Thursday discussion: Should Nikola Jokić or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander win NBA MVP?

After a day off, the Golden State Warriors are back in action tonight, but the off day gave me some time to reflect on one of the most fascinating questions in the NBA this year: who should win MVP?

It’s hard to remember a year where it was such an intense two-player race, but that’s the excitement we have this year. In one corner, three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, the do-everything center of the Denver Nuggets who does things on a nightly basis that we’ve never seen before. In the other corner, slithery and creative point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the leader of a shockingly-dominant Oklahoma City Thunder squad.

Both players have stats befitting an MVP, and then some. Jokić, who won the award last year, finished runner-up the year before, and won the two years prior, is in line to average a triple-double, with 29.1 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 10.3 assists per game, all while shooting 41.3% from three-point range. For context, he’s top-three in the NBA in points, rebounds, and assists, which is truly unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Not to be outdone, SGA — last year’s runner-up to Jokić — leads the league with 33.0 points per game, while also adding 5.0 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, and anchoring a team that is top-five offensively and defensively.

In basic stats, Jokić comes out on top, but Gilgeous-Alexander has the edge with some old-school factors: while the Nuggets are firmly in the playoff picture in the West, SGA’s Thunder squad has ran off with the conference: OKC is a

whopping 12.5 games ahead of the next-best team in the West, and 13.5 games ahead of Denver. And on top of that, Gilgeous-Alexander has missed just three games this year, while Jokić has missed eight (and perhaps counting, as he’s sat the last few contests).

It’s a close enough contest that we might just have to wait and see how the next few weeks shake out before making a decision.