How an NBA rule can help Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP odds.
After finishing fifth in MVP voting last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has made a serious push this season to win the coveted award.
The 25-year-old has averaged 31.3 points on 54.7% shooting, 6.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds. He’s averaging a league-leading 2.2 steals. The All-Star starter has led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 32-15 record and a serious shot at finishing first in the Western Conference.
When looking at his resume, Gilgeous-Alexander’s stacks up against anybody’s in the league. The only player who’s had a definitive better season is Joel Embiid.
The reigning MVP is averaging 36 points on 53.9% shooting, 11.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.8 blocks. The Philadelphia 76ers continue to be title contenders due to the 29-year-old’s phenomenal play.
If Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t win MVP, it could very well be because of Embiid. However, a new NBA rule could boost the former’s odds.
In the offseason, the new collective bargaining agreement included a clause that stipulates a player must play at least 65 games to be eligible for awards. Embiid, who’s had trouble with durability, has already missed 12 games this season, which means he can only miss five more games and remain eligible for MVP.
That’s a tough task to ask of the seven-footer, who’s played 65-plus games in only two of his 10 seasons in the league. This means there’s a very high chance he will not qualify for the award.
Meanwhile, Gilgeous-Alexander has remained durable. He has played in 46 of OKC’s 47 games, which gives him plenty of room to miss action if needed.
If Embiid is out of the way, Gilgeous-Alexander becomes one of the favorites if the Thunder continue to win. Averaging an historically efficient 30 points while playing great defense sounds like an MVP season on paper.
If Gilgeous-Alexander claims MVP, he’ll join Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the only Thunder players to win the award. A pretty rich history of success for OKC considering its tenure since relocation.
After a career season, SGA finished 5th in MVP voting.
The NBA announced its MVP award recipient for the 2022-23 regular season on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was the runaway winner.
Embiid finished with 915 total points and 73 first-place votes while runner-up Nikola Jokic finished with 674 total points and 15 first-place votes. Giannis Antetokounmpo was the only other player to receive first-place votes (12). He finished with 606 total points.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely cemented his spot on the All-NBA first team. He finished fifth in MVP voting with 46 total points. He collected six fourth-place votes and 28 fifth-place votes.
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum finished ahead of Gilgeous-Alexander to round up the top five MVP vote-getters. The full voting results can be viewed below:
The 24-year-old enjoyed the best season of his career with 31.4 points on 51% shooting, 5.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds. The Thunder (40-42) finished a win shy of the NBA playoffs — an impressive feat considering how low their preseason expectations were among the consensus.
Nikola Jokic’s defense just opened up the NBA MVP debate
There aren’t too many arguments you could make against Nikola Jokic for winning his 3rd MVP right now. At least, not when it comes to basketball.
The Nuggets center is averaging a triple-double with 11.9 rebounds, 10 assists and 24.7 points per game. He’s shooting 63% from the floor, 40% from 3-point range and 81% from the free-throw line. And those are just his counting stats — we haven’t even talked about the advanced numbers that people hate so much yet.
But after this last week in the NBA, there is a case to be made against Jokic. And it revolves around his defense.
The Nuggets have been awful over the last week. Denver has lost four in a row to teams it has no business losing to — the Spurs, the Raptors, the Bulls and the Nets. All fine teams, but they shouldn’t be dominating the Nuggets the way they all have.
At the center of it all has been Nikola Jokic. Teams have legitimately been going at him over and over and over again, forcing the big man to constantly defend. He’s been awful.
R/NBA user "Zhugo" has been posting compilations (like the one below) of Nikola Jokic getting abused defensively every game and then posting highlights for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Each of them getting millions of views on Reddit. He's successfully shifting/creating a narrative. pic.twitter.com/GNZBvPT4am
Look, supercuts of terrible defense from Jokic doesn’t necessarily represent Jokic’s defensive output constantly. There are metrics out there that say he’s actually a pretty good defender. And this doesn’t mean that he can’t be the MVP — plenty of defensively-challenged greats have won it before.
This year’s MVP race — for the second season in a row — will require voters to split hairs. Things like head-to-head matchups, defensive play, and even the player’s individual history will come into play.
Unfortunately for Jokic and Nuggets fans, the center just gave voters a lot to think about.
One hundred league insiders cast their ballots on who they would vote for, and Jayson Tatum came out as the early favorite with 47 first-place votes and 759 total points. He was followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who received 36 first-place votes, and Luka Doncic with 10 first-place votes.
The top three matched For The Win’s latest MVP ladder, though there are slight deviations after that. Stephen Curry, who was recently ruled out for several weeks with a shoulder injury, was fourth in the poll and Nikola Jokic was fifth.
The top three also matches MVP odds at BetMGM where Tatum leads the way at +250, followed by Antetokounmpo at +300 and Doncic at +350.
There’s a steep drop from there, though. Joel Embiid, who was is 10th in both the poll and FTW’s rankings, has the next best odds at +900. Jokic is fifth at +1400.
Six through nine of ESPN’s poll are Ja Morant, Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson and Devin Booker. Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Davis and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also received votes.
SGA received a fifth-place vote for MVP through the 1/3 mark of the season.
The highlight of the season for the Oklahoma City Thunder is the superstar leap Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has made.
After averaging 18.2 points on 47.3% shooting in his first four seasons combined, Gilgeous-Alexander is having a career year. He is averaging 31 points on 50.6% shooting, 5.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds in 26 games this season. The Thunder are 11-17 and in 13th place in the Western Conference.
It seems Gilgeous-Alexander’s season is getting recognition at a national level.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps published the first straw poll edition of the 2022-23 NBA season. The straw poll is conducted during every third of an NBA season with 100 NBA media members from all 28 markets filling out a ballot with five players.
The point system goes as follows: 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth and one point for fifth.
Gilgeous-Alexander received his first vote in Bontemps’ straw poll system with one fifth-place vote. In total, 13 players received at least one point.
Boston Celtic star Jayson Tatum leads the way with 759 points. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is second at 687 points.
AD is averaging more than 40 points in his last four games.
Just when I was ready to submit to what an awesome season Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having and add him back to the ladder despite OKC’s 11-16 record, another player on a team well below .500 came shooting up the rankings. And well, there’s simply too many good players on winning teams for me to add both Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Davis to my ladder.
So, it’ll be Davis cracking the top 10 on this edition, joining Joel Embiid in replacing Tyrese Haliburton and Devin Booker. Booker was a tough player to knock, but a recent hamstring injury threatens to keep him sidelined a little while and he was only averaging 14 points on less than 35% shooting in the three games before that, all losses.
So maybe, SGA makes it next time around. I also expect Zion Williamson to crack the rankings soon with the way he’s been playing lately.
How bad can an NBA MVP’s team be before he shouldn’t be an MVP anymore? It’s a question worth asking.
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What’s happening, people? It’s Sykes, once again, with another edition of Layup Lines to usher you into the weekend. Hope that Thanksgiving turkey was amazing.
I want to talk a bit about the MVP race so far. Obviously, it’s still early. We’re nowhere near deciding who could potentially be the NBA’s MVP so far. But I think, with how crowded the races has been, this is a good question to ask.
And that question is how low can the win threshold get for an NBA MVP?
Typically, the MVP goes to the best player on one of the best teams in the league. That’s always been the tradition. But, obviously, that’s changed quite a bit over the last few years.
But can things go even lower? With the way things are shaping up, that might be something that has to be considered down the line.
Just take a look at the NBA’s MVP ladder today. Luka Doncic is at the top on a 10-seeded Dallas Mavericks team that sits just one game over .500. Stephen Curry isn’t very far behind in 5th on a team that is one game below .500. Anthony Davis is in the top 10 despite playing on a team that doesn’t look like it’s close to being playoff ready.
There are plenty of other candidates to choose from. If you want to go with the best player from the best team, Jayson Tatum looks like he’ll be more than worthy of taking home the award. You’ve also got Giannis Antetkounmpo and Donovan Mitchell within range.
But it’s hard to argue against Doncic’s case at this point. He’s already scored 40 points 4 times this season. There’s no team that depends on their star more — he’s got a usage rate of 38.5%. Yet he’s still crushing every advanced metric out there and giving historic performances every single night. You could say much of the same about Steph Curry, too, on the Warriors end.
Again, it’s still early. A lot of this will correct itself. But the thought exercise of “would a player on a 42-win team be worthy of an MVP?” seems to certainly be worth entertaining right now with the way things stand.
That’s just my two cents.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Zion Williamson knows the vibe for Thanksgiving. Obviously, he’s had issues with his weight before and that’s led to a ton of memes and jokes about him as well as speculation about how seriously he takes his job.
“If he were to tell the world about his favorite Thanksgiving food — something that divides the country, from turkey (is it overrated?) to side dishes (just ask us after our Thanksgiving food draft earlier this week) — he would be trending for all the wrong reasons.
“Zion loves turkey? So basic!” they’d say.
“Zion loves dinner rolls?” they might say on Twitter, with awful jokes about his weight.
So Williamson, when asked on Wednesday night, made the right call.”
Kings (+255) vs. Celtics (-7.5, -310), O/U 237.5, 8 PM ET
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) ORG XMIT: MICO109
I know, I know. Kings-Celtics doesn’t really seem like it’ll be a good one. But don’t get it twisted — the Sacramento Kings are very, very good. These are the two hottest teams in the NBA right now with the Kings being 8-2 in their last 10 and the C’s being 9-1. They’ve got the two best offenses in the league by a mile. A whole lot of points will be scored in this one. Take the over.
Shootaround
— Patrick Beverley has been suspended 3 games for his altercation with the Suns that caused a stir earlier this week
Top 10 odds for every award entering the NBA season.
Bookmark this link. It’ll make for a fun exercise at the end of the NBA season to go back and see how wrong (or right?!) bookmakers were about awards in 2022-23.
This is a peek at top 10 odds for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year.
We all think we have a handle on where things are headed, but how many people are willing to put their money on it? These odds from BetMGM show just how much money your opinions are worth.
(Odds are from before the season-opening games Tuesday.)
Nikola Jokic is the 2021-22 NBA most valuable player. Explore the stats behind his MVP season.
Nikola Jokic is the NBA’s 2021-22 regular season MVP, beating out both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid to capture his second most valuable player award. The 27-year old becomes just the fourteenth player to win multiple MVPs in a career.
Both Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. were sidelined with injuries all year long, and it was Jokic who was left to pick up the pieces. His herculean effort during the 21-22 season kept Denver out of the lottery and firmly in the in the West. Again and again Jokic kept the Nuggets afloat and at times thriving.
The highlight reel passes and heroic clutch performances only tell part of the story. Nikola Jokic’s 2021-22 regular season statistics help underscore how dominant his MVP run really was. Let’s explore some of the most telling stats from Jokic this year.
Joel Embiid was one of the best players in the world this season and was one of the three finalists for the NBA MVP award along with Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Despite knowing that we won’t know who the MVP is until the season is actually over, fans are holding on to every sign of which one of the three of them might actually win it — even if we’re reaching conspiracy levels with this stuff.
Like this NBA.com recap article that accidentally listed Joel Embiid as MVP after Game 3 against the Miami Heat.
OH MY WORD. RING THE ALARM. SEND THE SMOKE SIGNAL. IT IS DONE….Or not.
Look, this was just an accident. Embiid might still very well win MVP. But the NBA isn’t going to leak that through a game recap article. That’s just not how this works.
The article was eventually updated to say “MVP finalist” instead of MVP. This was just an accident by someone. Basketball News was on it.
