We’re just past the midpoint of the 2020-21 regular season in the NBA, and while some players have gotten off to slow starts, either due to an unusually long layoff or a shortened off-season (depending on whether their team made the bubble last year), others have excelled this season, pushing their team up the standings in this shortened season.
As you’re lining up NBA betting choices for MVP futures wagers or thinking about which teams will have the best stars in the playoffs, look at our top player rankings.
NBA News: Best Players Up to the Moment in 2020-21
#1: LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers)
LeBron James has largely put the Lakers on his shoulders in the absence of Anthony Davis. While the Lakers have lost six of ten without AD on the floor, James is still putting up MVP numbers, with 25.8 points, 8.0 boards and 7.8 assists per game. He has become more of a chess player than a pure scorer at this point in his career, letting others put out more of the physical pounding. There is not a better floor leader in the NBA, at least not yet.
#2: Kevin Durant (Brooklyn)
In 2020-21, KD has averaged 29 points, 7.3 boards and 5.3 assists coming back from a torn Achilles tendon. He still has that smooth jump shot, that explosive first step and his floor vision. The problem for the Nets is that he has missed 11 games with a hamstring injury. His numbers have come in just 19 games this season, but the Nets are hopeful that he will return before the playoffs at full strength to join Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
#3: Kawhi Leonard (L.A. Clippers)
This season, Leonard has 26.6 points, 6.3 boards and 4.9 assists per game. He has emerged as a playmaker that can distribute the ball, a scorer who can put a team on his back, and a shutdown defender. The Clippers are a force in the West again this year, and while Leonard is not shooting lights-out as he was earlier in the season, he tends to up his game as the season approaches the playoffs.
#4: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee)
Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are starting to click now, but his numbers (29 ppg, 11.7 rpg, 5.9 apg) are consistent to where they have been the last two seasons. His defense continues to excel as well. The Bucks lost some depth in their rotation around him, but the team has figured its new chemistry out. It will be interesting to see how the Bucks respond once the physical grind of postseason play arrives, as they have wilted in that atmosphere the past two seasons.
#5: Joel Embiid (Philadelphia)
The numbers speak for themselves (30.2 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.3 blocks per game, 41.6 percent shooting from behind the arc). The questions for Embiid have always circulated around focus and health. The focus has definitely been there this year as Embiid has upped his offense and defense. The health is now a question again, though, as he took a nasty fall last week that turned out to be just a bone bruise, but that will still have him on the shelf for about two weeks. How will he bounce back? That will determine how far the 76ers go.
#6: Nikola Jokic (Denver)
Jokic is on the verge of averaging a triple-double (27.1 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 8.6 apg) with a 50-40-90 shooting line (field goals, three-point field goals, free throws). No one has ever accomplished both of those in the same season. His offense has taken a newly aggressive tone this season, as he remains the emphatic hub. The team has yet to rise to his level, but we’ll see if that can’t change down the stretch.
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