Considering the history of the NBA, few have given Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic much of a chance at winning a third-straight MVP award this season, if he’s deserving or not.
On Sunday, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone voiced his displeasure over the silly reasons not to vote for Jokic, telling reporters that those who choose not to vote for the 27-year-old because he’s already won twice are “lazy.”
“I don’t really care what people think about Nikola, and I know Nikola does not care what people think about Nikola,” Malone said via SBNation’s T.J. McBride. “But if people are arguing that he should not win because he has done so twice, then that is lazy.”
While there’s still plenty of basketball left to play, Jokic is already making a convincing case to hoist the award again.
Jokic ranks 20th in the NBA in scoring, averaging 25.5 points per game, but has willed the Nuggets to the best record in the Western Conference at 23-12 in other ways. Through 35 games, Jokic ranks fourth in the league in assists (9.5) and seventh in rebounds (10.9), per ESPN.
According to Basketball Reference’s 2022-2023 NBA MVP tracker, Jokic has a 40.7 percent chance at winning the award, tops in the NBA ahead of Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Dončić (31.8 percent). Meanwhile, per Oddschecker, sportsbooks list Jokic with the fourth-best odds (+480) to win the MVP, trailing Milwaukee Bucks’ two-time winner Giannis Antetokounmpo (+400), Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum (+350) and Dončić (+320).
If Jokic walks away with MVP hardware again this summer, he’ll become only the fourth player to win the award in three consecutive seasons and the first since Hall of Famer Larry Bird (1983- 1986.)
