It appears Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is headed towards another MVP award, but the debate over naming the Serbian big man the best player in the league rages on.
Over on First Things First on FS1, there was a discussion not about the MVP award, but The Ringer ranking Jokic the number one player in the league ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Steph Curry and Luka Doncic. Chris Broussard told Nick Wright he’s not trying to take anything away from Jokic, but the problem with decisions like ranking Jokic at the top or voting him as the MVP is that voters are only looking at one thing.
“There are a lot of people in the media and a lot of people in front offices in the NBA who can’t look at a game, watch players and say who can and can’t hoop,” Broussard said. “They’re strictly on numbers.”
“They look at the numbers which somehow defensively say that Jokic is a good defender,” he added.
Chris went on to say that Embiid, Giannis and even Kevin Durant to an extent are better players defensively than Jokic. He added that looking strictly at analytics and statistics don’t get to the result you’re ultimately looking for.
“The numbers are a part of the equation,” he said. “They’re not the whole equation, and this vote is based on people that just calculate the numbers and don’t really know what they’re looking at on the court.”
