Steph Curry Overtakes Joel Embiid in MVP Odds
By Peter Dewey
When LeBron James claims that you’re the league’s most valuable player, Vegas takes notice.
LeBron: “Steph Curry is the mvp this year. Look at what he’s done. Everybody was counting him out. If he’s not on the Warriors team, I don’t know where they are.
— Davide Chinellato (@dchinellato) May 17, 2021
It’s like when Russell Westbrook got the mvp when he average a triple double. Russ deserved it, Steph deserves it”
Steph Curry and James will square off in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament on Wednesday, and James’ praise of his opponent has not gone unnoticed as WynnBET now has Curry with the second-best odds (+1700) along with Joel Embiid (+1700) to win the NBA’s MVP award. Nikola Jokic is the resounding favorite (-10000), but Curry’s insane play in the last two months of the season has propelled him into the conversation.
Just nine days ago, Curry was +1400 to win the MVP, while Embiid was at +700. Curry made up that gap and then some on Embiid, but Jokic’s ability to get Denver to the No. 3 seed widened his lead on WynnBET.
Curry is certainly worthy of consideration, as he has put an underwhelming Warriors team in position to make the playoffs this season. Golden State lost Klay Thompson for the year to an Achilles injury, and has recently been without forward Kelly Oubre Jr., but it still beat out the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 8 spot in the West.
Curry’s MVP case can be made by simply looking at how bad the Warriors have been without him this season. Golden State is 2-7 without Curry in the lineup, but the Warriors have gone 37-26 when he has played. Golden State may have been able to capture the No. 6 seed had Curry been able to play in all 72 games this season.
Curry’s on/off numbers are also insane. The Warriors have a +4.0 point differential when he’s on the floor and a -4.0 point differential per 100 possessions when he’s off the floor. While Embiid has played for a better team, he’s also had a much better supporting cast than Curry.
Philadelphia is 10-11 without Embiid this season, and it went 7-3 when he missed ten straight games due to a knee injury. Golden State has been one of the league’s worst teams without Curry (it lost by 53 points to the Toronto Raptors without him), but the Warriors are just one win away from making the playoffs this season.
Over his final 24 games, Steph averaged an insane 36.9 points while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 43.7 percent from 3. He will have his hands full with the defending champion Lakers on Wednesday, but don’t expect Curry to stop carrying the Warriors with a trip to the playoffs on the line.