The NBA MVP race is widely considered a two-horse race, with Nikola Jokic the clear frontrunner and Joel Embiid the next closest behind him.
But Draymond Green isn’t going with either.
The case for Jokic is clear. He’s a big man who can play like a guard, and when the Denver Nuggets’ season could’ve gone off the tracks due to injuries, it was Jokic who pulled them along and kept them firmly in the playoff picture. Embiid, meanwhile, has had some simply dominant stretches on both ends of the floor and only trails LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo for most points per game this season.
But Green has his own criteria for measuring an MVP. And using his metric, the Golden State Warriors forward explained on his podcast “The Draymond Green Show” why his vote would be for Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker.
"My MVP is Devin Booker," Green said. "I think Book has been consistent all year, I think with as good as their team has been – again, we go back to the conversation that there’s no criteria. Some years it’s the best player on the best team, some years it’s Russell Westbrook with a team in sixth place. But he won, and don’t get me wrong, he deserved to win, but we all wonder what’s the criteria.
"For my criteria, Devin Booker is the MVP of the NBA. As consistent as he’s been, he’s faced injuries, he’s come back, hasn’t missed a beat. Their team has continued to win, they’re leading the NBA, in first place by a longshot. Gotta go with Devin Booker as my MVP."
While Green very well might have a point, Booker – rightly or wrongly – has an uphill battle to win. It’s Jokic’s honor to lose at this point, and as of Tuesday afternoon, BetQL’s consensus odds have Booker with the fifth-best odds (+13,706), behind Jokic (-344), Embiid (+289), Antetokounmpo (+590) and Luka Doncic (+10,250).
And though the Suns’ remaining four games probably don’t allot enough time for Booker to make his shot at the award surge, he can rest assured that some of his NBA contemporaries feel similarly.
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