Luka Doncic enters the race

Although Curry has cooled off of late, he’s done enough to keep his top spot in the rankings. Curry has been so great this season that a week where he averaged just 25.8 points on 41.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc can be considered a down stretch of games for him. Either way, the magnificent sharpshooter remains our MVP frontrunner a quarter of the way into the campaign.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo held onto his spot as the No. 2 player in our MVP rankings despite missing two games last week and struggling in his most recent outing. The Greek Freak put up merely 15 points in the Milwaukee Bucks’ Wednesday night defeat against the Miami Heat while shooting 4-for-13, a poor performance for the reigning Finals MVP, one he’ll surely bounce back from in his next appearance.

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The reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic jumped into the Top 3 this week, and with good reason after putting up 29.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists last week in a stretch in which the Denver Nuggets went 2-1. If Jokic keeps up that level of production, he’ll start to pressure Curry for our top spot in our race in the near future, he’s been that spectacular.

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Kevin Durant slipped out of the Top 3 this week despite holding onto his status as the league’s leading scorer, partly due to him missing his last game for the Brooklyn Nets. It’s beyond reasonable that Durant sat out, however, as the former league MVP had been averaging close to 40 minutes nightly over the past couple of weeks. The margin is razor-thin between Durant and the rest of the Top 3 candidates in our rankings, besides Curry.

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Future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul joined the Top 5 of our MVP rankings for the first time this week, a place he has more than earned thanks to his play on the campaign as a whole. Even in just a three-game week for the Phoenix Suns, one in which the team went 2-1, Paul was steady enough to jump one spot in our rankings.

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DeMar DeRozan has missed the Chicago Bulls’ last two games due to health-and-safety protocols and is set to miss more time – at least 10 days – before we do see him suit up again. Either way, the mid-range assassin is posting his best career campaign this season and will surely get back to dominating for the Bulls before long.

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Trae Young maintained his hot run of form this week, averaging over 26 points and 12 assists per contest, but that wasn’t enough for an Atlanta Hawks team that has gone 1-2 over their last three outings. The team bounced back well in their last game, an 11-point win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, one where Young had 29 points and 11 assists.

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Jimmy Butler has slipped down the rankings due to missing a lot of time recently with a tailbone injury. Butler did his best to come back from the injury early, but was held to just under 25 minutes in his one appearance over the last two weeks and clearly was not himself, scoring 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting before sitting out the remainder of the contest.

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Rudy Gobert made headlines this week, but not of his doing, as Anthony Edwards said Gobert put no fear in his heart as a rim protector following a 32-point demolition by the Utah Jazz over the Timberwolves. Sounds like sour grapes to us. More on that in the link below.

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After not making our rankings last week, Donovan Mitchell exploded and gave us no choice but to put him 10th this week. Over the past week, Mitchell has averaged 35.0 points while shooting 57.6 percent from the floor and 44.1 percent from beyond the arc on 11-plus attempts from three. The Jazz are in the midst of a five-game win streak and a lot of it has been thanks to Mitchell’s explosiveness.

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Without DeRozan around, Zach LaVine has had to take over more of the scoring load for the Bulls and has done relatively well, averaging nearly 29 points over the last week and shooting 48.4 percent from the floor, though just 28.6 percent from three. Expect more big scoring performances this week for LaVine with DeRozan still sitting out.

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James Harden has continued his strong play over the past week, putting up over 21 points nightly and just shy of 11 assists per game. His shooting has struggled lately, however, as Harden is shooting 32.8 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from three over his last four games. The Nets are 2-2 in that stretch.

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Karl-Anthony Towns missed one game last week but followed that up with two strong performances, first scoring 31 points against the Hawks and then putting up 22 points against Gobert and the Jazz, albeit both in losses. After getting hot, the Timberwolves have cooled off recently, losing four straight, the lat two by double digits.

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LaMelo Ball stays in our rankings despite missing three straight games due to health-and-safety protocols. Ball earned that thanks to how excellent his play on the campaign as a whole.

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After missing our rankings for a couple of weeks, Luka Doncic makes his return this time around thanks to returning from an injury in an impressive manner, getting right back to putting up his season averages. Either way, the Dallas Mavericks had dropped three games in a row prior to their latest victory, prompting Charles Barkley to lament the job Dallas has done of building around Doncic. More on that below.

For the latest Luka Doncic rumors, click here.