I think it's all nonsensical. My problem though is that after back to back MVPs it was basically determined coming into the season that Giannis had little to no chance at a third MVP due to his playoff flameouts. Yet now that it comes to Jokic that's no longer a problem.
The other problem is MVPs were rarely given out to players on teams that weren't dominant during the regular season. Last year was a weird year due to their being no good MVP candidates on the dominant regular season teams. But if Jokic wins again this year that would be 3 straight MVPs without being on a team believed to even be a title contender. I thought Giannis should've won it last year and is one of the frontrunners this year.
Jokic isn't even the favorite to win right now (funnily enough, it's Giannis), so this is an irrelevant talking point.
In fact, coming into the last three seasons, Giannis has had a higher probable percentage of winning MVP than Jokic has. Go figure.
Whatever you believe was the narrative about him having little-to-no chance of winning MVP in 2021, was because of his playoff performance was largely down to the fact he bowed out in embarrassing fashion in the 2020 playoffs. Folks were calling it the worst playoff exit by a MVP in recent memory; his performance left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. That context is important here because Jokic balled out last postseason despite his team being no match for the Warriors, all without his #2 and #3 options.
Voters are naturally going to look at Jokic more kindly given that. If he lost in similar fashion to Giannis in 2020, it would be a different story.
