The Nuggets All-Star is Cruising to the MVP Title.

We all know by now that Nikola Jokic is uninterested in winning the MVP award. He’s made that plain, even while national pundits and his peers have been attempting to drag him into the debate for the past few years. That hasn’t stopped him from once again running away with the MVP award.

Despite fears about complacency after a championship run, Nikola Jokic has started up right where he left off to start the season, proving once and for all who the finest basketball player in the world is. He hasn’t missed a beat, and he hasn’t missed a game either. He is averaging 29.7 points, 14.1 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 1 steal, and 0.8 blocks in 12 games while shooting 57.3% from the field.

Even though Jokic’s usage has grown, his efficiency has not decreased.

Jokic is having another fantastic high-efficiency, high-volume scoring season. Despite missing 30% of his three-point attempts, he has a True Shooting percentage of 64.9. This degree of efficiency is enhanced by the fact that he has a career-high usage rate. Jokic’s use increased in part due to the absence of Jamal Murray, who has already missed four games this season. Despite this, the increased number of field goal attempts did not result in a significant decline in efficiency. Not only is he among the top five in use rate, but he is also among the top five in points, rebounds, and assists per game. That is unrivaled all-around offensive dominance.

Despite losing some depth in the offseason and its second-best player to injury, the Denver Nuggets are performing well night after night. They are 9-3 on the year and rank in the top ten in both offensive and defensive ratings. Nikola Jokic deserves a large portion of the credit.

Jokic has led the league in all on/off categories this season after topping the league in all on/off metrics previous season. With him on the floor, the Nuggets are 30.2 points per 100 possessions better than without him. Denver has an all-time dominant net rating of +13.4 while Jokic is on the court. (However, they are still trailing the highly powerful Boston Celtics this season).

If Jokic is named MVP this season, he will join an elite group of players.

Obviously, it’s still early in the season. Many of these figures are susceptible to change as the sample size grows larger. But we’ve seen this game before. Jokic’s on-court influence is uncannily comparable to what he has done in recent years. When Murray returns and his three-point shooting starts dropping, his efficiency should improve.

In this MVP contest, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will undoubtedly be heard from. Nonetheless, Jokic has a proven track record of being the league’s greatest regular-season player for the past three seasons. If he remains healthy throughout the season, it will be his to lose. He was controversially passed over for MVP last season, but he is on track to become the seventh player in history to win three MVPs in four seasons.