The NBA MVP Is Trending Towards a Four-Player Race
By Matt De Saro
As the NBA MVP race heats up, so are the players vying for the prestigious award.
LeBron James dropped 30 points, nabbed 12 boards, and had five dishes on Wednesday night against the Pacers.
Not to be outdone, Nikola Jokic went for 49/14/10 in a monster triple-double that saw him go 16-for-25 from the field.
However, the king of the night had to be Joe Embiid who scored 50 points and snagged 12 rebounds against the Orland Magic. What makes this performance particularly amazing is that he only played 27:03. We will get deeper into that performance below, but I wanted to highlight just how good this group has been over the last week.
Let’s review the current NBA MVP odds from WynnBET Sportsbook and then break down the top 4 players as things currently stand.
- Stephen Curry | +160
- Joel Embiid | +300
- Giannis Antetokounmpo | +350
- Nikola Jokic | +800
- Ja Morant | +1000
- Kevin Durant | +1200
- Luka Doncic | +3000
- LeBron James | +4000
- DeMar DeRozan | +4000
- James Harden | +7500
Stephen Curry | +160
While Curry is the current frontrunner, the value on his is gone right now. He had too good of a December and was actually +110 the last time I wrote on this topic. While I have nothing against Curry and think he deserves a spot on this list, my money is going elsewhere. It’s just so hard to keep up the kind of pace he has been on the last two months. Especially in your mid-30s. Also, his stats aren’t even all that when compared to the rest of the competition. He is sixth in scoring, 74th in rebounds, and 21st in assists.
Joel Embiid | +300
As I touched upon above, Embiid had one hell of a game last night against the Magic. His 50 points and 12 boards in just a hair over 12 minutes mark the fewest minutes needed to reach 50/10 in since the 1954-55 season or, the beginning of the shot-clock era. He joins Anthony Davis as the only NBA player to log 50+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 3+ blocks in a game. It is an incredible feat for such a short night of work. But that has been the name of the game for Embiid all season long. In my opinion, even during his injury absence, he is the best player in the NBA right now and he proved it yet again on Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning, Embid ranks 4th in the NBA in points per game (28), 10th in rebounds (10.6 RPG), and third in PER (30.70).
Giannis Antetokounmpo | +350
One aspect of Giannis’ game that I love is his tenacious defense. He is a previous NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winner and is doing all he can to win it again. He is just one of three players to win an MVP and defense player of the year award in the same season. The other two are Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon.
As of this writing, Antetokounpo is third in the NBA in scoring (28.6 PPG), sixth in rebounds (11.3 RPG), and second in PER at 31.16. He also ranks 11th in the NBA in blocks per game.
Nikola Jokic | +800
As was the case with Embiid, Jokic had a night on Wednesday. Jokic’s odds to win the award jump to +800 after that triple-double. If I had to be somebody right now, other than Embiid, to win the MVP it would be Jokic. Curry’s price right now doesn’t provide enough value and I expect him to fall off the pace as the season progresses. Jokic is certainly the MVP of this team as Denver is +262 when he is on the floor and -217 without their big man.