The Nikola Jokic – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander MVP race is reaching its business end with both players having proven their case to win the award.
OKC Thunder and Denver Nuggets both sit first and second seed in the West, which further makes this an interesting race to watch.
SGA is averaging 32-5-6 splits, all while shooting 52.5% from the field and 37 % from three point range.
Meanwhile, his counterpart Jokic is averaging a triple-double for a season with 29-12-10 splits.
Statistically, both the players have done enough to earn MVP honours, but historically only one player has lifted the story and the case is expected to be the same this season as well.
However, Draymond Green shared an interesting solution which could solve the MVP conundrum the league faces with Jokic and SGA.
Green believes choosing one of the two players for the MVP award would not be fair as both have had historic seasons.
Speaking on ‘Draymond Green show with Baron Davis,’ he said: “If Joker was having this year and had never won MVP, he undoubtedly be MVP.
“But because people grown accustomed to him averaging those type numbers, you kind of get a bump down from that, in saying that when you look at who’s won MVP over the years, I think it’s also very hard to deny Shai and that’s where I think the voting system becomes a problem because the reality is it’s so opinionated.”
Green believes a better system in place with a committee could solve the current problem with the MVP voting system.
“The reality is if you had a small committee, they’d probably make them co-MVP’s.
“I usually like to take a hard stance, but I’ll say on this one man, I wish there was a committee and the voting is different because these guys would be co-MVPs because it’s hard to say one of them deserve it over the other one,” added Green.
Jokic is coming into the current MVP race as a three-time winner, while it is the first time for SGA being this close to the honour.
Both the players went up against each other in two consecutive games recently and it is safe to say, the scores were 1-1.
It only showed how difficult it is to pick an MVP winner between the two, which is why Green’s opinion doesn’t seem all that crazy.
Jokic has been part of the MVP race for almost four years now and his rival in almost all those years was Joel Embiid.
Health always contained what Embiid could do to seal the trophy, but SGA has stayed fit and is leading his young side to number one seed in the Western Conference.
It seems likely that only one of them will win, but whoever does would have done enough to earn the prestigious honour.
