Who do you think wins MVP this season? (2025-26 NBA MVP Discussion Thread)

[hugepatsfan]

Obviously not a candidate to actually win it, but how high in the voting could Jaylen Brown realistically finish? He’s currently at 29/6/5 with a on a team that’s outperforming expectations as the 3 seed in the East. Does he have a shot at finishing top 5? Keep in mind that Welby/Giannis might miss the 65 game cut off. His counting stats and efficiency are reasonably competitive with and in some cases better than most other candidates in the poll and his “narrative” argument is pretty strong right now.

Like I said, not a candidate to win it but a top 5 mvp finish would really be a tremendous and somewhat validating achievement for him so curious if anyone thinks he’s got a shot at it.

[Infinite Llamas]

Obviously not a candidate to actually win it, but how high in the voting could Jaylen Brown realistically finish? He’s currently at 29/6/5 with a on a team that’s outperforming expectations as the 3 seed in the East. Does he have a shot at finishing top 5? Keep in mind that Welby/Giannis might miss the 65 game cut off. His counting stats and efficiency are reasonably competitive with and in some cases better than most other candidates in the poll and his “narrative” argument is pretty strong right now.

Like I said, not a candidate to win it but a top 5 mvp finish would really be a tremendous and somewhat validating achievement for him so curious if anyone thinks he’s got a shot at it.

If Boston gets 1-2 seed I think he will be a lock for top-5.
Jokic/SGA/Luka are the locks right now. Couple spots open for grabs.

[Cubbies2120]

I didn't think that Luka could have a better year than his last full year in Dallas with 33/9/9. But he's on pace for it now.

Thank you Nico!

If Luka were able to hold these averages, and I doubt that he can, I think it would be the best (PPG + RPG + APG) NBA season since Kareem in 1972.

KAJ 1972
34.8/16.6/4.6
56.0 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Luka 2026 so far*
35.0/9.2/9.1
53.3 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Luka 2024
33.9/9.2/9.8
52.9 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Russ 2017
31.6/10.7/10.4
52.7 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Jokic 2025
29.6/12.7/10.2
52.5 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Jokic 2026*
29.2/12.3/11.0
52.5 (PPG + RPG + APG)

Lebron will be in and out of the lineup all year due to being an old man so that leaves a lot of usage there for Luka. I think what Luka is doing is very sustainable with the likely hood of his scoring even increasing or his assists depending on what direction he wants to attack teams as the season goes on. Looking like its shaping up to be the best season of his career thus far.

Problem for Luka is, it's SGA and Jokic's best season of their careers thus far too...

Both Jokic and SGA are putting up:
- Best personal stats
- Best team record to start season

Luka is a distant third in the MVP voting unless the voters want to cast some pity votes.

[hagredionis]

Problem for Luka is, it's SGA and Jokic's best season of their careers thus far too...

Both Jokic and SGA are putting up:
- Best personal stats
- Best team record to start season

Luka is a distant third in the MVP voting unless the voters want to cast some pity votes.

That's of course not true. First of all the MVP award is not "the best personal stats" award. One has to consider that SGA plays on a stacked team which is crushing their opponents by 30 points margin without him. Jokic has guys Gordon and Murray who are able to score 50 points this year plus his defense has gotten worse. Meanwhile the Lakers under Luka's leadership are now in second something that nobody expected given the roster. Before the season people were even going on whois going to have more success the Lakers or the Clippers but Luka managed to drag the Lakers into second.

[Cubbies2120]

Problem for Luka is, it's SGA and Jokic's best season of their careers thus far too...

Both Jokic and SGA are putting up:
- Best personal stats
- Best team record to start season

Luka is a distant third in the MVP voting unless the voters want to cast some pity votes.

That's of course not true. First of all the MVP award is not "the best personal stats" award. One has to consider that SGA plays on a stacked team which is crushing their opponents by 30 points margin without him. Jokic has guys Gordon and Murray who are able to score 50 points this year plus his defense has gotten worse. Meanwhile the Lakers under Luka's leadership are now in second something that nobody expected given the roster. Before the season people were even going on whois going to have more success the Lakers or the Clippers but Luka managed to drag the Lakers into second.

Gordon, their best defender, and Braun have been out for half the season.

Luka has missed 6 games so far this season and the Lakers win-rate without him would have them the #3 seed in the East.

He's only allowed to even miss 9 more games I believe...troublesome for an injury prone player like Luka.

Also important to note that Nuggets and Lakers have exactly the same record, and because:
Nuggets vs. Lakers H2H is 0-0
Lakers division is trash so they're division leaders (vs Nuggets sharing division with OKC)

This is the only reason Lakers are temporarily #2...now factor in that Luka missed 6 of those games...not sure we'd give him credit for 'dragging them into second'. AR15 should get that credit tbh...

[hagredionis]

Problem for Luka is, it's SGA and Jokic's best season of their careers thus far too...

Both Jokic and SGA are putting up:
- Best personal stats
- Best team record to start season

Luka is a distant third in the MVP voting unless the voters want to cast some pity votes.

That's of course not true. First of all the MVP award is not "the best personal stats" award. One has to consider that SGA plays on a stacked team which is crushing their opponents by 30 points margin without him. Jokic has guys Gordon and Murray who are able to score 50 points this year plus his defense has gotten worse. Meanwhile the Lakers under Luka's leadership are now in second something that nobody expected given the roster. Before the season people were even going on whois going to have more success the Lakers or the Clippers but Luka managed to drag the Lakers into second.

Gordon, their best defender, and Braun have been out for half the season.

Luka has missed 6 games so far this season and the Lakers win-rate without him would have them the #3 seed in the East.

He's only allowed to even miss 9 more games I believe...troublesome for an injury prone player like Luka.

Lebron missed 16 games, Gordon missed 10 games. Btw how many of those 6 games that Luka missed were against +.500 teams?

[Mavrelous]

When Luka was carrying injury riddled Mavs in 23/24 posting 34/9/10, Jokic stans flooded MVP threads with posts about record and on/off, Gordon and Braun are down and suddenly record and on/off are no longer our morning star, we need nuance.
If Luka leads these Lakers to better record, he's ahead of Jokic easily, Jokic mau be out of Gordon and Braun, Luka has no defenders on his team to begin with, when we said Jokic had elite supporting, the stans cried it was a carry job.

[Ron Swanson]

I'm also old enough to remember the Jokic, Nuggets fans taking their way too premature victory laps on the Jokic on/off stuff 10-games into the season ("see, he's still carrying a bunch of scrubs"). Low and behold, no more Mike Malone hockey line-changes and improved bench depth, and it's almost like it's playing out exactly like some of us have been saying for years (+11.9 on the court, +0.4 when he's off). Obviously he's still an all-time ceiling/floor-raiser combo dude, but it turns out the Nuggets also certainly aren't "the Washington Wizards" when he sits...

[Cubbies2120]

That's of course not true. First of all the MVP award is not "the best personal stats" award. One has to consider that SGA plays on a stacked team which is crushing their opponents by 30 points margin without him. Jokic has guys Gordon and Murray who are able to score 50 points this year plus his defense has gotten worse. Meanwhile the Lakers under Luka's leadership are now in second something that nobody expected given the roster. Before the season people were even going on whois going to have more success the Lakers or the Clippers but Luka managed to drag the Lakers into second.

Gordon, their best defender, and Braun have been out for half the season.

Luka has missed 6 games so far this season and the Lakers win-rate without him would have them the #3 seed in the East.

He's only allowed to even miss 9 more games I believe...troublesome for an injury prone player like Luka.

Lebron missed 16 games, Gordon missed 10 games. Btw how many of those 6 games that Luka missed were against +.500 teams?

Hang on, are we comparing LeBron missing games to Gordon missing games? Didn't you just use Gordon's impact (50+ points this year!) to detract from Jokic, therefore Gordon's impact >>> LeBron's impact?

Pick - is Gordon a very impactful player or not?

Also to answer your question, half the games he missed were against .600 or better teams...not even .500. Team is 2-1 in those games.