Warriors star Stephen Curry is running away with the early-season MVP race, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Bontemps ran an informal straw poll of 100 media members mimicking the awards ballot run during the postseason, and Curry received 94 of 100 first-place votes.
Curry, a two-time MVP, is averaging 27.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.8 steals in 24 games (34.2 MPG). He leads the league in three-pointers made and attempts with 5.5 and 13.3 per game, respectively, good for 41.3%. The Warriors have the league’s best record at 21-4.
Rounding out the top five of ESPN’s informal MVP poll were Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Chris Paul.
Here’s more from the Pacific:
- Suns center Deandre Ayton will miss Friday’s game against the Celtics, per Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Ayton left the team’s shootaround early with a non-COVID illness.
- Anthony Davis missed Friday’s game for the Lakers with knee soreness, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. In an article from McMenamin, Davis say the Lakers need to start playing like underdogs after losing to the Grizzlies 108-95. “These guys already feel like they’re the underdogs when they’re coming in, especially when they’re without their star players,” Davis said of a Memphis team playing without its top two scorers, Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks, due to health and safety protocols. “And we got to play like we’re the underdogs. Which, now, at this point of the season, the way we’re playing, a lot of games, we probably are.”
- Lakers coach Frank Vogel says Trevor Ariza could spent some time in the G League as he recovers from ankle surgery, Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group relays (via Twitter). There’s still no timeline for Ariza’s return.
- The Kings will be without starting center Richaun Holmes for at least a couple games. He sustained a cut on his right eye Wednesday vs. Orlando which was surgically mended, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. He missed Friday’s game vs. Charlotte and will be out for Saturday’s contest with Cleveland, too. Holmes is expected to make a full recovery.
Curry absolutely is the front runner for MVP. Those 6.3 ast is what I like most. He’s doing all this in a team effort. I want to see this team with Wiseman playing well.
It really frustrating to me that people talk so much trash. Wiseman has played 40 games in the NBA, at age of 18, after spending a whole year off. The Great Pete Newell said it takes big men 3 years to succeed. I would not expect whole lot from Wiseman this season.
Don’t give me Stupid BS about the ‘window closing’. I am so sick of that stupidity. The closes because you have a stupid front office.
Preach. So tired of the national media and their internet sheep. Toronto taught us you can have balance and depth and achieve championships. That depth can be in young up and coming stars too. They have great balance and Poole has taught them – just wait a year or two and Kuminga and Wise have way more upside than Poole.
It’s not mutually exclusive- they will compete for chips now and later with their current strategy. Front office is on point.
Good talent can adapt to a winning environment. It’s even easier IMO cause you don’t have pressure to succeed. Just play well and smart. Warriors will need depth and Wiseman for Suns and Jazz. In the playoffs. Just think their three top picks haven’t even got going yet.
Giannis is comin on, so I think it will be a 2-man race. Paul wins if you mean ‘most valuable to his team’ rather ‘most valuable in the league’. Suns would crash and burn if he got seriously injured, but the other guys’ teams would continue in the hunt, although Denver is facing some bad luck with injuries.
No one should have to tell the Lakers that at this point in the season…they ARE underdogs. Time to start acting like games are important or they might be watching the postseason on TV.
Steph has been pressing with the record on the horizon. Wait till Klay gets back with the extra spacing Steph will drop another 50/40/90 which he almost did last year while being the scoring leader. Mark it down, you heard it hear first, count it.
Of course we can call you an idiot. You claim to know what is going on Steph Curry’s mind. You are obviously an idiot. You have no connection to Steph Curry, and yet you claim to know what Steph Curry is thinking. You are an ignorant troll.
Why is he an idiot? That’s really not cool.
We can all see Steph has been pressing.., he’s had a couple poor shooting games and there’s a blurb on the screen about this record every 10 minutes. Of course he’s going to press. Chapmansvacuum can see it, I can see it, and you can see it. What’s wrong with writing about it?
Everything okay in Giants74 world? No need to hit a guy up with bad names. And what the hell is giant74? You don’t explain what that means yet you lambaste Chapmansvacuum? He really doesn’t need to explain his username to you.
So seriously Giants74, so you’re a Giants fan and you’re 74 years old? You’re a Giants fan and you were born in 1974? You’ve been a Giants fan since you moved to the tenderloin in 1974? We have no clue. Don’t beat up chapmansvacuum because you don’t know what that means.
One thing he is getting correct is Curry pressing for that record. I will be happy when the record is gone and Curry gets back to his normal self. They should have been up 15 points at half time against a under staffed Trailblazer teams but spent the first half getting Curry the ball to shoot 3s.
I really don’t know what Chapmanvacuum is talking about. Can you guys stop with your stupid names
Sounds like Giants74 was hitting the sauce pretty hard on Friday night.
Matt Chapman has a vacuum for a glove? That’s how I read it. Good name.
Yeah guys why don’t you knock it off with the stupid names. Geez
MVP race right now…
1/ Jokic
2/ Giannis
3/ KD
4/ AD
5/ Embiid
In my list Curry is all the way down to #9!
It’s Steph’s MVP to lose this year. The level of efficiency and how he has simply just played amazing isn’t surprising to me. Real basketball fans appreciate how great of a player Steph is, whether he is for your team or against it. I just appreciate a guy like him who came from Davidson and not Puke a blue blood program and turned himself into one of the greatest players in NBA history. You can’t write the history of the NBA without Steph’s transcend play the last 10 years.
It’s actually “transcendent” captain obvious.
Next time I say that word, I’m going to pronounce that “c”. Everyone on this page is so irascible.
One less team to worry about in the wild west.