To Put It Simply, Nikola Jokic Is Currently Having One Of The Best Seasons The NBA Has Ever Seen

AAron Ontiveroz. Getty Images.

Our first look of professional basketball came all the way back in 1946 with the BAA. When the BAA (Basketball Association of America) and the NBL (National Basketball League) joined forces, they became the "NBA" in 1949. The NBA and the ABA merged in 1976, but for the most part, things started in the 40s. Whether you want to choose 1946 or 1949, whatever. You get the point.

In 2025, now 75+ years later, we are currently watching one of the greatest individual seasons in the history of the league. I know, that sounds hyperbolic and like I'm just being a prisoner of the moment, but I promise you that's not the case. 

On the season, Nikola Jokic is currently averaging 30.2/13.4/10.1 on 56/47% (!!!!) splits with 2.1 3PM. If you dig a little deeper, you see that actually his 3P% is even higher when you subtract the heaves

Granted, sometimes he makes them like he did last night with this ridiculous heave

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but the point is, we've never seen anything like this from any player let alone a goddamn center. At the moment, Jokic is currently top 3 in the NBA in points, rebound, and assists. How rare is that?

A total of 0 players in the NBA have done that since 1969-70. For those not great at math, that's 55 years. None of us were alive since the last time someone pulled this off (no offense to any olds reading this blog). The fact that this is all basically the norm for Jokic at this stage of his career is legitimately insane. 

The reason I find this so interesting is of course, the MVP race. As of January 24th, things have boiled down to this thing being a 2 horse race between Jokic and SGA. There's a gap between them and any other candidate you'd like to name. I'd go so far as to say in pretty much any other NBA season, the year SGA is having combined with his team record/context around their season would pretty much be a lock to win the MVP. Over 30 a game with a 64% TS%, checks every advanced metric box, his case is about as solid as you can get.

But now that the Nuggets are starting to win and are just 1.5 games (2 losses) back of a top 2 seed and Jokic is dealing with arguably worse depth compared to OKC and similar key injuries to important players all in addition to having one of the greatest individual seasons in the history of the NBA, how does that guy not win the MVP?

I get it, he's won 3 already. My question is, so what? Is voter fatigue really what is going to be the deciding factor? The desire to crown a new MVP who is also deserving, but isn't having quite as good a season? Does it depend on which narrative we now care about? Will it suddenly be the best player on the best team as the deciding factor, when that certainly wasn't the way things were voted in the last few seasons? 

This certainly isn't the first time we've seen something like this when it comes to Jokic doing something insane which ends up trumping another guy having his own incredible season. Just ask Joel Embiid. I just don't know how you can look at Jokic's production, the team's success, and the context around their season, and then come to the conclusion we're not only watching the MVP, but we're watching one of the greatest players to ever play.

Is it unfortunate that it's coming at a time when SGA has also been historic in his own right? Sure, if you're an OKC fan. He's putting up arguably one of if not the best guard seasons in NBA history. That's a fact, not opinion. But then again, if SGA was putting up 30/22/17 in 3 quarters and was top 3 in points, rebounds and assists, people would rightfully declare that we were watching the MVP. So why shouldn't that be the case for Jokic?

Here's the fun part. So far OKC/DEN have split their season series 1-1, and I think nit's fair to say SGA has won the individual matchup. These two teams play each other on a B2B (both games in OKC) on March 9-10th. There's a strong chance that if these two teams continue their winning trends to that date, those games will most likely decide the MVP (if both play). Add in any potential seeding implications that might come with it, and that's going to be must watch TV.

But please, do yourself a favor and tune into Nuggets games. Watch Jokic. Appreciate the fact that we're seeing a potential top 10 all time player who is currently doing something the NBA hasn't seen in 50+ years while having an all time season. I'm not sure it gets much better than that.