BigGargamel wrote:Now Aaron Gordon is out for multiple weeks. Jokic about to carry an entire franchise on his shoulders once again.

this season for Jokic is gonna turn out very similar to 2022, imo, but with an opposite result
thus far the Nuggets only beat bad teams, got demolished by OKC at home in the opener and lost to the Wolves while barely beating the likes of Raps\Nets etc. without Murray and AG they will obviously fare even poorer than that, the most they can hope for is something like 44-48 wins (48 is pretty generous tbh if Murray isn't himself all season). they weren't that good to begin with and their bench\depth is awful. having Murray hobbled or out half the season and losing AG now too for a couple of weeks...there's no way they can string together enough wins. they're going to get demolished again tonight by OKC and they'll be lucky to be over 0.500 when Novemeber ends
Jokic will be (again) the most productive, impactful and best player in the league but he's not gonna get another MVP from a 6th seed, not when u have legit superstars who are on teams with 10-15 more wins
since they'd have to lean heavily on Jokic, his stats (raw and advanced) will be off the charts, as in - way better than his competitors and in my book that should be the criteria - which players added the most wins to his team. the answer to that question will be Jokic but since that's not how most ppl (and voters) define "MVP" - this is the year someone else gets it
whomever will be the healthiest has the most chance of achieving that, last time around the only "best player best team" guys like Luka (and Booker\CP3 that year) played considerably less games and had less individual wins than Jokic that probably won't be the case this year. if SGA, Luka or whomever else would step up and dominate and reach 70-72 games played would be a first time MVP
smart money's on SGA as the Thunder are almost a lock to have the best record out west, SGA isn't particularly injury prone and the general narrative doesn't factor enough the amount of "help" he's getting
also, quite a few voters felt he deserved it last year due to seeding, so it'd be natural to give him this one
obviously alot can still happen but with Joe L out of the race (he won't even attempt to reach 65 games this year), the Bucks in the muck and Tatum rightfully percieved as being a tier below - this should be SGA's year