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Yesterday a story came out saying that Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets will be named the NBA MVP. Now this has yet to be confirmed by the NBA, but there’s no real reason to believe that it isn’t true. This will be the second year in a row that Jokic has won the MVP award, but I think this year unlike last year the voters got it wrong.

There’s no doubt that Jokic should’ve been in the MVP conversation, he just shouldn’t have won it. Jokic averaged 27.1 points per game, 13.8 rebounds per game and 7.9 assists per game while playing in 74 games for the Nuggets this past regular season. Those are definitely MVP type numbers, but there’s more to be an MVP than just filling in the stats line on a box score.

The Nuggets where 48-34 and finished in 2nd place in the Northwest division of the Western conference. Denver had the 7th best record in the Western conference, so they just missed being part of the NBA’s play-in tournament with an MVP on their team. Isn’t an MVP a player who can lift his team?

I’m not going to say that Jokic was a bad choice, all I’m going to say is that he wasn’t the right choice this season and that has nothing to do with Denver’s early playoff exit as this is a regular season award.

So, if Jokic isn’t the MVP, well then who is? If I had a vote it would’ve went to Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Embiid averaged 30.6 points per game, 11.7 rebounds per game and 4.2 assists per while playing in 68 games for Philadelphia this season. Embiid posted a career high in points per game this season and was the NBA’s leading scorer.

Embiid’s numbers are very similar to Jokic’s even though I think they’re a little better, but there’s another thing that separates these two players for me. Embiid was able to keep the 76ers in contention for the #1 seed in the Eastern conference even though all of the Ben Simmons drama. Now Philadelphia ended up as the 4th seed in the Eastern conference there 51-31 record was just as good as the 2nd seeded Boston Celtics and the 3rd seeded Milwaukee Bucks Philadelphia also finished just two games behind, he #1 seeded Miami Heat while the Nuggets ended up 14 games behind the Western conferences #1 seed the Phoenix Suns.

You would think that someone who helped his team through and accomplish what Embiid did would’ve received more consideration for MVP, but it doesn’t look like he did, and you have to wonder why. It appears as though Embiid isn’t well liked by the MVP voters, and you have to figure that really hurt his chances to win the MVP award because he was clearly the best player in the league this season.

Jokic and Embiid weren’t the only two players who could possibly lay a claim to the MVP award and I’ll be interested to see how the voting went when the award is announced.

Devin Booker was the best player on the best team during the regular season. I’ll be interested to see where the Suns guard finished in the MVP voting. Ja Morant had a breakout season for the Memphis Grizzlies and while he did win Most Improved Player, he should’ve still garnered some MVP votes. DeMar DeRozan had the best year of his career, and the Chicago Bulls probably wouldn’t have been a playoff team without him. That should get him some consideration for MVP.

There are three players who deserve to receive some votes for MVP and I’m sure you have some other players who should’ve been considered, so let me hear them. I’d also like to know who you think should’ve won the MVP award for this season.