Gilbert Arenas doesn’t think Nikola Jokic should’ve won the 2024 NBA MVP award. In fact, Arenas doesn’t even consider the Joker a first option, which, by his assessment, should disqualify someone from winning the award.
Arenas has a history of controversial basketball takes. Being in the media as often as he is, Agent 0 doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind about the game’s top players.
His recent take on Nikola Jokic garnered massive attention.
“Are we going to ignore the fact that he is not the go-to guy when it counts? [Murray] is the guy who Jokic relies on to hit those buckets,” Arenas said on an episode of the Nightcap show.
Gilbert Arenas Rips Nikola Jokic Yet Again
Gilbert Arenas says Nikola Jokic is not the go-to guy for the Nuggets when it counts
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Despite cashing one of the farthest game-winners during the 2023-24 season, Gilbert Arenas says Jokic is not a go-to guy with the game on the line.
“[Murray] becomes the number-one option when the game is on the line, so you’re giving the MVP to a guy who, when it counts, has to give it to another guy.”
While it’s true that Jamal Murray is a proven clutch player, the same can be said about Nikola Jokic whose presence alone makes the Denver Nuggets a nightmare to defend down the stretch.
During the 2023-24 regular season, not only was Nikola Jokic one of the finest performers down the stretch of games — he was often the featured player on his team. In clutch time play, Jokic shot 55 percent from the floor, 39 percent from the 3-point line, and 82 percent from the stripe while ranking top five for total clutch points.
Not bad for a guy who isn’t very clutch.
As for Arenas’ contention that Jokic isn’t the go-to guy — Jokic more than doubled Jamal Murray in points (129 to 60) and shot attempts (76 to 35) during crunch time this past season.
Gilbert Arenas History of Controversial Jokic Takes
Arenas Said in April That Jokic Was the ‘Worst’ MVP in 40 Years
The definition of ‘MVP’ has changed drastically over time. Traditionally speaking, the NBA MVP award is awarded to the player who puts up mind-boggling individual numbers as the top seed in his conference. However, since Russell Westbrook won the MVP award with his team finishing the season as a sixth seed in 2017, the voters have relaxed some criteria.
In 2021, Nikola Jokic earned his first NBA MVP award with his team finishing third in the Western Conference. But unlike Westbrook’s MVP in 2017, Gilbert Arenas questioned the historical significance of Jokic’s season.
There was no historical — ‘Oh, the big almost had a triple-double! Let’s give it to him.’ That’s what the narrative was. A big man almost — not did — almost [averaged] a triple-double and gave it to him when his team record was like that.”
Despite running away with the lead in many advanced categories like P.E.R. and box plus-minus, to name a couple, Arenas didn’t think Jokic’s 2021 season was justifiable enough to win MVP. That’s not to mention that Jokic led the Nuggets to 47 wins in a shortened season despite losing Jamal Murray to an ACL tear.
Sure enough, the voters sided with Jokic that season, registering 91 first-place votes for the future Hall of Famer.
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