It’s almost February, and the NBA MVP ladder has shaped up to be one of the most interesting we’ve seen in several years. Nikola Jokić sits atop the list; however, the Serbian superstar has been dealing with a nasty-looking knee injury that he sustained at the end of 2025.
Aside from some time off due to illness and phantom injury, Jokic has been an iron man for most of his career. For seven out of the 10 seasons of his career, he’s played under 70 games in only three seasons. His most recent injury has kept him out for a number of weeks; fortunately, he hasn’t dealt with something like a hyperextension in years. Considering his playstyle and body type, Jokić’s injury history is relatively limited, as he rarely leaves the floor for rebounds or blocks.
Health aside, Jokić’s 2025-26 campaign has only improved his case for one of the greatest players of all time. It’s strange to say, but he may be having the greatest season of his entire career. No, the Nuggets aren’t at the top of the list in terms of title contenders like they were a few years ago, but numbers and impact-wise, Jokic has been putting on a clinic. Head Coach David Adelman has done a fantastic job at keeping his team afloat without their All-NBA centre, but when Jokić is playing, the team has one of the most drastic swings in performance during his on and off time.
When Jokić’s absence means you go from the number one offence to the worst offence in the league, that says something about his impact. Aside from Michael Jordan or LeBron James, the league has never seen anything like it before — not to mention he’s averaging 29.6 points, 11 assists and 12.2 rebounds per game. That puts him first in rebounds, first in assists by a landslide and fourth in scoring. His team is also third in a packed Western Conference, proving that he can still lead even after some roster changes entering the year.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Despite all of his impressive feats so far this season, if Jokić isn’t able to make it back on the court in a reasonable time, don’t be surprised if he begins slipping down the M.V.P. ranks.
Across the country, another star is leading his team while posting the best numbers of his career. Jaylen Brown has been making waves across the league this year with his outstanding play and likable personality. Now that Boston’s overwhelming domination over the Eastern Conference has seemingly faded and hated superstar Jayson Tatum has been out for the entire season, fans have slowly warmed back up to the Celtics. Brown’s surge to one of the league’s best players has come at the best time. The East is weaker than ever, and top teams like New York and Detroit need another team to compete with atop the mountain. In comes Brown, who has led the Celtics to as high as the second seed in recent weeks, outperforming all expectations that were given to him ahead of the season.
Brown is averaging a career-high 29.8 points and five assists on otherworldly efficiency from around the court. Not only has he been the most dominant one-on-one player so far this year, but his ability to carry this team through stretches has been on full display so far.
For a Celtics team to lose most of its best players from previous years, Brown’s ability to captain his team to such heights is even more astounding. Gone now are the days of Brown playing second fiddle to Tatum — now the Cal Berkeley product is showing fans and critics that he can hold his own as the leader of the Celtics.
Through December, Brown put up 30 points in eight straight games, a stretch where the Celtics climbed to second place in the conference while Brown earned Eastern Conference player of the week. When the player of the month was revealed for each conference, Jalen Brunson’s name was selected for the East, creating an uproar on social media from fans around the league and even Brown himself.
The other player of the month happens to be the third and final player in the top three of the MVP conversations. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 2025-26 season has been interesting, to say the least. He’s beginning to garner the same type of negative attention that Tatum was receiving once the Celtics began to control the East each year. Foul-baiting and flopping have been terms increasingly used to describe Shai’s game, and with the Thunder’s struggles over the past month, a negative discourse has been looming over his head.
Despite the teams’ ups and downs, Shai’s season has been on par with his last year’s MVP run. The Thunder have still only lost eight games and have had one of the best starts to a season of all time. This was in large part due to Shai’s leadership and shot-making ability.
He’s second in the NBA in scoring, at 32 points per game and is averaging 6.3 assists and 4.4 rebounds, shooting an insane 54 per cent from the field. Not only that, but his 1.3 steals per game don’t display his defensive capabilities enough. As the lead guard on the team, taking the most shots, he still sits in a chair and plays with a defensive effort like nobody else. Playing defence as a guard has never been more challenging than in the modern day, and Shai has shown why two-way guards are so valuable.
Shai and the Thunder may be under a microscope right now, but that’s what comes with winning a championship. The Hamilton native continues to fly under the radar this year, and if he continues to play like this, the Thunder will have no problem repeating as champions.