This NBA season was one of the best in league history, with a number of different stars like Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets establishing themselves as cornerstones for many years to come.
Jokic was the NBA MVP of the 2020-21 season, and he followed it up with arguably a better season this year, averaging 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists while shooting 58.3 percent from the field.
Despite being without his costars Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. for a majority of the season, Jokic was able to lead the Nuggets to a 48-34 record, good for sixth in the Western Conference.
Jokic’s outstanding season was enough to again be one of the finalists for MVP along with Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.
While Antetokounmpo and Embiid both had incredible seasons in their own right, it is Jokic again who will be winning the 2021-22 NBA MVP award, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been voted the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second consecutive season, sources tell ESPN. A formal announcement is expected this week.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 9, 2022
Jokic becomes the first second-round draft pick to win back-to-back MVPs and follows up Antetokounmpo, who also won it in back-to-back fashion in 2019 and 2020.
As far as other regular-season awards that have been handed out over the last couple of weeks, Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics won Defensive Player of the Year, Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat won Sixth Man of the Year, Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies won Most Improved Player and Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors won Rookie of the Year.
Coach of the Year still to go
With Jokic taking home MVP, there is only one more award left to hand out and that’s Coach of the Year.
The finalists are Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns, Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies and Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat.
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