The 2020-21 NBA season ended with the Milwaukee Bucks lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy into the air, but before they did so, Nikola Jokic was named the league-MVP. The Serbian big man became the first Denver Nuggets player to ever win the award and the lowest drafted player to ever win the league-MVP award, as he was drafted 41st overall in 2014. 

Last season, Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.3 assists and shot 56.6% from the floor, 38.8% from three-point range, but the most impressive stat from last season was the fact that he played in all 72 regular season games. 

Jokic wound up winning the award over the likes of Joel Emibid and Stephen Curry by a very wide margin, as the Nuggets’ big man received 91 of the first-place votes. The interesting thing about Jokic winning the award though was the fact that the Nuggets finished as the 3rd best team in the Western Conference and the 5th best team in the league record-wise. 

With Nikola Jokic winning the MVP award last season with the Nuggets, who were not the best team in the league, 12 of the last 20 MVP award recipients were members of the team that had the best record in the league during the NBA regular season.

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Jokic also finished last season with the highest Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in the league, making 11 of the last 13 winners of the league-MVP award the player who ranked first in PER at the end of the year. 

The 2021-22 NBA season is right around the corner and as a result, it is time to take a look at who could be the early top candidates to win next season’s MVP award.