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We have a historic NBA MVP race. If you put any of these three of the finalists in any other year, they would most likely pull away with the award. Instead, they’re all competing against each other right now. To put this in perspective, Luka Doncic led the league in scoring at 33.5 points a game, with 8 rebounds and 8 assists, and he isn’t even a finalist. Neither is Cade Cunningham, who took the Pistons from the 6th seed and 44 wins to the best team in the East and a 60-win season.
So let’s dive into the three finalists for MVP and ultimately who should be crowned the 2026 NBA MVP.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, has won MVP, Finals MVP, Clutch Player of the Year, a championship, and has received multiple All-NBA First Team honors, all in just the past two seasons. Now, he’s looking to win another MVP.
SGA impacts the game in so many ways, and you can see that impact through the standings. The Thunder were the best team in the regular season once again. They won 64 games, and that’s without their second-best player, Jalen Williams, for most of the season.
I know Shai is considered a free-throw merchant, and yes, it can be annoying to watch sometimes. But at the end of the day, it’s a skill that’s very hard to master. Only a handful of players in NBA history have been able to draw a foul as good as him. This and the fact that he’s an offensive wizard helped him break Wilt Chamberlain’s streak of consecutive 20-point games of 126, which is something you would only see from an MVP-level player. Not to mention that it’s not just offense where he makes his impact felt. On defense, he averaged 1.5 steals and a block. His length and lateral movement make him an amazing perimeter defender.
Victor Wembanyama
If Victor Wembanyama were to earn MVP, he would surpass Derrick Rose as the youngest MVP in NBA history. Winning MVP after receiving the first ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year award would further establish the excellence of his early NBA career.
Wemby doesn’t only have the performance to back up his MVP campaign, but also the narrative. He’s young, fun to watch, and there’s no voter fatigue. But when it comes to his performance, he’s not lacking there either. The fact is, 50% of the game is defense, and he is head and shoulders the best defender in the NBA. Opposing teams have to completely re-think their gameplan because of him. No other player impacts the opposing team’s offense as much as him. Speaking of offense, that took another leap this year as well. He became much more aggressive and physical; he can no longer be pushed around, especially in the paint. This season, he averaged 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks a game in only 29 minutes a night. That’s how you make an impact.
If you want to read more about how the Spurs have done so well, check out this article: How The Spurs Are Steamrolling the Rest of the NBA
Nikola Jokic
Jokic winning MVP would put him in some rare company. Only five NBA players have won 4+ MVPs: Kareem, Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt, Lebron. Winning a fourth MVP would solidify him as a top 20 player of all-time.
Jokic impacts the game on offense more than anyone in the world. You need him to drop 30; he’ll do that. You want him to dish out 10 dimes, no problem. You want him to help win the possession battle and grab 10 boards; he’s got you. You need him to do all of this? Cool, he’ll average those numbers for the entire season. All of this has led him to lead the league in offensive win shares at 11.5.
I know everybody says he’s a bad defender, but that’s simply not true. Sure, he’s not your prototypical big man blocking shots, but he’s constantly reading the defense. Thinking two moves ahead, knowing where the offense is going to do before they even do it. That allows him to tell his teammates where to go so they’re in the best possible position to get a stop. That’s why he has an astonishing DBPM of 4.1.
All three of these players have an exceptional case for why they should win MVP. But at the end of the day, my pick to win this award is Victor Wembanyama. He’s taken the Spurs from the 13th seed last year to the 2nd seed this year. His defensive impact is just otherworldly not to mention all the alien things he’s doing on offense. In a league full of stars, Wembanyama isn’t just playing the game; he’s changing the geometry of it. He is quite simply the most inevitable force in basketball today.
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