Just seven weeks ago he started this NBA season, with the Dallas Mavericks phenomenon Luka Doncic installed as the betting favorite to win MVP honors.
But like almost everything else in this season shortened by the pandemic, nothing went as planned.
The Doncic Mavericks are in 14th place in the Western Conference, opening the race for the most valuable player to a wide field of candidates and potentially paving the way for Lebron James to win a historic fifth most valuable player trophy.
After finishing second a season ago to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who became the twelfth player in NBA history to win consecutive MVP trophies, James returns to the top in the first ESPN poll in the campaign for the MVP of 2020 -21.
To gauge where the race is at this time of the season, ESPN asked 100 members of the media to participate in the informal poll that mimics voting for awards in the postseason. To make voting as realistic as possible, there are at least two voters from each of the league’s 28 markets, as well as a representative sample of national and international reporters.
As with the official NBA vote at the end of the season, voters were asked to present a five-player ballot, and the results were tabulated using the league’s scoring system: 10 points for each vote for first place, followed by seven points for second; five points for the third; three points for the fourth; and a point for the fifth.
While James currently has the early lead in his momentum for a fifth MVP trophy he hopes to go hand in hand with a fifth championship this summer, getting 54 of the 100 possible votes, the race to this point of the season is as competitive as any in recent times, with a couple of centers – Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid and Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic – stepping on his heels.
Now in his 18th season, James, 36, remains remarkably consistent, playing in each of the Lakers’ 25 games so far and averaging more than 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the fifth straight season. James shoots 41 percent from 3 points, the best of his career. This is the first time since 2013, the year he won his last MVP award, that James has shot more than 40 percent since 3. This was also the only season of his career in what this brand achieved; shot below 37% from 3 points in each of the last six seasons.
James was nominated on 99 of 100 ballots and finished with a total of 760 points, leading Embiid (23 first-place votes) by just 95 points. The last vote for the most valuable player to have such a small final margin was in 2004-05 when Steve Nash beat Shaquille O’Neal by 34 points. Jokic was third, getting 18 first-place votes and a total of 596 points.
This puts the difference between James in first place and Jokic in third in 164 points. In comparison, Antetokounmpo led James in second place by 152 points in the initial version of last year’s poll. No final MVP vote has seen such a small margin between first and third place since the 1998-99 season shortened by the employer lockout, when Alonzo Mourning and Tim Duncan finished 100 points behind MVP winner Karl Malone.
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The Bucks beat the Nuggets 125-112 in what could be an advanced final.
Embiid is having the best season of his career, averaging 29.3 points per game, the highest of his career, while also accumulating the best figures of his career in shooting percentages, including from the field (55.3 %), from 3 points (39%) and the free throw line (85%) for Philadelphia, which has the best record in the Eastern Conference and averages the staggering 15.2 points for every 100 possessions when Embiid he is on the court, compared to when he is sitting.
Philadelphia also has a 16-3 record in games Embiid plays this season, and 1-4 in games he does not play.
Jokic is currently the only NBA player in the top 10 in points (27.6), rebounds (11.5) and assists (8.6) per game, and briefly led the league in assists, which no center has done in the past. of a full season since Wilt Chamberlain in 1968. He and Embiid aspire to be the first center to win the NBA MVP Award from O’Neal in 2000.
The depth of the race is reflected in something more than the competition at the top of the ballot. Seven players received at least one first-place vote, more than in any previous edition of this poll. Beyond James, Embiid and Jokic, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant got three votes for first place, while LA Clippers teammates Kawhi Leonard and Paul George each received one vote. for first place, as did Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.
Durant, after losing all last season with an Achilles tendon rupture, finished fourth in the poll with 272 points and appeared in 75 ballots, while Leonard (153 points, 64 ballots) finished fifth.
Antetokounmpo, the current two-time MVP, was a distant sixth, getting a handful of votes and seems very unlikely to win for the third time in a row. Doncic, the preseason favorite, received just two third-place votes, as his brilliant statistical resume was easily surpassed by the Mavericks ’disappointing record.
A total of 15 different players received at least one vote, including three players from the same team who got at least one vote for the first time in any iteration of this poll.
Center Rudy Gobert and escorts Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley have led the Utah Jazz to the best record in the NBA, but received only a handful of votes (four for Gobert, two for Mitchell and one for Conley). talking about the nature of the team’s overall success this season. The last team to have three players who received MVP votes in the same season were the 2004-05 Suns (Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion).