Nikola Jokic Wins NBA Award, but It Might Be Too Little Too Late for MVP

After winning three NBA MVP awards between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 seasons, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic cemented himself as the best player in the NBA. Not to mention, the one season he did not win MVP in that span, he led the Nuggets to their first championship in franchise history.

For the first couple of months of the 2025-26 season, it was looking like Jokic could win his fourth career MVP, but a month-long injury absence and some "inconsistent" play after he returned ruined his chance. Now, Jokic is picking things back up, even winning the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week award for March 23-29, but is it too little too late for his MVP case?

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 23 of the 2025-26 season (March 23-29). pic.twitter.com/hBpHWcMMkQ
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) March 30, 2026

This past week, Jokic averaged 26 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists per game, while leading the Nuggets to a perfect 4-0 record. Jokic has been virtually unstoppable as of late with a historic stretch of games, and the Nuggets are benefiting from it with an active six-game winning streak.

This is Jokic's third Player of the Week award of the season, but his first since November. In fact, both Jamal Murray and Peyton Watson have been named Player of the Week more recently than Jokic, but the three-time MVP has finally done enough to earn it again.

Is it too late for an MVP push?

In the latest MVP ladder by NBA.com, Jokic was in third, behind Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, while Luka Doncic was right there in the running as well. The league has a loaded MVP race this season, and Jokic's two-month slump (including his injury) might have hurt his case too much.

Before his injury, Jokic was averaging 29.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, 11.1 assists, and 1.4 steals through 31 games, while shooting 60.4% from the field and 44% from beyond the arc. Jokic was on a historic pace to start the season, but he even admitted his play since returning has been "so-so."

Nikola Jokic this season:

— 27.9 PPG
— 12.7 RPG
— 10.7 APG
— 57/38/83%
— Leading NBA in RPG
— Leading NBA in APG
— Leading NBA in triple-doubles

Averaging more PPG, RPG, APG and TS% than his last MVP season. pic.twitter.com/ur9bLi7FjF
— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 25, 2026

Now, though, Jokic is finishing the season off with a bang. Hypothetically, if the Nuggets end the season on a 12-game winning streak and Jokic is averaging at least 25/15/12, it would send a strong message to the MVP voters who might lean more on recency bias. To help his case, a late-season winning streak would also likely boost the Nuggets to third place in the West, a good mark for an MVP hopeful.

It certainly does not help that Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama are having incredible seasons, while leading their respective teams to the top two records in the NBA. Of course, if the Nuggets did not get hit with an injury bug, they likely would have been in the same conversation, but the NBA does not hand out MVPs based on hypotheticals.

It would be great to see Jokic close out the season with an MVP-caliber stretch, and even if he does not win the award, the Nuggets need him to elevate his game heading into the playoffs anyway.

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