Now firmly past the halfway point of the season, the NBA MVP race has become one of the most competitive available awards. James Harden has rebounded from a disappointing start to the season to now find himself the clear $1.90 favourite. Giannis and Joel Embiid have been consistently solid throughout, whilst Steph and Kawhi find themselves as premier players on two of the league\u2019s best teams. Let\u2019s take a look at our top 5 MVP contenders, providing our best bet in the process.<\/p>\n
An excellent 2-month stretch of basketball has seen Harden firm as the $1.90 favourite to take home the MVP. His season averages currently sit at an outstanding 35.7 points, 8.3 assists, and 6.4 rebounds per game. This only looks set to improve as he enjoys an average of 43.7 points during the month of January. Perhaps the only thing standing in Harden\u2019s way is Houston\u2019s relatively middling #5th<\/sup> position out West. If Harden keeps this up and can lead the Rockets to the top 4, he looks a near lock for MVP.<\/p>\n With Milwaukee now atop the Eastern Conference, Giannis can\u2019t be overlooked for MVP either. His season averages of 26.5 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 5.9 assists are nothing short of phenomenal. If he could get above a miserable 18% from 3, we could be looking at clearly the NBA\u2019s best player within a few seasons. He is also a monster on the defensive side, averaging just under 3 combined blocks and steals per contest. If he can keep Milwaukee atop the East, he has every chance of climbing Harden for the award.<\/p>\n Having been consistently excellent this season, it\u2019s time Embiid gets some MVP love. He has carried the Sixers this season, putting up astounding averages of 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that he\u2019s doing this in a somewhat limited role playing alongside Aussie Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler. Especially if Philly can secure a top 3 spot in the East this season, Embiid is a dark horse that has real potential of an outright win.<\/p>\n Steph\u2019s excellent recent form has been the catalyst behind a strong #8 game Golden State win streak that has taken them to the lead in the West. Over his last 5 games, Curry has put up exceptional averages of 31.8 points, 5.6 assists, and 5.4 rebounds. Even more impressively, he is shooting 47% from 3 and 100% from the foul line over that stretch. The one thing working against Curry is the excellent quality of some of his teammates, who take some of the limelight off him. That said, if Golden State now cruises to the West #1 seed, he does deserve some consideration.<\/p>\n Despite having recently been overtaken by the Bucks, the Raptors have found themselves atop the East for most of this season. Kawhi\u2019s excellent play has been a huge reason for Toronto\u2019s success, averaging 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists per contest. Still one of the best defenders in the league, he is averaging an impressive 2 steals per game as well. Having now missed 12 games through rest and injury, this is the only thing holding Leonard back from heavier consideration.<\/p>\n Whilst the others would all be worthy winners, Harden has been a step above this season. With Chris Paul and Clint Capela still out injured, I expect him to continue to put up these insane numbers. He looks a reasonable facsimile to Westbrook in 16\/17 and I think $1.90 still represents solid value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now firmly past the halfway point of the season, the NBA MVP race has become one of the most competitive available awards. James Harden has rebounded from a disappointing start to the season to now find himself the clear $1.90 favourite. Giannis and Joel Embiid have been consistently solid throughout, whilst Steph and Kawhi find…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2401,2520,2521],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-7158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-nba-futures-betting","tag-nba-mvp","tag-nba-mvp-betting"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"23\/01\/2019","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7158"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=7158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Giannis Antetokounmpo $2.75<\/h6>\n
Joel Embiid $13<\/h6>\n
Stephen Curry $15<\/h6>\n
Kawhi Leonard $15<\/h6>\n
Best Bet: James Harden<\/h6>\n