{"id":128085,"date":"2025-03-11T13:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=128085"},"modified":"2025-03-11T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:54:06","slug":"nuggets-michael-malone-nikola-jokic-mvp-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/11\/nuggets-michael-malone-nikola-jokic-mvp-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Michael Malone Delivers Persuasive MVP Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Joker, SGA, Joker, SGA, Joker, SGA…the back and forth continues and likely will not cease until the regular season ends.\u00a0<\/span>Nikola Joki\u0107<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are in the heat of a\u00a0<\/span>tight MVP race to the finish line<\/span><\/a>, and it’s the most exciting element of this NBA campaign. Each night, both players increase their chances and further their case. SGA is gunning for his first, and\u00a0<\/span>Joki\u0107 is looking to nab his fourth in five years<\/span><\/a>. Whichever man lifts the award ultimately, each one was just as deserving as the other. Of course, if you ask Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, the voters may have some voter fatigue. The championship coach took to stats on a stat sheet to show why Joki\u0107 is deserving, all while uplifting SGA in praiseworthy fashion at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nuggets’ Michael Malone Delivers Persuasive MVP Argument<\/h2>\n

Denver Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone Calls MVP Race A ‘Player A, Player B’ Type-Scenario<\/h3>\n

The amazing aspect of<\/span>\u00a0this year’s MVP race<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is that you can’t argue or complain about who eventually wins. SGA has earned all the votes he accumulates, as does Joki\u0107. Either way, both players are deserving and each warrants equal consideration. Unfortunately, only one may come out on top. Malone, who has been Joki\u0107’s coach for ten years, is pining harder than ever to make sure the MVP honors fall on the right shoulders. That being said, Malone is in no way disrespecting Gilgeous-Alexander. The coach spoke about the MVP conversation after the Nuggets defeated the Thunder on the second of the weekend’s back-to-back showcase featuring the two teams. At the same time, though,\u00a0<\/span>Malone did not shy away from supporting his player<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>[7:15 mark]<\/span><\/strong>. He also took a\u00a0shot at the media and voters for their MVP outlook.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he’s deserving of that.\u00a0My thing is this, you know, if you didn\u2019t know that Nikola won three MVPs and I put player A and player B on paper and you had no idea that the guy who\u2019s averaging a triple-double, the guy who\u2019s top three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one\u2019s ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10, and if you don\u2019t think so, I think you guys are all full of ___.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Top Dollar Promotion<\/h3>\n

Malone supports Joki\u0107 exactly how any superstar wants to be seen and regarded by their head coach. In his monologue, Malone goes on to say that Joki\u0107 is doing things this season that have never been done historically. He’s not intending to take anything away from SGA; he is simply promoting his player. If you listen to his comments, his support is crystal clear and to the point, not to mention quite persuasive.<\/p>\n

Joki\u0107 is having an incredible year and has put up several almost unbelievable stat lines. He’s having a career year in points, assists, and three-point shooting. On top of that, Joki\u0107 is averaging a triple-double along the way. Malone agreed that this season is Joki\u0107’s best, and we should be inclined to agree with him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Joker, SGA, Joker, SGA, Joker, SGA…the back and forth continues and likely will not cease until the regular season ends.\u00a0Nikola Joki\u0107\u00a0and\u00a0Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u00a0are in the heat of a\u00a0tight MVP race to the finish line, and it’s the most exciting element of this NBA campaign. Each night, both players increase their chances and further their case. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":128107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,62],"tags":[72,1489],"class_list":["post-128085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128131,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128085\/revisions\/128131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}