Jokić still elite
Despite a February dip in form, Nikola Jokić continues to be praised as the league’s top player after another 50+ win season for his team, with analysts pointing to his overall impact beyond short stretches of inconsistency. (x.com) The praise circulated on social feeds as context for offseason discussions about MVP-level production and roster construction. (x.com)
Nikola Jokić closed the regular season with another near triple-double average, and Denver finished with 54 wins despite a rough February. (espn.com) (basketball-reference.com) Through 64 games, Jokić averaged 27.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.9 assists while shooting 56.9 percent from the field. Basketball-Reference lists his player efficiency rating at 32.2, the top all-around rate stat on that page. (basketball-reference.com) Denver went 54-28 and finished second in the Western Conference standings behind Oklahoma City at 64-18. The Nuggets also led the National Basketball Association in offensive rating at 122.5 points per 100 possessions, according to Basketball-Reference. (espn.com) (basketball-reference.com) The dip that fed some of the criticism came in February, when Jokić shot 46.6 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from 3-point range across 11 regular-season games. Denver went 4-7 in those games before finishing the season on a 12-game winning streak. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) That slump did not knock him out of the season-long Most Valuable Player conversation. National Basketball Association.com’s April 3 Kia Most Valuable Player Ladder said Jokić had clinched a second straight triple-double season and still had a case for the award. (nba.com) The weekly ladder shows how steady that case remained. Jokić ranked first in Weeks 4 through 12, then stayed in the top four the rest of the season before landing third in Week 24 behind Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. (nba.com) The team context changed around him, too. Denver’s 2025-26 season was the franchise’s first without Michael Malone as head coach since 2014-15, and Basketball-Reference lists David Adelman as the coach for this 54-28 finish. (wikipedia.org) (basketball-reference.com) The late-season box scores looked like Jokić’s usual standard more than his February lull. In his last five listed games before the finale, he posted lines of 25-15-8, 15-17-12, 40-8-13, 35-14-13 and 14-16-10. (basketball-reference.com) That is why the offseason argument around Jokić starts from a familiar place: Denver still has a center who can carry an elite offense, pile up triple-doubles and keep his team above 50 wins. (basketball-reference.com 1) (basketball-reference.com 2)
