Every NBA team has played between 16 and 20 games so far this fall, meaning we’re nearly at the one-quarter mark of the 2022/23 season. While it’s too early to draw any sweeping conclusions about how the rest of the season will play out, enough time has passed for a handful of stars to emerge as early frontrunners for this season’s MVP award.
In his weekly look at the MVP race, Michael C. Wright of NBA.com highlights Nuggets center and reigning two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who has moved into his top three this week after returning in style from a stint in the NBA’s health and safety protocols. In his two games since coming back, Jokic has racked up 70 points, 19 rebounds, and 19 assists with a scorching .742 FG%, increasing his full-season averages to 22.7 PPG, 9.5 RPG, and 9.0 APG with a .627 FG%.
While Jokic isn’t scoring or rebounding at quite the same rate that he did in his past two MVP seasons, his field goal percentage and assists per game would be career highs, and it seems like he’s just hitting his stride for a Denver team making a push for a top spot in the Western Conference standings — at 11-7, the Nuggets are just a half-game behind the No. 1 Suns.
Still, Jokic ranks behind two players that remain atop Wright’s list for a second consecutive week. At No. 1, it’s Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, who leads the NBA with an astonishing 34.0 points per game on a career-best 50.3% from the floor.
As usual, Doncic is filling up the box score, with 9.0 RPG, 8.1 APG, and a career-best 1.8 SPG. He hasn’t gotten a ton of help from his teammates so far, so Dallas is just 9-8 on the season, but the team’s No. 10 seed is somewhat misleading. The West’s top 10 teams are separated by just two games.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, the No. 2 player on Wright’s list, has his team’s performance working in his favor. At 14-4, Boston comfortably holds the NBA’s best record in the early going, and Tatum has clearly been the player most responsible for that success. He’s posting a career-best 30.6 PPG to go along with 7.9 RPG, 4.7 APG (a career high), 1.3 BPG (also a career high), and a rock-solid .472/.353/.868 shooting line.
Interestingly, none of these three players are the betting favorite at BetOnline.ag. The site has Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo as the frontrunner at +270, just ahead of Doncic (+275) and Tatum (+280), with Jokic all the way down at +2800 (potential voter fatigue is likely factored into those odds).
Antetokounmpo, the No. 4 player on Wright’s list, certainly has as strong a case as ever. He has missed a little time, but in 14 games, he’s putting up a career-high 30.5 PPG on 52.3% shooting, plus 11.6 RPG and 5.5 APG. He also might be the best defender of the top MVP candidates, with one Defensive Player of the Year award already on his résumé.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Wright’s No. 5 choice and the fourth betting favorite on BetOnline, should become a serious contender if Golden State starts winning a few more games. The Warriors are below .500 for now (9-10), but Curry has been as good as ever, with 31.6 PPG on a career-high .524 FG%. He’s also contributing 7.2 APG and 6.6 RPG (a career high) while making an eye-popping 5.2 threes per game at a 44.4% clip.
Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, Sixers center Joel Embiid, and Nets forward Kevin Durant are among the stars capable of making an MVP push, and dark-horse candidates like Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell and Suns guard Devin Booker will force their way into the conversation if they continue playing like they have and their teams keep winning.
We want to know what you think. Who would your MVP pick be if the season ended today? Who do you expect to strengthen their case as the season progresses? Who would you put your money on as the year-end winner at this point?
Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!
It’s between Mitchell and Tatum.
Voted award = prevailing media narrative. The media has been pushing Doncic since day 1.
Who do you think it should be at this point? Dallas is a dumpster fire without LD.
The narrative and numbers are there. As long as he can stay relatively injury free and Dallas can finish with a decent record the MVP award is Luka’s to lose.
Way too early to even talk about it.
Agreed!
If Steve Nash can win 2 MVPs in the middle of the Kobe era then Trae is def squarely in the hunt for his 1st of 3or4. Kings doubled him pretty much everytime they could in the 2nd half. He still killed em #regicide … link to m.youtube.com
Perhaps Atlanta should figure out how to win some games before worrying about individual hardware.
Lol
Tatum with The Celtics Record Leads the early MVP race.
Doncic. Not even close.
De’aaron fox
1/ Luka
2/ AD
3/ Curry
4/ Jokic
5/ Embiid
Luka is easily the favorite right now
I know Warriors record says otherwise, but Curry is arguably having one of the best yr of his career if not the best. He’s not making careless turnovers this yr and shooting at a very high efficiency. He’s the MVP now and will be if he doesnt get injured. What a joy to watch him play!!!’