As the season is coming to an end, all eyes point to Nikola Jokic as the MVP. His presence on the court has been dominating, and his case for MVP was only made stronger with Jamal Murray’s ACL injury. The Nuggets have been 5-1 since his injury, their only loss being to Stephen Curry playing like it is NBA Jam in the month of April.
There has been no drop-off in Jokic’s performance. He is the clear front runner and the likely MVP this season barring injury, but he has not missed any games this season for it to make much of a difference.
At this point in the season, the only way Nikola Jokic does not win the MVP is the injury bug gets him.
The media seems to be pointing the finger towards Joel Embiid for 2nd in MVP voting. As dominating as his performances have been he has not played enough games, in an already condensed season, for me to consider him eligible for the award.
2nd place…
I have Giannis Antetokounmpo. Although he has missed a couple of games, his impact on his team has only increased since last season. He is finding other ways to dominate the game without having the offense initiated through him. This has been the team’s downfall for the past 2 seasons, but they have also brought on Jrue Holiday to allow Giannis to play off-ball.
His usage rate is down from 36.3, leading the league, down to 32.2 with no drop off in his game. On top of all of this, at 51 games Giannis has 65 blocks and 60 steals, last season, through 63 games, he had 66 blocks and 61 steals. So not only has he been dominating on offense even though he has the ball less, but he is still dominant as ever on defense. If the Bucks are able to end the season with Giannis dominating as he usually does, he has a very strong case to be the MVP 3 years in a row.
Now for 3rd place…
For this spot, the talk seems to revolve around guards, Damian Lillard, Stephen Curry or even Chris Paul, but he will not win it because Charles Barkley said he should.
Damian Lillard was dominating January through mid-March. It would seem every game ended up being a nail-biter and more often than not, Dame Time made the winning play. But through the month of April, he has been struggling, he is shooting 37.1% from the field, he recently addressed this to the media. He cited the opposing teams’ defense to be the reason for his struggles.
If he hopes to regain some traction in the MVP race, he needs to finish the remaining games this season on a strong note and get the Blazers into a better playoff position. The opportunity is there, the Lakers are still hobbled, and the Nuggets do not have Jamal Murray.
Stephen Curry, the undisputed greatest shooter ever, has been playing out of his mind in the month of April. The Warriors are currently a 10th seed, unless they can get to the 6th seed or higher, which is do-able, I cannot put him in this discussion. Before the month of April, he was on track to shoot the worst from distance his entire career.
Chris Paul is a valuable player to his team, he may be the most valuable player on their team, but they still have Devin Booker, and the Suns went 8-0 last year in the bubble without Chris Paul. He is doing phenomenal things for the Suns… like taking over the game versus the Lakers and out clutching Lebron James after Booker got ejected. I do not see any scenario where Paul wins the MVP unless every player in front of him gets injured.
My pick for 3rd place is Julius Randle…
Hear me out, no way he would be in this conversation if Lebron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Joel Embiid, or even Kawhi Leonard were completely healthy. But since they are all missing significant time, this allows Randle to enter the discussion. Randle belongs on an All-NBA team this year. Injuries to other players allow him to have a chance at being on 1st or 2nd team. If he is able to sneak onto either 1st or 2nd team, he has a case to receive MVP votes.
Apart from being the front runner for Most Improved Player, he has also made the Knicks relevant again. For the 1st time in 8 years, they have something positive going for them. They are not only in the playoff picture, but they are also the 4th seed, they have a very real chance at being the 3rd seed because of Randle’s stellar play.
The biggest thing going for him is he is healthy, not something many star players in the NBA can say this season. He has missed one game, which does not hurt him at all. The Knicks are on a 9-game win streak as well, while Randle is averaging 30-7-9. He is the focal point in a rather stale Knicks offense. They have been elite defensively, but their offense is run through Randle.
He is an extremely versatile player. Depending on the team he is going against, he can become a dominating paint presence, an effective iso player, or an elite point forward. He is more than capable of guarding 1-5 and has done so many nights. His play is very similar, although not nearly as dominating, to LeBron James. He is being used as LeBron was in his Miami days.
As the Knicks are beginning to gain more traction to close this season out, more and more voters should take notice of Randle’s excellent play throughout the entire season, along with making the Knicks watchable again.
Randle has a path to win MVP and I believe it is very possible. The Bucks have not been on a hot stretch this season, so the Knicks would have to continue their dominance and overtake the Bucks in the standings. To pass Nikola Jokic is the difficult part. The only way Randle could be the MVP favorite is if the Knicks continue to win at this rate and the Nuggets end the season very poorly.
