I'd like to offer a little bit of sympathy to Donovan Mitchell . He is currently leading a team on a 52-win pace that has largely been without its starting point guard and has seen almost every other role player miss games here or there. He is averaging 29.9 points per game, just barely above Larry Bird's career high, and he's doing so with a 60% effective field goal percentage, which torches the career-best marks for James Harden , Damian Lillard and Kobe Bryant. The only player in NBA history to hit both of those marks over a full season is Stephen Curry . The first time he did so, he won MVP. If the 2025-26 season ended today, Mitchell wouldn't even make most ballots.

That is how loaded the early MVP race has been thus far this season. We have three former winners not only p

See Full Page