5 Players with the Best NBA Odds of Winning 2018 MVP Award

One of the more popular sports betting futures wagers for the NBA has to do with picking the regular season MVP while there’s still plenty of regular season to go. Usually, an MVP has to play for a team that’s a contender, adding value to a team that plays at an elite level around him. The five players that currently have the best odds of walking away with the MVP hardware have all elevated their teams to some degree — and all have a shot at the championship. Here’s a look at the NBA odds to win the 2018 MVP award.

5 Players with the Best NBA Odds of Winning 2018 MVP Award

LeBron James is closing the gap to surpass James Harden as the 2018 NBA MVP pic.twitter.com/uDWvuw3tfB

— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) February 14, 2018

James Harden (4-11)

It hasn’t been that long since James Harden’s hamstring injury on New Year’s Eve seemed to pull him (no pun intended) from the running for MVP, with the favorite’s crown resting on the head of LeBron James. Then, though, James had a terrible January and went into a funk until Cleveland basically traded for all the players he asked for, and now the Cavaliers may be on the rise again. In a recent survey by the Washington Post, 91 of 100 media members listed Harden as their top pick for MVP. It’s not hard to see why. Harden averages 31.4 points, 5.0 boards and 9.0 assists per game. He shoots 44.9% from the floor, 38.5% from behind the arc and 86.6% from the charity stripe. With the addition of Chris Paul, he has been even freer to move away from the ball and get opportunities to score for the Rockets. Without Harden, it’s impossible to envision the Rockets pushing Golden State in the playoffs this year.

LeBron James (61-20)

These odds have a lot more to do with name recognition than the reality of James’ standing with the voters. That same Washington Post survey only had him appear on 79 of the 100 ballots, with just two first-place votes. It wasn’t just his stats in January that sent him down the list — it was the way he seemed, at times, simply to give up when things weren’t going well. Now that he has a revamped roster around him, he’s averaging over 30 points a game since the trade deadline, but that still chips away at the case for him being an MVP, if he needs a whole new rotation around him to contend.

Giannis Antetokounmpo (16-1)

And what about the Greek Freak? He’s averaging career bests in points with 28.3 per game (second overall behind Harden), rebounds (10.1) and true shooting percentage (62). He averages 1.5 points per shooting attempt near the basket and adds another 1.3 points per possession in transition. His perimeter shooting (just 28% from downtown) still is an area of growth, but few people get to the rim like he does. The obstacle, of course, is that the Bucks aren’t an elite contender in the East yet. They are a playoff team now, but they need to take some strides to gain elite status — that’s the key to winning. Just two MVPs since 1985 have come from teams who were not in the top two in their conference standings (Michael Jordan in 1987-88 and Russell Westbrook last year). And it took Westbrook averaging a triple-double for the whole year for the first time since the Big O did it in the 1961-62 season. So if Giannis is going to win this, the Bucks are going to have to go on a tear in the East and vault up the standings in the waning weeks.

Kevin Durant (20-1)

When Kevin Durant was part of the Oklahoma City Thunder, he had to make the vast majority of his contributions on the offensive end of the floor, alongside Russell Westbrook. If the Thunder hadn’t traded James Harden to Houston, it would have been interesting to see what Durant would do inside while Harden and Westbrook scored from the outside — but it might well have turned out much the same as it has in Golden State. Durant doesn’t have to do much from the outside, so he can focus on dominating the paint — particularly on defense. He still gets plenty of points for the Warriors, but it is the stops that he gets on defense that have helped to elevate the Warriors past the Cavaliers — which was part of the reason why Golden State signed him in the first place.

Stephen Curry (22-1)

One reason why Curry is this far down the list is that he missed much of December with an injury. However, he showed all sorts of new life in January, shooting 51.3% from the floor and 46.3% from downtown, and averaging 29.5 points per game. However, while he makes all kinds of contributions to the Warriors’ offense, one could ask if he is even the most valuable player on his team, with Durant appearing just above him on this list.