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

[lethalizer]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

[Doctor MJ]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

I think you need to zoom out to make sure you're not overindexing on only part of the story.

You're saying Jokic specifically has BIG problems in Game 7's, which I'd say means that to anyone reading this without knowledge of Jokic's career, he must have a bad Game 7 record.

But he doesn't. He's 4-3 in Game 7's, which means that since he came into the league, the only other MVP to win as many Game 7's as him is Steph. And that's before you remember that Jokic cut his teeth leading some epic comebacks in playoff series.

[Handlez]

Wemby's likely not going to win MVP this season, but the Spurs would legitimately be 0-12 without him right now. Maaaybe 1-11. He's that valuable to our team, especially defensively. The fact that we go from the #2-ranked defense in the NBA with him on the floor to the 27th-ranked defense when he sits is ridiculous. Spurs desperately need more 3&D guys around him.

Unfortunately we are going to find out how true this is. Ruled out vs SAC with calf tightness, I imagine the Spurs will be super cautious with it being calf-related and will hold Wemby out for a week or longer

That's a big blow for his MVP case, as well. He's up against guys that tend to play pretty regurlaly

Sent from my SM-A055F using RealGM mobile app

Wemby was never a real MVP candidate.

Just the new flavor of the month.

He'll have to wait for the Jokic and Shai era to fall off.

[zero rings]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

Who says his legacy didn't take a hit?

If the Nuggets had won those series and gone on to win the championship, Jokic would be a unanimous top 10 player of all time, if not top 5. Instead, he's sitting around 15 on most people's lists.

He still has a lot of work to do in the playoffs.

[Ambrose]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

Probably because he hasn't lost back to back game 7s. Poor observation.

[Johnny Firpo]

He played bad defense, and had 6 turnovers with 4 minutes left in the 3rd period. It was certainly not a great game from him, but just a good one, as expected when he faces a better defense. They would lose this game if Anthony Edwards wasn't the worst player on the court.

...aS eXPetEd WHeN hE fACeS BeTtEr dEFeNCes... GTFO

Expected*
Wolves, OKC and Finland send their regards. You gonna cry?

LMAO, at least you do not pretend to be an objective fan.

[Infinite Llamas]

San Antonio plays Denver on Black Friday. Let’s hope both are healthy by then.

[AleksandarN]

This makes for some wild reading. I'd find it really hard to justify some other team playing good defense on a guy who gets 27 pts on 72.9 ts %, 12 reb, 11 ast

"Great guys! We stopped him"

It just really shows some people will just never be satisfied if a player isn't perfect/optimally efficient.

You always leave out the turnovers bit to make it look better for yourself, don't you? Can you see defense from the stats as well? But you can't make the same Jokic simp posts like everyone else if you point out the bad things, so lets always include the cool stats. 27 points is not a crazy amount of points. If Jokic scores only 27 against OKC they will likely lose. If Jokic scores 27 pts and Edwards doesn't go 0-8 from three and play like the worst player out there, they likely lose.

This was Jokic's worst game since opening night, he still had a triple double in a road win, and you're acting like he's been exposed as a fraud.

Give me a break.

On top of that playing with an injuried wrist.

[web123888]

Jokic deserves it unanimously without anyone else getting a 1st place vote, which says a lot given how amazing SGA / Luka / Giannis are.

[Cubbies2120]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

I think the context matters. The Wolves game 7, outside of Jamal Murray, the ENTIRE TEAM combined for 21 points on 8/28 shooting (28.5%).

Has there been a single elimination game (forget game 7) won by a team where players outside the top 2 played so poorly? Ever?

Then, vs OKC, they were massive underdogs going into the series and got even more injured as time went on (Gordon getting injured with 6 seconds to go in game 6 was icing on the cake ). We'll likely get a rematch of Jokic vs. SGA this year, hopefully w/ both teams healthy. OKC will again be favored by the books, but the Nuggets being significantly deeper will make the series much more even.

[TheGeneral99]

If the Nuggets win around 60 games or so it has to go to Jokic.

The reason Jokic didn't get it last year was because the Nuggets finished 50-32 while the Thunder won like 67 games.

[lethalizer]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

I think you need to zoom out to make sure you're not overindexing on only part of the story.

You're saying Jokic specifically has BIG problems in Game 7's, which I'd say means that to anyone reading this without knowledge of Jokic's career, he must have a bad Game 7 record.

But he doesn't. He's 4-3 in Game 7's, which means that since he came into the league, the only other MVP to win as many Game 7's as him is Steph. And that's before you remember that Jokic cut his teeth leading some epic comebacks in playoff series.

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

[Doctor MJ]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

I think you need to zoom out to make sure you're not overindexing on only part of the story.

You're saying Jokic specifically has BIG problems in Game 7's, which I'd say means that to anyone reading this without knowledge of Jokic's career, he must have a bad Game 7 record.

But he doesn't. He's 4-3 in Game 7's, which means that since he came into the league, the only other MVP to win as many Game 7's as him is Steph. And that's before you remember that Jokic cut his teeth leading some epic comebacks in playoff series.

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

So I'll give a nod to what someone else specifically said:

While his team was eliminated in Game 7's in two consecutive seasons, it wasn't two Game 7's in a row.

The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Wolves in an upset loss.
The Nuggets won Game 7 against the Clippers in a series the Nuggets were expected to lose (though Game 7 was at home).
The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Thunder in a series they weren't supposed to be close.

This is not the kind of overwhelming trend you're thinking you see, and this relates to why there's not even more hand-wringing about what happened.

Because you're chopping out the stuff before and during the "trend" that makes Jokic look good, what's left makes Jokic look worse than he actually looked to those with a wider view.

Further as you bring up guys from the past, let's note that LeBron & Magic got raked over the coals when they personally seemed to choke as their team got eliminated, which while it was overblown was a statement about actual basketball badness, whereas you're just talking about team performance specifically in series close enough to go 7 games.

We should note that Larry Bird's team made a habit of getting upset in the playoffs way more than Jokic, but this isn't something that everyone talks about when they talk about Bird's legacy. Why? In part, because it was less pinpointed to Bird making specific bad plays.

Re: Jordan. Well, the thing about Jordan is that he manages to get that 'perfection' narrative in a way only Bill Russell can match and surpass. It's a bit artificial - "He never lost once he started winning, and then when he started winning again, and let's just ignore Washington" - but frankly it's still enough that I tend to give him the nod for GOAT Peak.

[lethalizer]

I think you need to zoom out to make sure you're not overindexing on only part of the story.

You're saying Jokic specifically has BIG problems in Game 7's, which I'd say means that to anyone reading this without knowledge of Jokic's career, he must have a bad Game 7 record.

But he doesn't. He's 4-3 in Game 7's, which means that since he came into the league, the only other MVP to win as many Game 7's as him is Steph. And that's before you remember that Jokic cut his teeth leading some epic comebacks in playoff series.

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

So I'll give a nod to what someone else specifically said:

While his team was eliminated in Game 7's in two consecutive seasons, it wasn't two Game 7's in a row.

The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Wolves in an upset loss.
The Nuggets won Game 7 against the Clippers in a series the Nuggets were expected to lose (though Game 7 was at home).
The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Thunder in a series they weren't supposed to be close.

This is not the kind of overwhelming trend you're thinking you see, and this relates to why there's not even more hand-wringing about what happened.

Because you're chopping out the stuff before and during the "trend" that makes Jokic look good, what's left makes Jokic look worse than he actually looked to those with a wider view.

Further as you bring up guys from the past, let's note that LeBron & Magic got raked over the coals when they personally seemed to choke as their team got eliminated, which while it was overblown was a statement about actual basketball badness, whereas you're just talking about team performance specifically in series close enough to go 7 games.

We should note that Larry Bird's team made a habit of getting upset in the playoffs way more than Jokic, but this isn't something that everyone talks about when they talk about Bird's legacy. Why? In part, because it was less pinpointed to Bird making specific bad plays.

Re: Jordan. Well, the thing about Jordan is that he manages to get that 'perfection' narrative in a way only Bill Russell can match and surpass. It's a bit artificial - "He never lost once he started winning, and then when he started winning again, and let's just ignore Washington" - but frankly it's still enough that I tend to give him the nod for GOAT Peak.

So the wording on my and should have been better maybe, but what I meant was "exiting the playoffs two years in a row because of game 7 losses".

With regards to Bron, he got chewed to hell and back after 2011, but he did follow up with the 2012 title. Now if he lost the 2012 Finals too or got eliminated before reaching there even, I think the convo would have happened a lot differently, no?

Anyway, I think Jokic is a hell of a playoff performer on his own, and I, myself, don't fault him for his past 2 playoff exits myself. It's interesting that mostly everyone seems to think so, was my point.

[Snake3]

Jokic has the strongest case here and will probably win this one.

Though I have to say, If any star suffered back to back game 7 losses come playoff time, those players' legacy would take a huge hit. Jokic somehow goes unscathed, I genuinely don't know why.

Even if you argued that OKC was favored by a mile last season, the Minnesota game 7 prior to that they were definitely favored to win, yet gave up a huge lead and just... lost.

Just an observation by my end.

I think you need to zoom out to make sure you're not overindexing on only part of the story.

You're saying Jokic specifically has BIG problems in Game 7's, which I'd say means that to anyone reading this without knowledge of Jokic's career, he must have a bad Game 7 record.

But he doesn't. He's 4-3 in Game 7's, which means that since he came into the league, the only other MVP to win as many Game 7's as him is Steph. And that's before you remember that Jokic cut his teeth leading some epic comebacks in playoff series.

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

Larry Bird did have some disappointing losses. He lost in game 7 to the 76ers in 82 with HCA. Then the bucks swept them in 83, despite having HCA too. Ppl said that the Celtics quit on their coach during that series. You could say that Larry Bird wasn't in his prime tho.

Shaq also had some very disappointing losses despite having more talent than his Jazz or the Spurs that swept them in 98 and 99. Shaq was okay, but the rest of the team didn't play good.

In the OKC, the series wasn't expected to go to 7 games. OKC was expected to take them out earlier. It was amazing that the Nuggets even got past the Clippers.

The Wolves series was definitely an upset. Jokic was okay, but not enough to win the series.

And in 2020, the Nuggets upseted the Clippers. But the Nuggets came back from 3-1 twice with the Clippers and the Jazz that year.

There is always context. Ppl would analyze more when it's all said and done when ppl start to do comparisons on whose career is more impressive.

[AleksandarN]

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

So I'll give a nod to what someone else specifically said:

While his team was eliminated in Game 7's in two consecutive seasons, it wasn't two Game 7's in a row.

The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Wolves in an upset loss.
The Nuggets won Game 7 against the Clippers in a series the Nuggets were expected to lose (though Game 7 was at home).
The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Thunder in a series they weren't supposed to be close.

This is not the kind of overwhelming trend you're thinking you see, and this relates to why there's not even more hand-wringing about what happened.

Because you're chopping out the stuff before and during the "trend" that makes Jokic look good, what's left makes Jokic look worse than he actually looked to those with a wider view.

Further as you bring up guys from the past, let's note that LeBron & Magic got raked over the coals when they personally seemed to choke as their team got eliminated, which while it was overblown was a statement about actual basketball badness, whereas you're just talking about team performance specifically in series close enough to go 7 games.

We should note that Larry Bird's team made a habit of getting upset in the playoffs way more than Jokic, but this isn't something that everyone talks about when they talk about Bird's legacy. Why? In part, because it was less pinpointed to Bird making specific bad plays.

Re: Jordan. Well, the thing about Jordan is that he manages to get that 'perfection' narrative in a way only Bill Russell can match and surpass. It's a bit artificial - "He never lost once he started winning, and then when he started winning again, and let's just ignore Washington" - but frankly it's still enough that I tend to give him the nod for GOAT Peak.

So the wording on my and should have been better maybe, but what I meant was "exiting the playoffs two years in a row because of game 7 losses".

With regards to Bron, he got chewed to hell and back after 2011, but he did follow up with the 2012 title. Now if he lost the 2012 Finals too or got eliminated before reaching there even, I think the convo would have happened a lot differently, no?

Anyway, I think Jokic is a hell of a playoff performer on his own, and I, myself, don't fault him for his past 2 playoff exits myself. It's interesting that mostly everyone seems to think so, was my point.

Lebron got chewed out in 2011 because he was on a stacked Heat team. If you compare any of the top 10 guys they had Hofers, All NBA, All NBA defensive players and Allstars on their team. Jokic hasn’t. And the one time Jokic had that type of contribution was when he won the tittle. Since then no one has played at that level for a whole playoff run

[Snake3]

I think Jokic has been the best player in the world for a while now, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm just saying, Jokic is a 3 time MVP. One of the 9 players all time to accomplish said feat.

If someone like Bron, Jordan, Bird or Magic lost two game 7s in consecutive years during their primes, I can't even imagine the convos happening.

The overindexing point I agree with, but that overindexing point gets made for the all time greats. Jokic didn't go through that as far as I could see.

Maybe once his career is done it'll get brought up more, I don't know.

So I'll give a nod to what someone else specifically said:

While his team was eliminated in Game 7's in two consecutive seasons, it wasn't two Game 7's in a row.

The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Wolves in an upset loss.
The Nuggets won Game 7 against the Clippers in a series the Nuggets were expected to lose (though Game 7 was at home).
The Nuggets lost Game 7 against the Thunder in a series they weren't supposed to be close.

This is not the kind of overwhelming trend you're thinking you see, and this relates to why there's not even more hand-wringing about what happened.

Because you're chopping out the stuff before and during the "trend" that makes Jokic look good, what's left makes Jokic look worse than he actually looked to those with a wider view.

Further as you bring up guys from the past, let's note that LeBron & Magic got raked over the coals when they personally seemed to choke as their team got eliminated, which while it was overblown was a statement about actual basketball badness, whereas you're just talking about team performance specifically in series close enough to go 7 games.

We should note that Larry Bird's team made a habit of getting upset in the playoffs way more than Jokic, but this isn't something that everyone talks about when they talk about Bird's legacy. Why? In part, because it was less pinpointed to Bird making specific bad plays.

Re: Jordan. Well, the thing about Jordan is that he manages to get that 'perfection' narrative in a way only Bill Russell can match and surpass. It's a bit artificial - "He never lost once he started winning, and then when he started winning again, and let's just ignore Washington" - but frankly it's still enough that I tend to give him the nod for GOAT Peak.

So the wording on my and should have been better maybe, but what I meant was "exiting the playoffs two years in a row because of game 7 losses".

With regards to Bron, he got chewed to hell and back after 2011, but he did follow up with the 2012 title. Now if he lost the 2012 Finals too or got eliminated before reaching there even, I think the convo would have happened a lot differently, no?

Anyway, I think Jokic is a hell of a playoff performer on his own, and I, myself, don't fault him for his past 2 playoff exits myself. It's interesting that mostly everyone seems to think so, was my point.

That was different.

That was a combination of LeBron joining to form a superteam and LeBron failing to perform when the lights are bright. He got some criticism over the loss in the Celtics series the year prior, and ppl were judging his competitive spirit. And while ppl didn't expect the Heat to get to the finals the first year. Once they got there, ppl expected them to perform. LeBron didn't. And LeBron was being compared to MJ.

LeBron joined a top 3-5 player with D-Wade. Jokic never even had an all-star on his team.

Like if Jokic were to join forces with Luka or Wemby and D.Mitch to form a superteam then ppl would talk about how disappointing it would be if they lose.

[MMyhre]

This makes for some wild reading. I'd find it really hard to justify some other team playing good defense on a guy who gets 27 pts on 72.9 ts %, 12 reb, 11 ast

"Great guys! We stopped him"

It just really shows some people will just never be satisfied if a player isn't perfect/optimally efficient.

You always leave out the turnovers bit to make it look better for yourself, don't you? Can you see defense from the stats as well? But you can't make the same Jokic simp posts like everyone else if you point out the bad things, so lets always include the cool stats. 27 points is not a crazy amount of points. If Jokic scores only 27 against OKC they will likely lose. If Jokic scores 27 pts and Edwards doesn't go 0-8 from three and play like the worst player out there, they likely lose.

This was Jokic's worst game since opening night, he still had a triple double in a road win, and you're acting like he's been exposed as a fraud.

Give me a break.

Where am I acting like anything? I must say you must be truly insufferable in real life, you twist things so that you can point out stuff that hasn't been stated.

Is 27 pts a lot of points? No.
Is 5 turnovers a lot? Yes.
Was his defense good? Hell no.

That's three things I point out that indeed, made him come down to earth/seem more human against tougher opposition. Just because I am observing a drop in performance, does not mean that I think he sucks.

Stop putting words in my mouth, there is no "acting like he sucks/pretending like he is exposed as a fraud in my post".

Don't try to put down people that say something that goes against your own biased view of how things are. You could go watch the game yourself and have some deeper analysis than "Joker good" instead of trying to fish for likes. There is nothing worse than a man that only sees the surface of something, yet wants to voice such a strong opinion on a subject/try to put others down. Barber shop/Box score expert.

Who cares about a triple double by the way? As if that just takes away everything I pointed out, someone who, unlike you, actually watched the game? I'd take 20 pts 9 assists/1 turnover and 9 rebounds with great defense over that "incredible" triple double achievement that you seem to think automatically discredits any negative observations of a basketball performance. I'd also take 3 steals & 3 blocks over 10 uncontested defensive rebounds and 10 basic passes into the post that a good postup player scores on and does all the work on. Context matters in evaluation of performance, but of course a box score brother like yourself does not care about that.

[bbms]

shai already own the record of fewest turnovers by a 30ppg scorer in a season. in 2024 he scored 30ppg on 2.2 topg.

in 2025-26 he's on pace to shatter that record with 32 ppg and 1.8 topg.

1 - '24 shai 30 ppg, 2.2 topg
2 - '96 jordan 30 ppg, 2.4 topg
3 - '25 shai 32 ppg, 2.4 topg

along with shai there's markkanen also shattering that record with 30 ppg and 1.4 topg which just further tell how ridiculous what shai's doing is. 81% of shai's fgm are unassisted while only 16% of makkanen's fgm are unassisted.

[MMyhre]

shai already own the record of fewest turnovers by a 30ppg scorer in a season. in 2024 he scored 30ppg on 2.2 topg.

in 2025-26 he's on pace to shatter that record with 32 ppg and 1.6 topg.

1 - '24 shai 30 ppg, 2.2 topg
2 - '96 jordan 30 ppg, 2.4 topg
3 - '25 shai 32 ppg, 2.4 topg

along with shai there's markkanen also shattering that record with 30 ppg and 1.4 topg which just further tell how ridiculous what shai's doing is. 81% of shai's fgm are unassisted while only 16% of makkanen's fgm are assisted.

This is a lot more impressive than getting a triple double, but the average guy in here will not understand this value, at all. Imagine playing against all the tenacious defenders, athletes and schemes in the NBA, and just turning it over 1.4 times a game so far as the obvious main offensive guy?