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The 2025 NBA Most Valuable Player race will come down, once again, to Nikola Jokić and a historically dominant scorer. We saw this same story with Jokić and Joel Embiid for years. Now, for the second straight season, it's Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander challenging the long-held crown of the Denver Nuggets' playmaking behemoth.
Jokić is on a historic arc for the Nuggets. He has three MVP awards under his belt and ought to compete for the award several more times before his prime fades. He's a champion, a Hall of Fame lock, and before long, he will be widely proclaimed as a top-10 player of all time. That is not hyperbole. It's not me getting caught up in the moment. That is where Jokić's numbers and accolades will put him.
Meanwhile, SGA has enjoyed his best individual season to date, which happened to coincide with 68 wins for a historically dominant Thunder squad. OKC boasts the largest per-game point differential (plus-12.9) the NBA has ever seen, eclipsing the 1971-72 Lakers. The Thunder are the seventh team in the vast expanse of league history to win 68 games. Five of 'em won the title. Six went to the NBA Finals. There is something truly special about this OKC team.
So, has Gilgeous-Alexander surpassed Jokić? Is there finally a debate atop the league's hierarchy? I am on the record stating that Gilgeous-Alexander has earned MVP honors in 2025, but it's still too soon to proclaim him as the best player in the league, point blank.
That is why Jokić still sits No. 1 on FanSided's NBA99.
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Why Nikola Jokić still sits No. 1 over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in FanSided's NBA99
If Gilgeous-Alexander has been "better" this season, why isn't he No. 1 over Jokić?
Well, firstly, "better" probably isn't the right word. This is the closest to a coin flip we've seen in the MVP race in ages. Maybe ever. This is coming from a staunch advocate for James Harden over Russell Westbrook in 2017 and Jokić over Embiid in 2023.
This is the first time in five years, frankly, that the idea of not putting Jokić atop my MVP ballot has withstood months of mental deliberation. Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder are a juggernaut, and it still feels like the majority of NBA folks are struggling to comprehend just how singular that team (and even SGA individually) is.
We aren't ranking based on our MVP picks, though. We are ranking the best overall players in the league. That debate merits context from beyond this season. Jokić has, bar none, outperformed all his peers for half a decade. He has been operating at this level for much longer than Gilgeous-Alexander, which counts for something. We've seen him mount a deep playoffs run. We've seen him in a variety of contexts. Even as Denver's roster warps and comes apart, Jokić's production never wavers. His ability to elevate teammates never wavers.
The main reason SGA is my MVP this season is Jokić's defense, which has never been worse. It's no coincidence that it coincides with arguably his best offensive campaign to date. Jokić stuffed the stat sheet, joining Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook as the only players in league history to average a triple-double. It's hard to scoff at 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.2 assists on 66.3 percent true shooting.
Carrying the largest offensive burden of his career, and surrounded by easily the worst defensive supporting cast of Jokić's prime, his well-documented warts on that side of the floor are glaringly apparent. Jokić has never been a lockdown defender. He was never as bad as his critics would have you believe in past MVP campaigns, but the effort level and general sharpness weren't there this season. It's not because he's getting old. He hasn't lost a step. Jokić's energies are simply being channeled elsewhere.
Still, when push comes to shove, he can clearly lock in and step up. We've seen it in the early stages of this Clippers series. Jokić is a savvy defensive quarterback whose IQ synergizes the unit around him. If Denver can put a better roster around Jokić next season, and perhaps hire a coach with sway in the locker room, odds are the general profile of Jokić's defense will improve. His worst struggles this season are circumstantial more than anything else.
And, for as great as Gilgeous-Alexander has been on both ends of the floor for OKC, this is still a league ruled by offense. And Jokić is the best offensive player in basketball by a healthy margin, even with Gilgeous-Alexander putting up numbers reminiscent of prime Michael Jordan.
SGA put up 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game this season on 63.7 percent true shooting. He also averaged 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks, and 3.0 deflections. Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP frontrunner and he should also get All-Defense votes, having contributed at a high level to the best defense in recent memory. It's hard to overstate the magnitude of carrying the workload Gilgeous-Alexander does offensively without letting it derail one's defensive impact. Very few can do it.
That said, Jokić is still as good, maybe even better, as a scorer at the end of the day. Jokić has never put up the raw numbers the SGAs and Embiids of the world can, but he's scoring with better efficiency, with a clear-cut focus on elevating teammates. Gilgeous-Alexander stepped into primary playmaking duties full-stop this season, but he's still not reading the floor and passing teammates open like Jokić. While Jokić can exploit defensive miscues in real time, SGA is a more manufactured passer. He's applying constant rim pressure and using his scoring gravity to open up simple dump-offs and kick-outs.
We are splitting hairs, of course. Gilgeous-Alexander is on a Hall of Fame arc. He's a special, special player, and it's an uncommon feat just to be considered for MVP during this unprecedented reign of dominance from Jokić.
When rubber meets the road, however, you still want Jokić as the foundation of your team — the star around which four other entities must orbit. SGA gets it done on both ends, but there isn't a single player who touches as many aspects of the game as consistently as Jokić does. Until SGA can reach the mountaintop and run off a few more MVP-level campaigns, it will be difficult to dethrone an established tank like Jokić.