Superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not only expected to win the MVP Award for a second consecutive season, but he’s expected to win it in dominant fashion. The Oklahoma City Thunder leader has been the betting favorite all season long. However, a vote tracker listing all the names to reveal their votes shows SGA holding a dominant lead.
The current votes confirmed for each of the top three candidates via the MVP vote tracker:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 28 first place votes, 7 second place votes, 0 third place votes
Nikola Jokic: 7 first place votes, 14 second place votes, 9 third place votes
Victor Wembanyama: 1 first place vote, 8 second place votes, 15 third place votes
Many voters have not revealed their picks, and some who revealed their first-place votes didn’t add their second or third place votes to make this a little flawed. However, the overwhelming votes revealed show that a larger percentage of voters are clearly leaning Gilgeous-Alexander.
Nikola Jokic received a fourth as many first-place votes as Shai so far to make him the likely second place name. Victor Wembanyma is expected to be third and get more secondary votes for his epic breakout season. Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to run away with the MVP based on the confirmed votes and betting odds.
Does Luka Doncic Or Anyone Else Get Votes?
Only three names have been confirmed to receive any first-place votes of the revealed votes so far. Luka Doncic gained a lot of popularity in the MVP race during the final two months of the regular season during the Los Angeles Lakers’ surge.
However, the MVP tracker sees him with zero first place votes so far and 16 fourth place votes. Jaylen Brown is another name to get some fourth-place votes, but neither man made a big enough dent to finish in the top three finalists.
Cade Cunningham also received some fifth-place votes to show that the next three outside of the top three only got secondary votes. Gilgeous-Alexander dominated all season and had more consistency than the other names on the list, while leading the best wire-to-wire team in the NBA.
Shai Is Closer To Joining Historic List
One interesting statistic sees Gilgeous-Alexander having a chance to join an incredible list with the two greatest players in NBA history. An NBA Championship could see SGA winning back-to-back regular season MVP and NBA Finals MVP Awards over the past two years.
Only Michael Jordan and LeBron James have done this in the league’s long history. James did it with the Miami Heat during his first two NBA Championship runs in the early 2010s. Jordan did it for the Chicago Bulls all the way back in the early 1990s during his time becoming the most popular name in sports.
Gilgeous-Alexander joining such an exclusive list would set up his resume relatively early in his career. Oklahoma City has a young and deep roster that will see him contending for more MVP awards and NBA Championships in the foreseeable future. SGA is setting himself up for an iconic career to get listed with the all-time greats if he can deliver longevity.
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