Nekias Duncan's 2022-23 NBA award selections: Who wins MVP?

Heading into the weekend, I figured I'd followed the same scriptas the other two award pieces. Fill out and complete my(fake) ballot, sprinkle in some extra details or stray thoughts toaccount for questions that may pop up, then go about mybusiness.

I dropped my "final rough draft" on Friday's episode of The Dunker Spot, though I gave myself aweekend's worth of wiggle room to make any last-second changes. Intypical fashion, I watched, researched and ultimately thoughtmyself into a headache. The result of that is this piece: Aseparate article detailing where and how I landed on the 2022-23NBA Most Valuable Player, with a follow-up article coming to revealthe rest of my (fake) ballot.

Throughout MVP discourse, many people — voters or people like mewho wish they could vote — have made it a point to mention howtough it is. To highlight how the top three — Nikola Jokic, JoelEmbiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo — are all worthy candidates towin, and that we shouldn't be all that upset by who wins. There'struth to that.

(You, savvy reader and/or listener, can also tell when someoneis genuinely perplexed vs. when they're throwing in that platitudein an effort to avoid smoke for his/her opinion. We can be realhere.)

I landed in the former camp. To refresh your memory, this iswhere I landed at the beginning of March:

Previous order (through Mar.1):

Nikola Jokic (Previously No. 3)Giannis Antetokounmpo (Previously No. 2)Joel Embiid (Previously Honorable Mention,Record)Jayson Tatum (Previously No. 1)Luka Doncic (Previously No. 5)

This is where I am right now on April 11 with the regular seasonover:

Joel Embiid (Previously No.3)Giannis Antetokounmpo (Previously No. 2)Nikola Jokic (Previously No. 1)Jayson Tatum (Previously No. 4)Domantas Sabonis (Previously HonorableMention, Not As Good As Luka Doncic)