The 2021-22 NBA season began about a month ago to the date, but it is never too early to look ahead at who is in the running for the end-of-year awards!
Former league MVPs in Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry seem to be the early front-runners to win this year’s MVP award, but we should not be so quick to count out guys like Giannis Antetokoumpo, LeBron James (when healthy) and Joel Embiid yet.
So many teams are playing well to begin the new season, which makes for a very intriguing MVP race this year. The Warriors, Heat, Wizards and Bulls are all some of the better teams in the league record-wise this season, so could the MVP come from one of these four teams?
Over the last few seasons, one of the major factors that has begun to decide who is named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player is Player Efficiency Rating and so far this year, the race is very tight for those who rank amongst the league leaders in PER.
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So who should we be keeping an eye on in the MVP race this season outside of the top few guys in Curry and Durant? Let’s take a look at 3 players emerging as serious MVP candidates early on in the season.