NBA MVP straw ballot – Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and the place the race stands with two weeks left within the season

Final season, the Denver Nuggets‘ Nikola Jokic surpassed Philadelphia 76ers massive man Joel Embiid within the closing weeks of the NBA’s common season to win the Most Invaluable Participant award, as accidents to Embiid and Los Angeles Lakers ahead LeBron James cleared the trail for Jokic to develop into the primary middle to win the award since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000.

Because the 2021-22 common season winds down, it seems Jokic has the within observe to repeat.

After Jokic completed simply behind Embiid in the previous edition in mid-February, the four-time All-Star claimed 62 of 100 first-place votes within the third and last iteration of ESPN’s MVP straw ballot, giving Jokic a transparent — although slim — lead over Embiid and Milwaukee Bucks ahead and most up-to-date back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

To gauge the place the race stands with lower than two weeks remaining within the common season, ESPN requested 100 media members to take part in an off-the-cuff ballot that mimics the postseason awards voting. To make the balloting as life like as doable, there have been not less than two voters from every of the league’s 28 markets, in addition to a cross part of nationwide and worldwide reporters. Votes have been collected from Thursday to Saturday.

As with the NBA’s official vote on the finish of season, voters have been requested to submit a five-player poll, and outcomes have been tabulated utilizing the league’s scoring system: 10 factors for every first-place vote, adopted by seven factors for second place, 5 factors for third, three factors for fourth and one level for fifth.

Jokic completed forward of the pack with these 62 first-place votes and a complete of 860 factors, adopted by Embiid, who had 29 first-place votes and 719 whole factors, and Antetokounmpo, who had 9 first-place votes and 593 whole factors. They have been the one gamers to be named to all 100 ballots and the one ones to obtain a first-place vote.

Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo have so clearly separated themselves from the sector that they claimed 291 of the 300 votes for first, second and third place within the ballot. (Antetokounmpo had six fourth-place votes, and Jokic had three fifth-place votes.) No different participant was named to even half of the ballots.

Following the three unanimous alternatives was Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, who completed with 103 whole factors and obtained one of many two second-place votes recorded for somebody apart from Jokic, Embiid or Antetokounmpo. (Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker obtained the opposite.) Boston Celtics ahead Jayson Tatum positioned fifth with 93 factors, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic was sixth with 87 factors and Booker seventh with 82. Morant, Tatum and Booker have been the one gamers to obtain third-place votes exterior of the highest three finishers.

After main the first edition of the straw poll this season, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry completed eighth with 34 factors, adopted by Brooklyn Nets ahead Kevin Durant (13) and Suns guard Chris Paul (seven).

James, the NBA’s present scoring chief who hadn’t obtained a single vote in both of the primary two polls, bought one fourth-place and two fifth-place votes to complete 11th with 5 factors, adopted by Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan and Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young.

Outdoors of James coming into the combo, the main focus stays on the highest of the poll, the place Jokic has as soon as once more gained a slight benefit heading into the season’s last weeks after he and Embiid have been in a digital lifeless warmth six weeks in the past.

Basically, the distinction this time is Jokic taking 16 of the first-place votes Embiid carried within the earlier ballot and getting again on the 5 ballots he was left off in that spherical of voting.

There is nonetheless extra uncertainty remaining on this race than there often is presently of the 12 months. Many citizens harassed how robust it was for them to decide on which option to go, each among the many positioning of top-three finishers and fourth and fifth locations.

And whereas the chief within the last model of this straw ballot has gone on to win the league’s MVP award the previous 4 years it was performed, there may be motive to consider Jokic nonetheless has work to do to formally sew up consecutive awards.

This 12 months’s voting most intently mirrors the 2017 race, the primary 12 months that this straw ballot was performed. In that 12 months’s last poll, then-Houston Rockets guard James Harden held a equally slim lead over then-Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook with a couple of weeks to go, just for Westbrook to seize the MVP by turning into the primary participant since Oscar Robertson in 1961-62 to common a triple-double for a season.

Due to how compact the races are in each conferences, the place Jokic and Embiid end within the standings is more likely to play a task.

Jokic’s Nuggets sit in sixth place within the Western Convention, two video games forward of the Minnesota Timberwolves in seventh and a half sport behind the Utah Jazz in fifth. All three voters who positioned Jokic in fifth highlighted his group’s place within the standings as a contributing issue.

Within the Japanese Convention, Embiid’s 76ers and Antetokounmpo’s Bucks are among the many four-team logjam close to the highest, with each one sport behind the No. 1-seeded Miami Heat.

Jokic is averaging 26.Three factors, 13.6 rebounds and eight.zero assists per sport, rating 12th, second and eighth, respectively, and is the one participant within the high 12 in all three classes. Embiid is averaging 29.9 factors, 11.Four rebounds and 4.2 assists, as he pushes to develop into the primary middle to steer the NBA in scoring since O’Neal in 2000. Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.7 factors, 11.6 rebounds and 5.eight assists.

All three have excelled whereas coping with challenges. Jokic has performed all season with the group’s two different max gamers — Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. — both not enjoying in any respect or lacking important time. Embiid needed to lead the 76ers via the curler coaster that was the Ben Simmons commerce saga, whereas Antetokounmpo has navigated Milwaukee via a sequence of accidents to key contributors, most notably middle Brook Lopez.

The uncertainty on the high of the poll is also more likely to trickle down the listing: The Grizzlies introduced Thursday that Morant will miss most of the regular season’s final two weeks with knee soreness.

Tatum and Doncic, in the meantime, have been two of the most well liked gamers on two of the most well liked groups within the league over the previous couple of months, whereas Booker has picked up loads of help for the way he has led the Suns with Paul sidelined for greater than a month as a result of a thumb harm earlier than his return late final week. All three might simply surpass Morant within the last stretch.

All of it units up a frenetic end of the common season, with a lot to play for — on each group and particular person ranges.