The rise of heliocentrism, in which teams revolve their entire offensive game plans around their star player’s talents, in turn pushes those individual numbers even higher. The NBA’s ongoing offensive explosion plays a major role the average team this season is scoring 115 points per game, the league’s highest figure in more than half a century, which elevates underlying individual statistics. It’s destined to make a few fan bases very unhappy at season’s end.īut that’s the state of the modern MVP race, as a few contextual factors have compounded to produce a host of tremendous candidates. ![]() Or, if not SGA, then Luka-a four-time first-team All-NBA honoree enjoying his most productive, efficient season-might finish fifth. Yet if the vote were held today, SGA might finish fifth again. Other than Barry-who was loathed by his fellow players, at a time when players voted for MVP-those players all won MVP awards. And he’s on track to become just the fifth player to lead the NBA in steals per game while averaging at least 30 points, joining Michael Jordan (three times), Allen Iverson (two), Steph Curry, and Rick Barry. He leads the league in win probability added, per Inpredictable, which calculates the impact of made and missed shots based on score and time remaining, so clutch attempts count more. And there’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, building a case as the best two-way perimeter player in the league.Įxamine SGA’s résumé a bit more closely, and it’s easy to see a strong MVP case, after the young star finished fifth in the vote last season. There’s Luka, notching career highs in points, assists, and 3-point percentage. ![]() There’s Giannis, scoring more efficiently than ever before. There’s Nikola Jokic, averaging a near triple-double, with the largest on-off differential of any star. There’s Embiid, leading the league in scoring for a third season in a row, anchoring a top-five defense, and dishing six assists per game, up from a previous career high of 4.2. That dissonance is a microcosm of a stacked and congested MVP race in which five leading candidates are taking advantage of an especially favorable scoring environment to post incomprehensible numbers for teams near the top of the standings. Instead, Giannis Antetokounmpo took home that honor for the Eastern Conference, after a week in which he scored 64 points in a game, while Luka Doncic-working on his own streak of 11 consecutive 30-point games-grabbed it for the West. The reigning MVP has more points than minutes played this season, which only Wilt Chamberlain has managed over a full campaign before.Īnd yet, much to the consternation of trainer Drew Hanlen, Embiid’s recent play wasn’t even enough to win him a Player of the Week award. Then he scored 40 points in a loss to Chicago on Monday, giving him 12 games in a row with 30-plus points-tied for the second-longest streak in the past 20 years. ![]() Last week, he averaged 38 points across four games despite not playing in a single fourth quarter, as Philadelphia routed the Wizards, Pistons (twice), and Hornets. Joel Embiid is in the midst of a historic scoring run. Under Review: A Legitimate Five-Way Race for MVP This week, we’re exploring the context behind Joel Embiid’s scoring surge, the Detroit Pistons’ record-chasing losing streak, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s thorough dominance of the Milwaukee Bucks’ record books. Each Wednesday of the NBA season, we’re analyzing a grab bag of topics from around the league.
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