NBA MVP Rankings: Who would be on top with a games-played minimum?

Who would be on top of the NBA MVP rankings if DeMar DeRozan had his way and candidates had to play in at least 78 games to qualify?

The fact that there are no defined criteria for NBA MVP is part of the fun. It opens the discussion, allowing every fan and media member to find their own definition of valuable, weighting production, role, team context, availability and more.

This year’s MVP race feels unusually tight. Nikola Jokic is on track to become just the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a full season, and he’s doing it for the best team in the Western Conference. He’s also won the past two MVP Awards and there may be some narrative resistance to giving him a historic third in a row.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are both putting up 30-10-4 lines with fantastic defense. Luka Doncic is single-handedly keeping the Mavs into the playoff race, averaging 33.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8.1 assists per game. And Jayson Tatum is averaging 30.6 points per game for the team with the best record in the league.

The other thing this group of inner circle contenders has in common is a lot of missed games — eight for Jokic, 12 for Embiid, 11 for Giannis, 10 for Doncic, and four for Tatum. There is no minimum number of games a player must appear in to qualify for MVP but availability is some part of the equation for everyone.

DeMar DeRozan recently proposed a minimum of 78 games to qualify. It’s a fairly extreme benchmark (especially since his initial response was all 82 games and he walked it back to 78), but it does create an interesting thought experiment.

Who would be leading the NBA MVP race if they had to appear in at least 78 games?

Appearing in 78 of a possible 82 games works out to 95.1 percent. Here are the most productive players in the league right now who are on pace to surpass that benchmark.

1. Domantas Sabonis (55 of 57 games, 96.5 percent)

Sabonis has missed just two games for the Kings so far this season and even if he missed two more over the last third of the season would still qualify for DeRozan’s benchmark. Sabonis is already a long-list MVP candidate without the minimum threshold, averaging 18.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game for the third-seeded Sacramento Kings. He almost certainly won’t get any first-, second- or third-place votes on actual ballots but if you heavily weigh for his availability he could be at the top of the heap.

2. Julius Randle (60 of 60 games, 100 percent)

Randle hasn’t missed a game yet for the Knicks, averaging 24.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. His 3-point percentage has never rebounded back to the level from his first season in New York and he’s averaging fewer assists with Jalen Brunson handling the ball. But in many other ways, this is the best season of his career and the fact that he’s doing it without missing a single game is impressive.

3. Anthony Edwards (61 of 61 games, 100 percent)

Edwards is another iron man, not yet missing a game for the Timberwolves. He’s enjoying a breakout season — averaging 24.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 36.4 percent from beyond the arc. All of those numbers are career-highs and he’s also been much better at the defensive end. If the Timberwolves were higher than the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, Edwards may be ahead of Randle or Sabonis and possibly even in the actual MVP race.

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