NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
[ad_1]
Look at the betting odds and one would think the NBA MVP race is over. According to BetMGM, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is -2000 to win his first MVP award this season, while defending MVP Nikola Jokic is second at +800.
From my vantage point, those odds make no sense. Every media member with a vote I have spoken to, or I have seen write on the MVP race, is torn (myself included). The margins in this race are razor-thin. It’s a coin flip and there is no clear consensus. If anything, there seems to be a slight lean toward Jokic.
With just a few weeks left in the NBA season, let’s break it down:
2025 NBA MVP Rankings:
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
2. Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
Ask me again in 48 hours and this order might change — it was flipped 48 hours ago.
Having Gilgeous-Alexander on top may be recency bias because I was in the Intuit Dome Sunday night when SGA and the Thunder played the Clippers — and he struggled, 7-of-29 shooting, 1-of-11 from 3. However, what impressed me was that he still impacted winning with his shot creation and dishing out eight assists, making a key deflection late, and having two blocked shots in clutch time — SGA’s leadership was on display. He got them a win against a hot Clippers team (winners of 8-of-10) on a night he was cold and the Thunder were without their second and third best players (Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren).
That’s what MVPs do.
To be fair, that’s what Nikola Jokic does, too. He is averaging a triple-double this season — 29.1 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.3 assists a game — and is having a better statistical season than any year he won the MVP. The compelling argument for Jokic is around the “valuable” part of MVP — Denver is not good when he is off the court. Jokic carries that team. We’ve seen some of that in the past week with Jokic out while dealing with an ankle issue, the Nuggets have a couple of wins but this team is not the same.
Jokic is a legit MVP. There’s no shade here toward anyone who votes for him.
However, the argument that he drives winning more than SGA…
[ad_2]Source link : https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/2025-nba-mvp-race-rankings-stats-analysis-for-shai-gilgeous-alexander-nikola-jokic-other-top-contenders
Author :
Publish date : 2025-03-25 17:40:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
