Just past the midway point of the NBA season, a number of trends are now firmly entrenched, and thus it is time to seriously analyze the favorites for this year’s regular-season MVP award.
There has been a growing feeling lately that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was becoming the leader in the MVP race, especially after he scored 70 points against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs last week.
But Embiid sat out Saturday’s game versus Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, leading to accusations that he ducked the reigning NBA Finals MVP.
Starting this season, NBA players must play in at least 65 games to be eligible for postseason awards, including the MVP, and with Embiid missing his second straight game due to a knee issue, he’s coming close to being ineligible for such awards.
As a result, he’s no longer the favorite to win the MVP, and Jokic is now first on that list, as Kevin Walsh Jr. of SportsGrid pointed out.
“I really do believe Embiid will miss out.”@TheKevinWalsh addresses the updated NBA MVP odds…#LiveOdds #NBAX pic.twitter.com/06yrUaR2q7
— SportsGrid (@SportsGrid) January 30, 2024
Embiid was last season’s MVP after averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists a game, and so far this year, he has increased those numbers to 36.0 points, 11.4 boards, and 5.8 assists per contest.
What he has done over the last two or three seasons rivals almost anything any other big man in NBA history has done, and some have even compared his scoring prowess to that of Wilt Chamberlain, who once played for the 76ers in the mid-1960s.
Thanks to Embiid, the Sixers are third in the Eastern Conference with a 29-15 record, but they will need him to be healthy if they will have any real chance of winning their first world championship since the 1982-83 campaign.
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