"He should have been a four-time MVP" - Serbian coach believes Nikola Jokic should have won best player award in 2023
Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic nearly became the fourth player in NBA history to record three consecutive MVP awards during the 2022-23 season. After going back-to-back as NBA MVP during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, Joel Embiid won the 2022-23 NBA MVP award.
Although Nikola Jokic won last season's award, his third in four years, Serbian basketball coach Igor Kokoskov believes Jokic should have been a four-time MVP by now.
Both Jokic and Kokoskov took part in the highly-anticipated Night of the Dragon event over the weekend, which served as NBA veteran Goran Dragic's farewell to the basketball community.
After the event, Kokoskov spoke with Meridian Sport about the historic farewell game, which saw a number of high-profile NBA stars, both past and present, compete. At one point during the interview, the 2017 EuroBasket gold medal winning coach spoke about Serbian athletes such as Jokic and Novak Djokovic.
As he explained, he believes Nikola Jokic should have already won a fourth MVP award:
"He has not finished his career yet. He should have been a four-time MVP, but he was not. Maybe he will be next season. It is versatility that is always the most useful. What will Jokic do in the next 13 years? It will be an impressive career, after which we can say that he can be among the greatest of all time.”
Looking at Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid's stats for the 2022-23 NBA season; should Jokic have won MVP?
Given Kokoskov's comments, let's take a look at the stats of both Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid from the 2022-23 season. Embiid played in a total of 66 regular-season games, during which he led the league in scoring for the second time with 33.1 points per game.
On the flip side, Nikola Jokic played in 69 games for the Denver Nuggets, the fewest of his career, while averaging 24.5 points. While Embiid was unquestionably the more productive scorer of the two, he averaged 10.2 rebounds per game, where as Jokic averaged 11.8.
In addition, Jokic also recorded a career-high 9.8 assists per game, up from 7.9 apg the year prior. On the flip side, Joel Embiid averaged just 4.2 assists per game.
On the defensive end, Embiid posted a 1.0 steals per game average to go along with a 1.7 blocks per game average, while Jokic logged 1.3 spg and .7 bpg.
When looking at the team success of both players, Jokic was able to lead the Nuggets to a 53-29 record that saw them finish the regular season as the top team in the West.
In the Eastern Conference, Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers finished the regular season with a 54-28 record, ending the year ranked third in the East.
Although Jokic was able to capture his third MVP last season, it's clear the 2022-23 NBA MVP award is still a hot topic for debate and Joel Embiid was arguably the deserving winner.