Nikola Jokic will win another MVP this season

Question

Nikola Jokic's dominance continues in the current NBA season and he's still putting up eye catching numbers. He's currently average 31.4 points, 10.3 assists, and 13.6 rebounds while shooting 56.1% from the floor.

Answer 1

While his numbers are certainly staggering and show his true dominance on the court, there is no way to accurately predict who the NBA MVP will be before the voting's are casted. On the contrary to the claim, the official NBA website has a MVP race ladder that boasts a different candidate for MVP. Shai Gilgeous Alexander is leading the race ahead of Jokic currently with more points averaged and more wins so far on the season. Most critics believe that Shai will end up with the MVP this year instead of Jokic who has won the award 3 times in the past 4 year years. This claim is neither true nor false because there is still a chance he can win but it is not guaranteed. 

Sources: 

https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-jan-31-2025-edition

https://www.espn.com/nba/history/awards/_/id/33

Answer 2

Even though it is still early in the 2024-25 NBA season, your statement is accurate. Nikola Jokić has been on an incredible run so far this year, and his statistics are significantly better than everyone else. The only other player who could give Jokić a run for his money is Giannis Antetokounmpo, as he has more points per game, but has fewer rebounds (11.6 to Jokić's 13.4) and assists per game (6.5 to Jokić's 10.4). I agree that the center from the Denver Nuggets is the most dominant player in the league, very nice choice of an article.

Comments

Good job on finding the statistics of each player, but I would have liked to see the source for this information. Beyond that, I don't know if this claim should be considered true as even with a promising run it still isn't certain that Jokic will win MVP.

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I agree with the idea that supporting your statistics with a source would have made your argument significantly better and definitely more credible. Without a source, it is a lot harder to believe whether this information is true or not, and to what extent it is true or false. Although bad kid up by statistics, there is a sense of opinion within the argument that Jokic is bound to win MVP for the season. As the season progresses, we are able to narrow down the candidates in the MVP race, but there is never certainty on who will actually win until the trophy is awarded. Aside from the lack of mentioned sources, I like the way the argument was constructed.

Answer 3

This claim is more of an opinion as the outcome of MVP can not be confirmed yet. Although there can be predictions from CBS or FOX, there is no way to know for sure. It is early in the season and there is room for change in performance. NBA Lookahead even compares his performance to past players and says there can be improvements made.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5943228/2024/11/27/nba-lookahead-nikola-jokic-mvp/

Answer 4

Since it is early in 2024-2025 season and his numbers are definitely eye-catching, I think it is a little early to name him the winner for the MVP. Right now the only other person that I see that is coming close to his numbers is Giannis Antetokounmpo due to him leading the league in PPG (Points per game) with 32.7, but Nikola Jokic is Number 1 in rebounds, and Number 2 in PPG across the league according to https://www.espn.com/nba/stats. So I think it is definitely early to call since it is the beginning of the season, but I definitely think that he will be one of the favorites to win the MVP.

Answer 5

While this is a predictive claim that cannot be proven true or false, Nikola Jokic is galloping to a considerable early-season lead in the MVP race. He's averaging a triple-double, second in points per game, and has the highest 3pt% among players with 2+ attempts a game (50%). His offensive impact has been unmatched, and if the Nuggets hit a groove and he stays healthy, he will likely claim his 4th NBA MVP. 

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=ppg+leaders+2024-25 

Answer 6

This is a good take and Jokic is definitely one of the lead runners of the MVP now, especially considering basketball-reference MVP Tracker. While your claim is valid and I also believe Jokic will win the season mvp, but by studying past cases we can find Team Standings really do matter in the MVP votes. Since Denver is currently stuck at 7th in West Conference, we might need further information moving forward.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/mvp.html

https://www.nba.com/news/blogtable-what-criteria-matters-most-making-mvp-decision

Answer 7

I agree with your opinion. Jokic has been unreal so far this season, and averaging a triple double in the regular season definitely helps for the MVP race. The main concerns are definitely how his team's standings and his health will affect his hopes for MVP.

Answer 8

The NBA season is a far way away from crowning the MVP of the league and this statement is not ridiculous to say. But it is strictly opinion-based. Nikola Jokic is easily a top 5 player in the league and has been on a dominant run. This season he is averaging a triple-double at 29.5 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.3 Assists per game according to ESPN. That is a pretty unreal stat if you understand basketball. His team is also on a hot streak with 31 wins and 19 losses being the 4th seed in the Western Conference. He has extremely high odds of receiving the award, but it is not a given. Therefore, this is an opinion. Issues such as injuries or poor performance can lead to his odds falling to receive this award. 

Sources:

Nikola Jokic - Denver Nuggets Center - ESPN

Answer 9

Although this whole claim is opinion based, there are parts to it that are undeniably true, as well as parts that can't be considered true or false. The sub claim he is putting up eye catching numbers and then listing his stats is completely true, but the claim that he is the MVP this season is not only too soon to be determined, but also very aggressive and far fetched this soon into the season. The evidence used was a CBS sports article is very opinion based, but also mixed in is analytical data that does help back up the claim. It talks about how he himself is solely carrying his team through the season, bringing up the poor play of his teammates. Although his teammates may not be performing up to their usual standards, to say he is getting no help from them is a huge overstatement.

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/den/denver-nuggets

These statistics from ESPN do prove Nikola Jokic to have significantly better statistics then all of his teammates, but it also shows 5 of his teams averaging double figures in points, as well as one other average 20 or more points per game. These statistics hurt the opinion from the CBS article that he is getting no help from his teammates.

https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/42952719/2024-25-nba-mvp-betting-odds-favorites-jokic-doncic-sga-giannis

These ESPN statistics show the current odds for who the winner of the MVP will be. Although the statement Jokic is the MVP can't be proved until the award is given out , and can be proved to highly probable if he seems to be the clear front runner for the award. The issue is, he is far behind in second place, with Shai Gilgeous being way more favored at odds of -550, while Jokic is trailing by a considerable amount with odds at +350, which shows he has a far less then 50 percent chance of winning. Although the claim can't be proven to be true or false, it does appear at the moment that it is highly improbable for that outcome to become a reality.

Answer 10

This claim is a pretty accurate thing to say based on how the season has been going so far. As of today (around halfway through the season) the NBA and ESPN both have Jokic with the second best odds to win MVP behind Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander. Based on stats the third most points and is on the 4th ranked team in the western conference. This claim of course doesn’t factor in the chance of injuries or other things that could effect a players performance so I think that making the claim that a specific player will win the MVP halfway through the season is just completely false.

Sources- https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/42952719/2024-25-nba-mvp-betting-odds-favorites-jokic-doncic-sga-giannis

https://www.nba.com/stats/leaders