By Nathan Kelly

Since we are just off the back of the annual, albeit uneventful, All-Star weekend, now is the best time to look into who should take home the illustrious Most Valuable Player award.

To start, it is always best to see what team is performing the best. Currently, the league is a two-horse race. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder are neck-and-neck, both teams at a record of 44 wins and 10 losses. The Boston Celtics are not very far behind at a record of 39-16, but it is clear neither the Thunder nor the Cavaliers are slowing down anytime soon.

The current favourite for the award amongst many NBA fans would be the Thunder’s talisman, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA). Currently putting up an outstanding 32.5 points per game (PPG), 5.1 rebounds per game (RPG) and 6.1 assists per game (APG).

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Mike Lawrence via Gettyimages)

These superb stats are supported by him being consistently very efficient. He is performing on 52.3 field goal % (FG), 35.9 three-pointers % (3P) and 89.7 free throws % (FT).

Just like with the league standings, the current MVP race seems to have two clear front-runners. Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets is the other favourite for the award. He is averaging almost a 30-point triple double, averaging 29.8 PPG, 12.6 RPG and 10.2 APG on shooting splits of 57.7% FG, 45% 3P and 82.3% FT.

Other prime candidates would be Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) of the New York Knicks and Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Giannis was looking like a proper contender, averaging 31.8 PPG, 12.2 RPG and 5.9 APG. However, his efficiency is very inconsistent. His FG% is very good at 60.8%, but his FT% is very disappointing at 57.7%, when he has attempted the most free throws per game this season at 10.7 attempts. His 3P% is very bad at 18.8% but that is mainly due to a lack of attempts at 0.8 three-point attempts per game. This really hurts his case for the award.

Tatum is having an extremely solid season, averaging 27 PPG, 8.7 RPG and 5.6 APG on decent efficiency of 45.5% FG, 35.8% 3P and 79.5% FT. But that’s about all there is to his season, he is having a very good season just not MVP calibre.

Jayson Tatum (Ezra Shaw via Gettyimages)

KAT is having a really good season too, but what keeps him in this race would be a lack of other MVP calibre talent. He’s averaging 24.7 PPG, 13.4 RPG and 3.3 APG on shooting splits of 53.4% FG, 43.8% 3P and 84.2% FT. Again, this is still a great season, just doesn’t reach the standard that Jokic and SGA have set.

Ant is having the best year of his career so far. The Timberwolves, as a whole, have declined since their run to the Western conference final last year, but this has put more pressure on Ant to step up his game in almost every aspect. He is averaging 27.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 4.5 APG, with splits of 44% FG, 41.4% 3P and 84.3% FT. He has bloomed into one of the best three-point shooters in the league this season, which in-turn has helped carry a below average Timberwolves team to a 31-25 record.

Even with all these somewhat worthy candidates, Jokic and SGA are the clear one and two. They are the most consistent players in the league by far, but who is the more valuable player?

Well to start, comparing assisting and rebounding stats would be useless considering they play very different roles in their teams. So, looking at their points total first, SGA obviously has a higher PPG, however the problem lies with his free-throw attempts (FTA). He has attempted the second most free-throws per game this season so far with 8.8, a substantial amount higher than third place who is at 7.6. This compared to Jokic’s 6.1 FTA can show that SGA heavily relies on foul-baiting in-order to gain extra points. This is great for his team; however, it ultimately hurts his MVP case to me.

Nikola Jokic (NBA Photos via Gettyimages)

Jokic is one of the greatest floor-raisers in NBA history. He is leading Denver to a record of 36-19 and a top three offensive record with 120.4. Without Jokic on the court, the Nuggets would have a bottom five offensive record with 110.6.

SGA on the other hand has a stacked roster alongside him. The Thunder have the best defensive rating in the NBA at 105.4 and a top five offensive rating at 118.3, giving them the best net rating in the whole NBA by a wide margin with 13.0.

There isn’t much data to back-up how either teams perform without Jokic or SGA as they have played almost every game, but in Jokic’s case it seems his overall impact on the court is stronger than that of SGA. Without Jokic, the Nuggets would be substantially worse, whereas without SGA the Thunder would still be a playoff team.

Current NBA MVP Race – Who’s Making the Biggest Impact in the League?