NBA MVP Rankings: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beats Nikola Jokic, Kawhi Leonard fights superteam stigma
With the NBA weekend remaining, we are more than the halfway point in the regular season and the competition for the MVP award is heating up with the exclusion of Joel Embiid, who is out with a torn meniscus and cannot participate in 65 games. to cut.
Let’s get into the current cla*sification.
1. Nikola Jokic, Nuggets (current odds: -175)
Jokic is the betting favorite for good reason: He’s the best player in the world on what’s probably still the best team in the Denver Nuggets, who are down 21.3 points per 100 possessions when Jokic leaves the floor, according to Cleaning the Gla*s.
Want traditional stats? Jokic is the only player in the league averaging at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and nine a*sists, and he clears those marks with ease. Leading the most advanced stats with a RAPTOR WAR that’s twice as close as the next person on this list (Luka Doncic), Jokic remains the nerd king.
After all, Jokic is by no means a candidate for this award, but if he wins it, he will become the ninth player in history to have three MVPs and the seventh to win three titles in four years.
The Thunder are the No. 2 seed in the West entering play on Wednesday with the second-best point differential in the league, trailing only the Celtics, and SGA is clearly the driver of that bus. He’s, or should be, up there with Jokic, perhaps with a portion of the voting sentiment on his side for a surprising jump to a Thunder team that was expected to be good but isn’t. this Do good.
The Thunder have a lot of talent, as do the Nuggets, but it’s SGA, like Jokic, who really succeeds. Keep in mind that when SGA is off the field, OKC is a scoreless team – they literally score And They gave up 111.7 points per 100 possessions, per CTG — with what would rank as the seventh-worst offense in the league.
Put SGA on the floor, and they will outscore teams by 10.6 points per 100 with what would rank as the best offense in the league. SGA’s points-per-game differential of 7.6 beats Jokic’s. No one scored more points, or more points per 100 shot attempts, than SGA’s 131.6 points per CTG.
Again, Jokic is the MVP, but SGA has a legitimate argument as the MVP this season, and I would say that even if Embiid was still in the mix.
3. Luka Doncic, Mavericks (current odds: +800)
No one has created more points this season — through scoring and pa*sing — than Doncic, who has 73 to his credit, and with Embiid out of the equation, he is on pace to win the scoring title at 34.3 PPG entering play. Wednesday.
Doncic carries an incredible offensive load for the Mavericks (no one comes close to his 40.1% usage rate, per CTG), and is posting the highest 3-point and true shooting percentage of his career.
Currently, Doncic is on track to become the third player in history to average at least 30 points, nine a*sists and eight rebounds in a single season, joining Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook, who have won the MVP award in the years they have done so.
Doncic impacts games all over the court when he is the only player in the league to average at least eight points, two a*sists and two rebounds in the fourth quarter. Doncic has the worst supporting cast of anyone on this list (though props to Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Derek Lively II) and yet the Mavericks have won five straight games and are only one game back in the loss column as the No. 1 5 seed.
If Giannis is ahead of Luka, I won’t fight with you. He was great again – averaging over 30 points per game on 61% shooting. He also averages 6.5 a*sists. Remove Embiid, and Giannis becomes the only guy averaging 30 and 10. He is the only player to record at least 25 points, 10 boards, six a*sists and a block in every game. He averages 1.4 steals for good measure.
What overshadows Giannis’ usually relentless production is the fact that the Bucks, relatively speaking, have underperformed, though most of their struggles have been on the defensive side, and that in turn can be largely linked to the offensive-oriented roster they’ve built into it. Trading for Damian Lillard. They fired Adrian Griffin. Doc Rivers didn’t get off to the best start. But Milwaukee’s post-All-Star rise could put Giannis in contention for a third MVP award.
5. Kawhi Leonard, Clippers (current odds: +5000)
Jayson Tatum would round out the top five on most of these lists, but I’d go with Leonard, who almost certainly won’t win the award due to his superteam stigmas but was nonetheless one of the best players in the league. Every season.
Leonard records shooting splits of 53/45/89, right on the cusp of the exclusive 50-40-90 club. It hit 54% from 3 in February. His mid-range pull, with its natural fade and high launch, is arguably the most reliable shot in basketball. The Clippers have won 26 of their last 33 games, and Kawhi has missed just four games all season, though he is expected to miss Game 5 on Wednesday night against Golden State.
(Honorable mention: Jayson Tatum, Celtics; Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers; Jalen Brunson, Knicks)
require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-0634/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.3","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePa*s-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"adobe-pa*s":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePa*s-min.js","facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://accounts.google.com/gsi/client","gpt":"https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js","hlsjs":"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","supreme-golf":"https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/a*sets/js/bundle.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","video-avia":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.12.0/player/avia.min.js","video-avia-ui":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.12.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js","video-avia-gam":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.12.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js","video-avia-hls":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.12.0/plugins/hls/avia.hls.min.js","video-avia-playlist":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.12.0/plugins/playlist/avia.playlist.min.js","video-ima3":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js","video-ima3-dai":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js","video-vast-tracking":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});