Why Nikola Jokic is my MVP: A Historic Season

A breakdown of the historical impact that Jokic is having season, and why it should result in another MVP Award.

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The game of Basketball has been my passion since I was 5 years old. I grew up as a kid watching my dad's recorded VHS tapes of playoff games through the 70s and 80s, and collected all the Basketball cards. Something about the game and what it represents just hooked me from a very young age.
My love for the game only continues to grow as time goes on. I love studying and analyzing the game, with an unbiased perspective. Feel free to subscribe, follow me on social media, and celebrate this amazing game and it's rich history with me!
I post videos every week on NBA history, predictions, hypothetical scenarios and current NBA topics.

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#NBA #NikolaJokic #MVP

[jonnyarnett]

Who's your MVP?

NOTE: Jokic played a couple games since I recorded the audio, which is why some of the stats are updated on the screen. Amazingly, he even improved them in the last couple games. The guy is insane.

[chuco]

Can we acknowledge that Jokic is not just the greatest passing big of all time, but one of the greatest passers in general of all time?

[GrandRand]

Even scarier are his advanced stats. He leads the league in WS, Offensive WS, WS/48, OBPM, DBPM, BPM, VORP, RAPTOR WAR, Offensive RAPTOR, and total RAPTOR to go along with the highest PER in history.

He’s second in DWS, second in Defensive RAPTOR, fourth in TS% (the top 3 average 10+ less PPG than him), fourth in assist%, 2nd in DRB%, 3rd in TRB%, has 3 game winning blocks, and has only missed 7 games all year.

[MikeTheNBAGuy]

Dude is having a borderline goat-tier season and it's going tragically under-the-radar because of his team's seeding

[catherinelynnfraser]

Jokic is playing with mind boggling efficiency and old school IQ. I am most impressed at how much his defence has improved alongside his great offensive aplomb. He deserves the nod this year.

[Tre]

He definitely deserves it this year. Carrying that injury-riddled team and placing trust in his teammates by facilitating is the most impressive narrative this year in my opinion.

[Alexeiyeah]

My favorite player today (not that it matters).
One thing that numbers never show is the assist's difficulty, since the statics count both just passing to an open guy in front of you and a neddle treader that crosses the paint to a 3 point line. I am not comparing him to anyone, but Jokic does really difficult passes, which shows not only vision, but a consistent display of abilities. Of course, he also has easy and normal assists in his averages, but there are an absurd ammount of smart and high-difficulty in execution assists on his resumé. This is the aspect that attracts me to him as a player, not the points or his dominating body which tends to push defenders around. To me, he is one of the best passers in NBA's history.

[racimegacar]

Jokic is having mind-blowing season where his second-best player is frinkin Burton, how crazy is that.

[christophergooding]

I love Jokic and think him or Giannis are well deserving but I want to give some love to how unique Giannis is as a player. He's the only power forward to average 25-11-6 in a season and he's been been averaging 27-11-6 for 4 years straight. This kind of scoring and playmaking simultaneously from his position is unprecedented.

[nuNb]

Jokic is my MVP it's incredible that he brings that team to the 6th seed maybe even 5th

[sammysam]

This year's race is one of the most exciting to watch and IMO, whether Joker, Giannis, or Embiid wins it, I wouldn't be upset either way.

[sixforsix]

Love your videos Jonny, as great as always

[scottwinn]

I’d give so much to see him and Luka on the same team

[therocknrollmillennial]

As a Bucks fan who is witnessing the best player in my team's history consistently put up great numbers, the MVP award this season goes to Jokic, no question. Give me 50 chances to vote, and I will vote for Jokic 49 times (gotta vote for my guy at least once).

Edit to comment on two other things: (1) I think the MVP should go to the player whose absence would affect his team the most in a negative way, not just the best player on a great team, and (2) watching the video, and seeing Jokic's passing, I really wonder what Aryvdas Sabonis could've done in the NBA if he'd been given a full career here. Joker's passing reminds me a lot of Sabonis'.

[maxwellscialabba]

I think it's shaping up to be a two man race between Jokic and Giannis, with all respect to Embiid who is having a fantastic season. What's crazy to me is that not only does Jokic have the highest PER of all time this season, but Giannis has the second at 32.5. He's also higheer than his 2020 MVP season, which is largely uncontested, in most advanced stats (PER, TS%, WS, WS/48, OBPM, and VORP) both with 63 games played. To me, Jokic is still the winner because of his availability (which is always unfortunate) and his team record relative to his teammates. Even so, Giannis's season if he doesn't win will still go down as one of the best non-MVP seasons of all time.

[hariahari]

You also forgot to say how good he has been defensly this season as many people say that the main reason why he shouldnt win MVP is becouse of his defensebut its acctualy pretty good thus year

[emilioreyes]

Even before Jokić, Wilt wasn't the best big passer ever, that was Bill Walton 🙌

[hristijandimitrovski]

Thank God that someone made video like this. I've been waiting soo much any youtuber to make video about Jokic amd thank God, Jonny Arnett did it just in right time😁 thank you. Everything you said in this video, I've been saying 1000 and 1000 times before and it is ridiculous how nobody from the media amd even huge part of NBA fans doesn't notice what actually we're witnessing this year from Nikola Jokic. For me, the most complete season of all time.

[jgray]

I wasn't aware that people were seriously debating who the best passing big of all time is. It's clearly Jokic. Wilt (and Walton) have some claims to it, or rather they did. They were excellent passers, particularly out of the double team, but Jokic manipulates the defense as well as anyone ever; his no-look over the head passes, touch passes, cross court skip passes, and full court outlets are some of the best of all time regardless of position. Jokic's competition isn't Wilt or Walton, it's Magic, Kidd, and Stockton.

[rad_ram]

We appreciate you updating his stats in-between recording, editing and releasing the video but if it's not a massive difference you could just leave it at what you said in the recording. We watch you because we like your voice and commentaries on players not to check stats, so you don't need to add that extra work! <3