The top two finishers in last season’s MVP voting appear to be the top two candidates for this year’s award too, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Bontemps recently conducted a straw poll of 100 media members and found that Sixers center Joel Embiid narrowly – and unofficially – leads Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic in the MVP race.
As Bontemps details, Embiid received 45 first-place votes from the poll respondents, while Jokic got 43. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (nine), Suns guard Chris Paul (two), and Warriors guard Stephen Curry (one) were the other players who got first-place votes. Interestingly, Embiid was the only player to show up on all 100 five-player ballots, while Jokic was left off five.
Curry received 94 first-place votes when Bontemps conducted a similar straw poll in December, but the veteran sharpshooter has slowed down since his hot start, while players like Embiid, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo have made stronger MVP pushes.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Free agent guard Isaiah Thomas is expected to rejoin the Grand Rapids Gold – the Nuggets‘ G League affiliate – after the All-Star break, league sources tell Marc Stein (Twitter link). Thomas had a very brief stint in Grand Rapids in December, scoring 42 points in his only NBAGL game before getting called up to the NBA. Thomas signed 10-day contracts with the Lakers and Mavericks before returning to the open market.
- Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has published a new 2022 mock draft, while Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has updated his top-50 big board. Both draft experts currently have Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren at No. 1 and Jabari Smith of Auburn at No. 2, with Purdue’s Jaden Ivey moving up to No. 3 ahead of Duke’s Paolo Banchero.
- Veteran guard Ian Clark, who has 330 regular season appearances on his NBA résumé and won a title with Golden State in 2017, has signed with the Sydney Kings, the Australian team recently announced in a press release. Clark played in 60 games for New Orleans in 2018/19, but has been out of the NBA since then.
Doesn’t Jaden Ivey play for Purdue?
Yes..unless there is another one as well…
Yes, that’s been fixed, thanks.
Ivey gets national tv games to show off in. He is good for one good move on drives, is tireless and hyper-athletic with fresh knees. He is several years ahead of Miles Bridges on polish and should be good for NBA guard for versatility.
For the record, Jokic took mvp last year.
Agree that Derozan is #3 this year.
Interested to know how Jokic wouldn’t be in the top 5 for any media member, much less 5 of them. Markieff Morris stans?
Embiid is the best player in the nba
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the NBA.
Honest question, which team is worse off if you took either star off of it?
I’d say Denver without Murray and Porter. Philly (even Pre Harden) can still win games without Embiid.
Not that Joel isn’t the MVP this year either.
Harden arriving in philly automatically gives jokic the mvp imo
I’m not saying he’s MVP, but D-Book deserves to be in the conversation.
DeMar DeRozan is getting some serious disrespect when it comes to the MVP race. Dude has significantly helped this Bulls team go from a perennial lower to now 1st place in the East, and is playing out of his mind scoring at will against their opponents..
Even with all the turmoil the Bulls have gone through with the COVID episodes and the injuries it has been DeMar that has been the steadying force in Chicago…
He should be at least top 5 in the MVP race..BARE MINIMUM!! Come on people, open up your eyes!!
1/ Jokic (light years ahead of the field)
2/ Giannis
3/ Embiid
4/ LBJ
5/ Luka
My draft as it is now would be…
1/ Chet Holmgren
2/ Paolo Banchero
3/ Nikola Jovic
4/ Jabari Smith
Sucks to see Steph probably not get his third MVP this year. Might have been his last legitimate shot at one, too.