Who do you think wins MVP this season? (2025-26 NBA MVP Discussion Thread)

[bkkrh]

Honestly, if Jokic continues ike that and doesn´t win MVP in the end, I really won´t care about NBA awards in the future anymore.

[CobraCommander]

Guy is just unreal. What else can you say

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Sga curb stomped Luka and said “I’m the mvp”. Then jokic said let me finish my beer then hold my empty mug…. Geee Zeus this man is literally he is sga, luka and Giannis all wrapped into a big fat man

[f4p]

Jokic, I’m concerned. That he might be too good to play in the NBA.

[1993Playoffs]

Jokic is crazy good.

[CobraCommander]

Jokic, I’m concerned. That he might be too good to play in the NBA.

Jokic is the mvp- best player etc- the guy that gets the trophy if it isn’t jokic is the second best guy - like the mj years

[QPR]

Who cares about the MVP, we're genuinely witnessing a historic player in his prime.

[OverAndOut]

MVP really doesn't mean anything. Everyone knows deep down that Jokic is the best player in the league and on a different level than anyone else with or without winning the MVP. It's like those years where everyone knew Jordan and LeBron were on a different level than anyone else yet they didn't win MVP.

[Exp0sed]

gotta love the joker

three man race rn, with Jokic, SGA and Wemby. SGA carrying the Thunder without J-Dub (and others) to 10-1 record (and like 15 SRS) with incredible advanced stats and regular stats are identical to last season (really, they're almost indentical it's pretty wild) is impressive in it's own right and would easily be good for MVP any other season

Nuggets and Thunder faced a pretty easy schedule so far, we'll have to see who begins faltering off first (team wise or individually) when they meet better competition

as good as SGA (and Wemby) have been, Jokic obviously took the lead in the race tonight. dropped 16-19 from the field yesterday and continued to go 18-23, on back to back lol, for 55 in 33 mins. gotta give him the nod, the man is shooting 80%+ from 2...on the season!

[SlimShady83]

Guy is just unreal. What else can you say

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Sga curb stomped Luka and said “I’m the mvp”. Then jokic said let me finish my beer then hold my empty mug…. Geee Zeus this man is literally he is sga, luka and Giannis all wrapped into a big fat man

[img]

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Pfft, much like the fans, players will say a lot of things.

[RB34]

Please stop with the SGA is carrying the Thunder narrative. This is not a carry job. This is an MVP on an extremely talented and well put together team.

Multiple All-D caliber players, multiple role players that can shoot, pass and defend. Their 4th-5th best player just had a 33/19 game.

[Andri]

This is SGA right now, anyone saying anytjing else are kidding themselves...

Sorry to say this, but try to watch Nuggets games, they say that Jokic kid is kind of good!

[Mavrelous]

This is SGA right now, anyone saying anytjing else are kidding themselves...

Sorry to say this, but try to watch Nuggets games, they say that Jokic kid is kind of good!

Jokic is my 2nd favourite player in the league, and I watch him the most after Mavs and Lakers games, and he's playing his best basketball, but OKC is shorthanded and is looking at 70 wins season, regardless of how great Jokic is, SGA coming off a perfect season and leading his team to another high 60s or 70 wins will not have any other player in consideration.

[Andri]

This is SGA right now, anyone saying anytjing else are kidding themselves...

Sorry to say this, but try to watch Nuggets games, they say that Jokic kid is kind of good!

Jokic is my 2nd favourite player in the league, and I watch him the most after Mavs and Lakers games, and he's playing his best basketball, but OKC is shorthanded and is looking at 70 wins season, regardless of how great Jokic is, SGA coming off a perfect season and leading his team to another high 60s or 70 wins will not have any other player in consideration.

First, I don't buy OKC is shorthanded. Why? because the cost of replacing them is so low given their depth. At the current level of performance from the players filling in for the injured starters, those starters would not clearly increase the overall OKC production so much as you could expect. This IMO it could be true during PO's, where rotations tighten up and marginal increases are more impactful, but not for the RS.

Secondly, if production keeps the same through the season for Jokic and SGA (big If), I would think that it would be enough for Jokic that Nuggets end second in the West, even if the wins difference is about 10 in OKC's favor.

[bbms]

Shai and Jokic are tied on expected EPM with 8.4 with Giannis not too far behind at 7.8. SGA has the slight lead on actual EPM over Jokic at 8.6 to 8.3 and no one else comes close to them there.

EDIT: OUT OF DATE SORRY

xrapm is up to date, and those are the two top dogs.

i don't know If It has residual data from last season. If It has residual, than jokic has been more impressive since the Gap was almost non exitante last season, now the Gap is widening

[maverick_41]

It was a nice run Jokic, this is Wemby league now.

[Wolfgang630]

I don’t care how “short handed” okc is. I’m tired of there being excuses not to give joker his 4th mvp when he clearly is more valuable than Shai.

[MMyhre]

No he lost three times in a row to the Pistons in his absolute prime whose only “star” was a guard who couldn’t shoot. Any of those Pistons teams only get a game off of last year’s Thunder if OKC gets complacent for a game up 2-0 or 3-0.

Lol, that Pistons team was back2back NBA champions and one of the best defensive teams of all time, with three Hall of Famers, Mark Aguirre and decent role players, and he eventually beat them when he got into his peak years, stop lying about that being Jordans absolute prime. He only lost to them in 7 in the last year, averaging 32.1 pts on 56.6 ts %, 7.1 reb, 6.3 ast, 2.1 stl, 0.6 blk with two players above 10 points, second best being Pippen at 16.6 pts on 52 ts %.

But yeah, keep comparing back2back NBA champions to the 56 win Wolves with a still far from prime Edwards and Finland with a poor Lauri Markkanen in that game as well.

What do you even mean by only "star"? You know they won two championships in a row right? In the era of Bird, Magic & Jordan? But since they didn't have a superstar they were bad? What is this logic? I don't even think Isiah Thomas was neccessarily the most important player on those teams, as defense was the main driving force, but teams can be good without superstars, and defensive stars like Rodman exist as well.

There was a lot less talent in the league then since the international explosion hadn't happened yet. Even relative to the league, here's how the Pistons looked the 3 years before Jordan's peak season:

1988: +5.5 SRS (beat Bulls 4-1)
1989: +6.2 SRS (beat Bulls 4-2)
1990: +5.4 SRS (beat Bulls 4-3)

Now if we're going on the premise that what Jokic is doing so far this year might be somewhat sustainable, then this is his best season right now comparable to Jordan in '91. Here's how Jokic did the last 3 years:

2023: Won title going 16-4 in the playoffs
2024: Lost to +6.4 SRS Wolves 4-3
2025: Lost to +12.7 SRS Thunder 4-3

So the Nuggets performed much better in the playoffs the 3 years before Jokic's peak season than the Bulls did the 3 seasons before Jordan's best season. I don't see why it's so unthinkable that he might have GOAT potential putting up numbers that have never been touched in the history of basketball and leading his team to the best net rating of all time when he's on the floor.

Just false information, the top 5 players in 87-88 were Bird, Magic, Barkley, Hakeem & Jordan. With Malone, Stockton, Kareem, Worthy, McHale blabla there were tons of talent at that time. Discrediting the Pistons and the entire 80's just because of a Jokic bias is something, those people helped shape and evolve the game to what it is today. If Jokic plays in the 80's he would not be the same, because he would not have grown up under the more advanced modern basketball training & understanding, so you can't just compare the players & league directly like that.

Also those Bulls teams were worse than these Nuggets by a lot. You also leave out the SRS in 23 to make it look better on purpose.

Jordan was also a DPOY calibre player, Jokic is nowhere near that & Jordan was the superior volume scorer.

He is the MVP so far this season & has been impressive, but he has no GOAT argument whatsoever imo. He would need to do insane things in the playoffs this year, and he would still be 4 rings behind MJ, and 3 behind LeBron.

[MMyhre]

I want to highlight how well Stephon Castle is playing, Wemby is certainly not solo carrying that team. And Castle has some of the best defensive advanced stats in the league on rapm.

[greekman]

Please stop with the SGA is carrying the Thunder narrative. This is not a carry job. This is an MVP on an extremely talented and well put together team.

Multiple All-D caliber players, multiple role players that can shoot, pass and defend. Their 4th-5th best player just had a 33/19 game.

extremely talented ?
wiggins, hartenstein, caruso, isaiah joe, carlson, wallace and half a year of chet isn't even close to extremely talented.

it's MVP SGA + a well put together SUPPORTING cast.

[greekman]

I don’t care how “short handed” okc is. I’m tired of there being excuses not to give joker his 4th mvp when he clearly is more valuable than Shai.

definitely not more valuable than shai. the number of important games he's lost even when murray and gordon are playing well is inumerable