We are now a third of the way into the season, and the MVP race is becoming clearer. There have been some terrific performances, but Nikola Jokic still has not relinquished the top spot he’s held since our first go at this in November.
Some players have cooled off considerably since then, while others have risen. Joel Embiid didn’t make our list to start the season and won’t be on any subsequent ones. He’s already missed enough games to fail to meet the 65-game threshold for the award. Also, Anthony Davis has fallen out of the top five after a Lakers slide.
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Who has taken AD’s place? Here are our leaders in the quest for the 2025 MVP award.
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NBA MVP rankings
Nikola Jokic
- Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
Averages: 30.9 PTS, 13.3 REB, 9.9 AST, 0.7 BLK, 1.8 STL, 55.8% FG, 48.9% 3PT
Team record: 14-10, 5th in Western Conference
Any MVP ranking that doesn’t have Jokic up top simply isn’t paying attention to what the big man is doing. He’s second in the league in points, assists and rebounds per game. Nobody has ever come close to leading all three of those categories at the same time.
It’s not as if those are empty stats, either. Denver has always leaned heavily on its star, but this season has been on a totally different level. The Nuggets are 30.1 points per 100 possessions better with Jokic on the court vs. off it, according to Cleaning the Glass, which ranks in the 100th percentile of players.
The way Jokic gets his points is remarkable. Because the Nuggets don’t have a lot of shooting, he has taken it upon himself to become one of the best 3-point shooters in the league. His 48.9 percent on those shots is behind only Taurean Prince and Isaac Okoro for the league lead, and he remains the best post-up player in the game.
This would be Jokic’s fourth MVP award. That would put him in a generational group including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James. He deserves to be among that company.
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- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Averages: 32.7 PTS, 6.1 AST, 11.5 REB, 0.6 STL, 1.6 BLK, 61.4% FG
Team record: 14-11, 6th in Eastern Conference
After a 2-8 start to the season, the Bucks are slowly creeping back up the standings in the East. It has been Antetokounmpo dragging them up that mountain.
Thanks to an improved midrange shot, Antetokounmpo leads the league with 32.7 points per game with remarkable efficiency. He has yet to shoot worse than 50 percent from the field in a game all season.
This is a bit of a down year for Antetokounmpo defensively, but a below-average season for him is still one of the better ones in the league. He broke up a key lob to get the Bucks to the NBA Cup final against the Hawks, showing he can still make huge plays on that end of the floor.
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