The games played difference between SGA and Jokic is enormous even if Jokic plays every single game the rest of the season. And the odds Jokic misses 2 or more games the rest of the season is pretty high

No he isn’t lol why are people still trying to force this

He should and will miss multiple games before the end of the season and that’s okay. Playoffs matter more.

I have noticed that after the eligibility rules were put in place, people have begun to act as if games played doesn’t matter as long as you hit 65

As if the league is saying “65 games or 82 games, doesnt matter.”

Maybe voters will treat it that way. I’m not sure. But from my POV, Jokic will be at a significant disadvantage compared to Shai because of the difference in games played even if he’s eligible for the award.

So…the Nuggets win WITHOUT him, and he still gets the benefit???

The goalposts are constantly moved

I’m so serious goalposts have never moved more for a player.

65 vs 75-80 games played is a significant difference and anyone who pretends it isn’t is dickriding

dear god this sub is going to get so toxic

I think its a good thing he’s back and I hope he qualifies because we’ll get to hear all the bad-faith arguments made in favor of Jokic that would basically never get made for any other player.

Who cares about MVP. I hope he misses a bunch of games for load management so he is fresh and feeling right for the playoffs.

The Nuggets are literally good without him and now Jokic fans don’t know what to do and are trying to move the goalposts in real time

guys i think OP thinks jokic is firmly back in the mvp race

I mean he’d have to play like Jesus Christ to be worth more than Shai in 20 less games

He should be able to get all nba tho

I think there is no universe in where he doesn’t miss at least two more for rest. They’re gonna want to be careful with him and they can afford it.

His team went 10-6 without him. 

Toxicity is back on the menu boys!

He’ll technically still qualify but he still has no chance at winning MVP. Unless Shai ends up missing time.

Idk about firmly.

Nuggets proved they can hold down the fort without him this year and they probably should ease Jokic back in. I highly doubt he qualifies for awards at the end of the season.

But I am bullish on their chances to win another championship. This is easily the best group Denver has had around Jokic and OKC has been sputtering.

Also rightly or wrongly, Denver doing great without him surely hurts his MVP chances regardless.

Jokic is my guy but SGA deserves given how many more games he’s played. I’ll take another first team for my Jokic agenda tho

I wouldn’t call it being in the MVP race, just before he was injured he was equal or I think maybe slightly favored to win MVP after OKC were dropping games and Jokic was doing Jokic things.

Now even with OKC dropping even more games it’s still not even close to equal odds for good reason.

I think people need to realize that Jokic isn’t going to win MVP, playing games is a MVP stat too and he missed a lot even if he does make it to 65, SGA would also have to be out of a lot more games to be close to that for Jokic to have a chance

i mean the games played gap still matters. hes gonna have to keep up the ridiculous production right off the bat and get nugs to a close 2nd or even the 1 seed

I think this nuggets team being solid even without Jokic (and all the other injuries) actually hurts his chances of MVP even more.

Only 3 MVP’s have been won playing less than 70 games in a normal 82 game season, with the last one being Walton.

He’s out of the race unless Shai has a season ending injury.

He’ll be on all nba 1st team if he manages to play every other game from now on, but he should miss at least 2 games between now and the playoffs, it’d be stupid to risk his health and the Nuggets playoff chances by overworking him.

“Firmly back” is crazy when he can only miss two more games lol. Hes hanging by a string

this assumes jokic wont miss more than 2 games the rest of the season

He’s probably missing at least four more games by the end of the season.

And only half the season left to play

No he won’t lol… between the amount of games missed and the fact the nuggets mostly were able to tread water while Jokic is out, unless SGA, Cade, and Luka get hurt. His mvp chances shouldn’t be a thing.

You’d be an idiot if you tried to play him that much the rest of the season.

Going 10-6 in his absence is huge for Denver.

It means you take it easy getting Jokic back going.

Its about the ring now and they have as good a chance as anyone to win it as long as Jokic 100% or as close as possible.

He must give priority to the title, I prefer to have 3 MVPs and 2 FMVPs than 4 MVPs and only one title

I’d bet good money he’ll rest at least on back to backs until further notice. I still think he’ll be ineligible eventually

I wonder how many more times we will have the same fact posted or rephrased? Yes I think we understand he technically isn’t eliminated yet, although there’s virtually no room for error now.

Funny thing is, this sub cares way more than Jokic. I guarantee Jokic only cares about winning a title and couldn’t give a shit about the individual awards. He will miss more games because he is focused on winning, not this BS

How many minutes does a player need to play for the game to count toward 65?

Seems like if he cared enough about the award he could check out right after tip-off like AC Green used to do when he was injured but wanted to keep his consecutive games played record alive. As long he didn’t do it enough to threaten the 20 mins/game requirement it would work.

As a clippers fan… well that’s just great

Firmly?

Not saying he will miss 2 more games but playing ³²⁄₃₄ remaining games while just returning from injury is definitely not a guarantee.

the only way it’s a race is if sga gets injured

Unless SGA misses 10 games no

He probably isn’t coming back thinking he’s going to win MVP, but what people don’t realize is that All-NBA selections are very important when it comes to contracts. The only caveat to that would be that I’m not personally familiar enough with cap rules to know if that would affect him at all financially.

At the very least though, All-NBA selections are incredibly important for things like hall of fame. Even though he’s already a 100% lock, these things are very important for players’ legacies

How is he back in the race?

This is the same cope we used for the Thunder needing to win 35 games in a row to beat the Warriors record

Honestly, I don’t think Jokic himself particularly cares that much about it.

I don’t mean that he doesn’t care at all, obviously it is a significant achievement for any player, but especially since he is already a 3 time MVP, he doesn’t have to prove anything in the regular season, people already know what he can do.

From what he showed himself to be over his career I think he’ll manage himself to be in optimal shape for the playoffs rather than pushing to be the MVP, which means he’ll miss a couple of games imo.

Would bet the house he sits out more than 2 games the reamainder of the season.

He’s still not gonna win. Voters take into account availability and the gap bw jokic’s and sga’s impact is not enough to win Jokic the mvp.

The way I see it, and I could be biased here but I try not to be.

Okc fans generally accept that jokic is a generational player, but make arguments for Shai to win MVP over him (games played, games won, advanced stats, defence, etc).

Some Denver fans, for their jokic MVP case, in stead just attack Shai (flopping, FTs, 50-win supporting cast (although that one’s gotten real quiet in the past month lol))

Then okc fans get toxic at Denver fans who were getting toxic towards Shai.

And the cycle if toxicity is in full swing

Jokics team is thriving even in his absence. SGA is the entire OKC offense. If you don’t think this clearly highlights MVP then you aren’t being honest with yourself.

2 games away from being ineligible is not something I would call firm.

How will his teams record w/out him hurt his chances? Cause if you don’t play sga or Luka I don’t see the thunder or lakers fairing as well as the nuggets have.

He’s not getting MVP and that’s okay. Hope he makes the 65 games for another 1st team All-NBA though, it would be a shame if this season from him didn’t get that

I mean, even if he makes it I think how well they did without him has probably hurt his chances too much which is kinda crazy to think about lol

I wish the minimum was a far more reasonable 50. Enough that it makes sense and doesn’t tank a player’s accolades and future earning potential over 1 minor injury.

I wouldn’t say firmly.

Cade is winning it,so it doesn’t matter.

Top two consecutive mvp finishes streak. Its a mouthfull, but impressive stat nonetheless

The convo for me is over, SGA is better overall. His impact defensively in his position is absurd.

That’s probably why Shams included this information when he announced it.

Even if Jokic had played it was 74 but he did which was his choice, and Embiid sat 3 at the end too. The point is all missed a fair number of games. Only 3 of the top 12 vote getters played 70 games and only Sabonis played close to a full season and wasn’t close.

Shai has played 47 of 49 so far. If he ends up with 78 to 80 that is a big difference over Jokic, Luka and Wemby at this pace. Not that games is the whole story but 20% more games is a point in his favor. Shai may well miss 2-3 weeks, too.

Return of the King

Most Valuable Pony for the 4th time.

Inevitable.

Glad to see it. It’s a pleasure watching Jokić play.

Go get that MVP and FMVP second goat

Everyone relax lmao of course FTA will win MVP again this year

Yeah because OKC was a +5 net rating for the ¹⁄₃ of the game Shai sat and Denver was a -8 net rating for the ¹⁄₃ of the game Jokic sat. You don’t think that impacted the team records?

Last year, Jokic averaged 30/13/10 while being the most efficient high-volume scorer in the league (58/42/80 splits). You can’t even say “numbers inflation” because he was top 3 in PPG, RPG, APG, and SPG – which are all relative to era. (Obviously first player in NBA history to do this).

Oh and he also had one of the crazies on/off net rating swings in NBA history (+19!! net swing)

Also set the record for most heaves in an NBA season by a mile and STILL shot over 40% from 3 as a center.

You can think Shai deserved or you would have voted for him, but saying the goalposts move for Jokic when they literally moved AWAY from him last season and in 2023 is incredibly idiotic.

That’s my boy.

Jokic deserves to have, at least, one more mvp.

Legends know that its not even about MVP race anymore but 6 straight 1-2MVP finishes and 6th NBA 1ST.
Jok is not contesting SGA, fat man is competing for goat race.

If he has a good enough close to the season and the Nuggets end with a top 2 seed, I say he gets it