(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
With the 2022-23 NBA regular season coming to a close, the attention turns to the matchups in the upcoming NBA playoffs and the regular-season awards, namely NBA MVP.
It has been a two-man race for the MVP award in the NBA this season, with the consensus being that either Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets will win his third straight or Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid will win his first.
Currently, the scales appear to be tilting toward Embiid winning the regular-season award, but Jokic is still getting some buzz, and Chris Broussard of Fox Sports thinks he knows why that may be the case:
“The numbers are a part of the equation, they are not the whole equation.”
— @Chris_Broussard on Jokić being ranked No. 1 of the Top 125 NBA Players: pic.twitter.com/dMWNh795DA
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) April 7, 2023
Ever since the three-point era began, the NBA has become a league dominated by statistics and analytics, with some teams falling in love with numbers to sway their decisions.
Broussard is right on the money when talking about how people in the league judge talent now, as it is more about the stat sheet than what’s actually seen on the floor and how players impact winning.
Jokic may be the perfect example of this shift in the NBA, as he packs the stat sheet on a nightly basis for the Nuggets, with the big man currently averaging nearly a triple-double 24.8 points, 11.9 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game.
Embiid, however, impacts the game on the defensive side of the basketball floor, which is not something that can be said about Jokic.
The 76ers center is always in the running for NBA Defensive Player of the Year due to his presence on that end of the floor and that may be what gets him over the top this year.
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