About a third of the 2024-25 NBA season has been played, so it's a good time to look at the top candidates for the major individual awards.
None of them ignite a more heated debate than league MVP, and there's no shortage of candidates this season.
ESPN NBA writer Tim Bontemps conducts multiple league MVP straw polls each season, and the voters are media members, many of whom will end up having a real vote for the award.
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Bontemps released the results of his first poll Friday, and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is unsurprisingly in first place. He received a first-place vote on 57 of the 100 ballots.
Here's a look at the top-five from Bontemps' first straw poll:
- Nikola Jokic, DEN: 827 total points (57 first-place votes)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC: 678 (24 first-place votes)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL: 643 (19 first-place votes)
- Jayson Tatum, BOS: 267
- Luka Doncic, DAL: 123
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Jokic has won three of the previous four MVP awards, including last season. Jokic is making a very strong case to win it again, and if he does, he'll join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Michael Jordan (five), Bill Russell (five), LeBron James (four) and Wilt Chamberlain (four) as the only players to win MVP four or more times.
Jokic is almost averaging a triple-double with 31 points, 13 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game, while shooting 56.4 percent from the floor and 50 percent from 3-point range.
He has plenty of competition for this year's award, though, including from a couple players who have never won MVP before.
One of them is Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. The veteran forward leads the Celtics in points (28.3), rebounds (9.0), assists (5.5) and steals (1.2) per game. He's the best player on the league's best team.
Unfortunately for Tatum, because he plays with so many good players, it's going to be very difficult for him to put up the kind of eye-popping stats often needed to win this award.
The last Celtics player to win league MVP was Larry Bird in 1985-86. It was the third of three straight MVP awards for Bird. Tatum will be in the mix for MVP throughout his career, and he might even win it at some point. But the most important thing for Tatum and the Celtics is winning championships.
They accomplished that objective last season, and they are fiercely determined to do it again in June.