Jalen Brunson defends Luka Doncic amid controversial Nikola Jokic MVP narrative

Despite Luka Doncic being on the sideline due to a left calf strain, the chatter about the Dallas Mavericks is still flowing free as they've found a way to win two of their last three games without Doncic and Kyrie Irving in the lineup.

While Irving is listed as questionable for tomorrow's game against the Denver Nuggets due to a back injury, Doncic's return may still be some time away. He hasn't been practicing since he suffered a calf strain on Christmas Day, and with him missing his 17th game of the season on Sunday afternoon, he is officially ineligible to win MVP or make an All-NBA Team.

It was clear that this was going to be a major possibility when Doncic went down on Christmas, and even with him sidelined, there has been some general MVP chatter about him.

Brunson slams double standard in MVP voting between Doncic and Jokic

Not in the sense that he deserves the MVP this year, because even if he was eligible he hasn't had as strong of a start to the season as we've seen in previous seasons, but more about how the MVP goalposts are consistently moving. Former Mavericks point guard and teammate of Doncic, Jalen Brunson, gave his take on Nikola Jokic's case for MVP this year on the Roommates Show, comparing it to Doncic's case last season.

"[The Nuggets are] not seeded where they were last year, and people are still talking about him like being MVP," Brunson said about Jokic. "Individually, he deserves it. But when Luka [Doncic] was averaging damn near triple-double, but [the Mavs] seed wasn't where people wanted it to be, they were like, 'Oh, he shouldn't get MVP because of seeding.'"

Doncic's biggest knock when he didn't win MVP last year was that since his team wasn't a top seed like Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he didn't deserve the award. Despite having an undeniable case to win MVP in which he put up unbelievable stats and willed the Mavericks to an amazing finish at the end of the season, he finished behind Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander in voting. This was a major shock to fans, and the most common argument used against him was that Dallas was the No. 5 seed.

Now, despite the Nuggets spending most of the season outside of the top four of the West and starting the year 11-10, Jokic has been one of the MVP favorites all season long, and no one is talking about Denver's seeding because of how good Jokic's stats are. Brunson thinks that "individually" Jokic deserves the award this season, but he doesn't think that narratives should change just for certain players.

"Why do certain narratives work for some of the people," Brunson said.

This is the main problem that Mavericks fans have been complaining about when it comes to the MVP chatter for Jokic this year combined with the lack of credit Doncic got last year, and Brunson hit the nail on the head when it comes to what's wrong with MVP voting.

The narrative changes year after year for certain players, and while it is fair for the goalposts to move slightly since every season is different, the goalposts should move as the game changes. It shouldn't move with players.

Both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander can make great cases to win MVP this season, each for their own reasons, but a win for Jokic combined with them not being a top seed would infuriate Mavericks fans who are still angry about Doncic missing out on winning the award last season.

Doncic is going to have plenty of more chances to win MVP, as his career is just getting started, but it is becoming more and more clear that he missed his best shot yet at winning the award last season. Brunson's thinking on how the narrative changes echoes the feeling of most NBA fans, and time will tell how the MVP voters truly feel about seeding this time around once May hits.