Donovan Mitchell Talks MVP, Praising Joel Embiid & Nikola Jokic

Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell hopes to one day win the NBA’s MVP award. Although Mitchell’s having an outstanding season during his first year with the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, he doesn’t believe he’s near the top of the MVP ladder.

In Mitchell’s opinion, two-time MVP Nikola Jokic should be on the path to winning his third-straight MVP nod.

“I can’t lie; I don’t know if ya’ll have been watching what Jokic has been doing,” Mitchell told a swarm of reporters in Salt Lake City on Saturday. “It’s f****** outrageous, to be honest.”

Over the last two years, the Denver Nuggets center took home the award over Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. As the two bigs were in a two-man race for the Most Valuable Player title, Jokic had the edge from the voters each time.

Jokic is currently the favorite to win MVP in 2023 once again. While there are other candidates who are in the race, Embiid is up there for the third-straight year as well. And while Mitchell believes that Jokic is the clear-cut winner at this moment as he’s “otherworldly” right now, the Cavaliers star gave Embiid his credit as well.

Donovan Mitchell on Nikola Jokic for MVP: “I don’t know if you’ve all been watching what Jokic’s been doing. It’s f****** outrageous, to be honest. I don’t know how many people have won it 3 times in a row, but he’s other worldly right now.”

He also highly praised Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/XsbpRjCXNH
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) February 18, 2023

“Joel, I think Joel needs to be highly regarded as well,” said Mitchell. “I think he gets highly disrespected. You know, he’s a guy that consistently every night puts on for his group, and even in the past year, with the whole Ben (Simmons) situation, not knowing who’s going to be on the floor, and he continued to carry his team. I think he deserves a lot of respect in that race as well. If I had to choose, you look at what Jokic and Joel are doing as a tandem, I think those two definitely deserve respect.”

In 45 games this year, Embiid has averaged 33 points, ten rebounds, four assists, one steal, and two blocks. He’s knocked down 54 percent of his field goals and drained 36 percent of his threes.

On two occasions, Embiid was named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Month. And while head-to-head matchups don’t necessarily sway voters entirely in different directions, Embiid scored 47 points while coming down with 18 rebounds in his matchup against Jokic and the Nuggets on January 28.

Embiid will likely be in the MVP conversation for the third-straight year if he sustains this level of play for the remainder of the season. Whether or not he’ll finally take home the hardware finally is a different story. If voters see it the same way as Mitchell does, Jokic could become the fourth player in NBA history to win MVP three times in a row.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.