NBA MVP Discussion 20/21 (Fresh poll ➥ Vote)

[brettski]

Giannis should be top 3 right now. It’s a very open season actually, the last 20 games or so should way up real sharply in the voters mind.

MVP is a bit like some of the cooking shows out there. You can screw up the entre and still score OK because people mostly remember the desert (what they ate last). If its considered "tied" going in to the final 20 games then yes most of the less nuanced people (aka most of ESPN) will either vote Lebron or who performs best those 20 games. Guys like Zach Lowe will look at the entire season and break it down in detail, that usually tells me who was really most important.

Also don't think Harden should be on the list (but again people remember the end of the season). What he did in Houston counts towards his MVP campaign and should rule him out.

[DCasey91]

Giannis should be top 3 right now. It’s a very open season actually, the last 20 games or so should way up real sharply in the voters mind.

MVP is a bit like some of the cooking shows out there. You can screw up the entre and still score OK because people mostly remember the desert (what they ate last). If its considered "tied" going in to the final 20 games then yes most of the less nuanced people (aka most of ESPN) will either vote Lebron or who performs best those 20 games. Guys like Zach Lowe will look at the entire season and break it down in detail, that usually tells me who was really most important.

Also don't think Harden should be on the list (but again people remember the end of the season). What he did in Houston counts towards his MVP campaign and should rule him out.

Haha I like the analogy!! Most likely the top 6-7 candidates are cooking something fierce more so than others but their story isn’t as good as others with what you would say less enticing food. There’s one that’s gone back to back and he’s cooking something fierce for the last month but some think we’ll he couldn’t get it done when it mattered lol.

Honestly I couldn’t tell you the MVP it is fairly open atm. Westbrook/Harden year it was a two horse race. But there could easily be one that comes from 4-5 right now and wins it (Curry?). Either way for me it’s very interesting to see who will win. Keeps the regular season games enjoyable (outside of high quality games).

[AussieBuck]

Embiid is probably the only other guy who could have a 2 way 4th quarter as good as Giannis had against the Clippers.

Embiid
Jokic
Giannis

IMO.

[Gatorade Sax]

Giannis should be top 3 right now. It’s a very open season actually, the last 20 games or so should way up real sharply in the voters mind.

MVP is a bit like some of the cooking shows out there. You can screw up the entre and still score OK because people mostly remember the desert (what they ate last). If its considered "tied" going in to the final 20 games then yes most of the less nuanced people (aka most of ESPN) will either vote Lebron or who performs best those 20 games. Guys like Zach Lowe will look at the entire season and break it down in detail, that usually tells me who was really most important.

Also don't think Harden should be on the list (but again people remember the end of the season). What he did in Houston counts towards his MVP campaign and should rule him out.

Agreed on Harden. Has anybody ever won MVP switching teams the same year? I can’t recall one.

[Gibson22]

Let's wait the all star break

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Lots of time left. Giannis shouldn't be too 4 considering the whole season but if brings them back to a top 2 record instead of top over the whole league and continues his current pace, no way he shouldn't be considered. A lot of it's but the whole playoffs and bubble ball impacting the current mvp race is dumb. That was last season and **** was crazy in the bubble.

[JN61]

primetime blowout for Lebron, Lakers go back to 2nd overall record, Philly loss yesterday and Bucks surging to that 1 seed (soon). Embiid is gonna find himself in the 3rd seed soon, imo. Gonna make this a very weak MVP year

Primetime blowout for Schröder*

[Freighttrain]

Correct list right now.

1. LeBron
2. Embiid


3. Jokic









4. Kawhi
5. Harden

Lol not having Giannis on the list when he’s played the best over the last month. What’s all the voters going to do when Giannis keeps this up and has a better season than last year and the bucks are the top seed again. And I don’t want to hear playoff success this is a regular season award. But Giannis free throws improvement and adding Jrue makes this team scary good.

Whether you like it or not, what happens in the playoffs & offseason matters for MVP, (even though I think it should matter even more). The historical significance of handing Giannis a third straight MVP would be that he's in the tier of Bird and Wilt who only accomplished that. And I'm sorry but he's just not that good to be in that category when he can't even get into the finals.

[Packbuckman]

Correct list right now.

1. LeBron
2. Embiid


3. Jokic









4. Kawhi
5. Harden

Lol not having Giannis on the list when he’s played the best over the last month. What’s all the voters going to do when Giannis keeps this up and has a better season than last year and the bucks are the top seed again. And I don’t want to hear playoff success this is a regular season award. But Giannis free throws improvement and adding Jrue makes this team scary good.

Whether you like it or not, what happens in the playoffs & offseason matters for MVP, (even though I think it should matter even more). The historical significance of handing Giannis a third straight MVP would be that he's in the tier of Bird and Wilt who only accomplished that. And I'm sorry but he's just not that good to be in that category when he can't even get into the finals.

Then you know nothing about history or basketball because Giannis is that good my man entire defenses key on him the entire game. He’s back up over 29 pts a gm again after a slow start with new teammates. He just turned 26 last year was fluky year I don’t put to much stock in playing in that bubble after that long stoppage. Right now no one is playing better or carrying his team. That 4th quarter yesterday against the clippers was as dominant for a player both offensively and defensively as it gets. Michael Jordan was never to a finals at the age of 26 so what about that. Bird was such on stacked teams in Boston and Wilt lost to those stacked Boston teams with Russell a lot.

[Blaze94]

Then he slept with your girl? Like why are you so salty lol

not salty..tired of low iq fans like you pushing bs narrative of lebron..dudes not even in the top 5 at this point..are you like in a lebron trance or something lmao

I don’t even think he’s leading right now but I think he wins it before the end of the season. You went from a fan to obsessing over how much you don’t like him and his fans. It stems from something and I don’t even wanna know. Sad stuff. Work on that, it might consume a lot of your time, sport

lmao at you getting me banned just cause i talked about your hero. sad that a man makes you react like that

[Blaze94]

Embiid
Jokic
Giannis

any of them three will win MVP imo

Kawhi,Lillard,Curry,Lebron are after them

[KyRo23]

not salty..tired of low iq fans like you pushing bs narrative of lebron..dudes not even in the top 5 at this point..are you like in a lebron trance or something lmao

I don’t even think he’s leading right now but I think he wins it before the end of the season. You went from a fan to obsessing over how much you don’t like him and his fans. It stems from something and I don’t even wanna know. Sad stuff. Work on that, it might consume a lot of your time, sport

lmao at you getting me banned just cause i talked about your hero. sad that a man makes you react like that

I have no idea what you're talking about. You don't look banned nor did I do anything that would get you banned.

We both got warnings is all I see lol

[Ron Swanson]

I love how people keep running with the "you can't give it to Giannis again after falling short in the playoffs" narrative while just ignoring that Wilt, Jordan, and Lebron were all 2-3 time MVP's before they ever won their first championship. If he's the best regular season player for the 3rd straight year, then he's the MVP. I'd have him no lower than 3rd right now.

[Statlanta]

The narrative against Giannis shouldn’t be for his playoff struggles. It should however be due to having better regular season success prior with similar numbers

[C0bR]

LeBron's in the clear again. Embiid didn't capitalize at all on the Lakers' losing streak.

[Balls Deep]

Nobody is giving Giannis ****. Take him off the poll.

At this point in time he's far more deserving than LBJ. Or do we not care about actual stats at all anymore??

He's not better than LeBron though, stats can only take you so far. Bron's effect on the Lakers goes deeper than numbers bruh. Besides, if LeBron didn't win 3 MVPs in a row, this guy surely won't.

[Homer38]

The last time that had so many contenders in the middle of the season or later for the MVP was probably in 2006 .... This year is one of the best races ever .... At least 4-5 players could win the MVP this year with a big second half of the season.

[yoyoboy]

Milwaukee is only 7-10 against teams .500 and above. And 3 of those wins came against teams that are exactly .500 (Toronto, Dallas, Miami without Dragic and Butler) while another came against Golden State without Draymond when the team was playing terrible basketball.

Against the top 4 seeds in each conference (excluding Milwaukee), the Bucks are 1-7. So yeah I'm not personally overly impressed by Giannis and the Bucks beating up on bad teams to inflate their 2nd ranked SRS, even if they get the top record in the East. We already know Giannis and the Bucks can bully the average to bad teams. Show us you can actually hang with the elite competition; otherwise, who cares.

[scrabbarista]

As of the morning of March 1st, with movement in the last week.

----------------------------------------------------

1. 25.4 - Jokic, DEN
2. 21.4 - Embiid, PHI
3. 20.4 - Antetokounmpo, MIL +3
4. 19.8 - Leonard, LAC -1
5. 19.7 - James, LAL -1

6. 19.5 - Gobert, UTA -1
7. 16.9 - Lillard, POR
8. 16.8 - Curry, GSW +3
9. 16.4 - Conley, UTA -1
10. 15.8 - Harden, BKN -1

11. 15.6 - George, LAC -1
12. 14.9 - Paul, PHO +10
13. 14.8 - Irving, BKN +4
14. 14.7 - Randle, NYK -1
15. 14.4 - Doncic, DAL -2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jokic continues to expand his lead while everyone on RGM continues to pretend he doesn't exist.

Antetokounmpo makes a giant leap into true contention.

Curry and Chris Paul made big jumps, though neither is in contention (with the top six) at the moment.

James had some good showings and some bad ones - as he has all season. Somehow, he seems to be the only player whose good showings "cancel out" his bad ones within the general narrative. Every other player seems to have their bad points "cancel out" their good ones. That's my impression reading this thread, anyway.

NOTE: Particularly outside of the top six, movement can be very dependent on what the surrounding players did that week, as well as on how big the gaps between players were before the week started. Sometimes a player will play great for a week, his score will go up, and his ranking will drop (maybe Randle, this week). Or, vice versa: a player will play poorly, his score will drop, and his ranking won't move (maybe Lillard, this week). Also note that the further down the list one goes, the more bunched up the scores are. That's how someone like Chris Paul can jump ten players on the strength of just one strong week.

DISCLAIMERS:

1) This formula is not designed to determine the best players. It's an MVP formula, designed to choose an MVP, and - to a lesser extent - to identify the top five MVP candidates. It does that job well: it matches 10 of the last 12 winners, with the two exceptions being 2011 and 2017 - definitely the two most controversial, narrative-driven MVP's in recent memory.

2) The number of games a team has played can be an important factor here in such a weird season. More games equals more opportunity to provide value to your team. There are large discrepancies between the number of games some teams have played.

[DutchManDanFan]

If there's no clear winner, LeBron might get another MVP. And he deserves another one. If it's deserved for this year or not.