MVP Race Playing Out
The Sixth-Man of the Year award is going to be going to Tyler Herro this season, the Most Improved Player award is going to be going to Ja Morant and it seems like both Evan Mobley and Monty Williams have Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year locked-up, respectively, but the MVP race is still very much open for argument on who should win.
Kevin Durant and Steph Curry opened up as the early-season favorites for the award, but with Durant suffering an MCL injury and Curry falling off due to Draymond Green being injured, both players have fallen out of consideration at this point in the season.
Ja Morant and DeMar DeRozan have received recognition for the award, and deservingly so, however, this truly is a three-man race at this point between Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, and 76ers’ Joel Embiid.
There is no player more dominant when he wants to be in the NBA than Giannis Antetokounmpo and he proved that with his video-game-like performances in the NBA Finals last season.
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Quite possibly being the most decorated 27-year-old in NBA history, Giannis truly is the best player in the world and he is the sole reason why the Bucks have a strong chance to repeat as NBA champions.
Tied for second in the scoring race with LeBron James at 29.7 points per game, Giannis Antetokounmpo has a chance to capture the first scoring title of his career and he has been on a tear as of late. Should the Bucks claim the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference and Giannis finishes the season leading the league in scoring, it is hard to come up with an argument as to why he should not be MVP this year.
Going to the Western Conference, the reigning league-MVP in Nikola Jokic is having an even better and more impressive season than he did last year when he won MVP! Averaging 26.0 points, 13.8 rebounds, 8.1 assists and shooting 57.2% from the floor, Jokic leads the league in total rebounds (season), player efficiency rating, win shares, box plus/minus, value over replacement player and so much more.
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Jokic’s 18 triple-doubles this season lead the league and the Serbian big man has also recorded a league-high 56 double-doubles this season.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the season Nikola Jokic has had is that the league-MVP has found even more success and led the Nuggets to a 41-28 record without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
They may currently be the 6-seed in the Western Conference, but without Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets would have 20 wins at best, which is why Jokic deserves to be right at the top of the MVP rankings.
Going back to the Eastern Conference, it is hard not to say that Joel Embiid is the favorite to win MVP right now. Embiid has been the most dominant big man and scoring machine all season long and like Giannis Antetokounmpo, should the 76ers claim the 1-seed and Embiid finishes the season leading the league in scoring, which he currently is at 29.9 points, then he will win his first MVP award.
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No center has led the league in scoring since Shaquille O’Neal did it during the 1999-00 season, a year in which Shaq won the MVP award.
Joel Embiid cannot be stopped with the ball in his hands in the low-post and now having James Harden by his side, it is hard to imagine that Embiid’s production will fall over the course of the next few weeks.
As long as he does not get hurt and as long as Joel Embiid keeps recording 20-point, 30-point and 40-point double-doubles, he will be the MVP of the 2021-22 NBA season.
