnson was probably the best pass Jokic's ever made, and one of the best in the history of the game.
No wonder he was voted the number one passer with 87% of the vote. He led the NBA in assists last year, and he's going to challenge for that mark again this year, while putting up a triple-double average again (or close to it). First or second place in the MVP race, whatever, he's still the best basketball player in the world until Wemby clearly makes a jump.
Jokic also led the basketball IQ category again, receiving 67% of the vote. LeBron James was 2nd at 33%, and it illustrates why the Jokic and LeBron pairing would have been amazing to watch for Nuggets fans this season.
All in all, Jokic is still highly regarded by NBA GMs, and he's going to challenge for his fourth MVP. He just better win it this time if he leads the league in assists AND, AND, rebounds again. Something no player has done once, but what Joker has a chance to do back-to-back.
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