Who will win NBA MVP? As the 2025-26 NBA season nears its conclusion, Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic's recent excellence has made a splash in the race. Although it is still largely a two-man battle, this year's NBA MVP rankings will be very interesting.
With only a few weeks left in the regular season, let's dive into our latest top five in the NBA MVP race today.
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
Winning back-to-back MVPs requires complete dominance by a star player on one of the league's best teams. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander declining in the running for the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, he should join Nikola Jokic (2021-22), Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019-20) and Stephen Curry (2014-16) as back-to-back NBA MVP winners. In win share per 48 minutes, which is often a strong indicator of who will win MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander (.333) leads Jokic (.319) by a significant margin. To put SGA's WS/48 into perspective, it would be the second-highest in a single season, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (.3399) in 1971–72. Since the reigning MVP returned from his injury, Oklahoma City is 9-0 with him in the lineup. He averaged 29.9 points, 7.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game with only 2.1 turnovers per game, and he posted a 57.3 percent effective field goal percentage. Leading the team with the best record in the NBA is just icing on the cake for his MVP candidacy.
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2. Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic arguably should have been a four-time NBA MVP if not for SGA's phenomenal season a year ago and voters deciding to give the award to Joel Embiid two years ago. Since returning from injury, Jokic has averaged 26.2 points, 13.4 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 1 block per game with a .567 eFG. He has returned to his usual form and has had more triple-doubles (27) than the players second (Jalen Johnson, 13) and third (Josh Giddy, 12) this season despite missing significant time with a knee injury. Unfortunately for Jokic, Denver has also only posted a 10-12 record since his return and will enter the weekend in sixth place in the Western Conference. Team success means something and as impressive as Jokic has been, the time missed due to injury along with Denver's record put him below SGA.
3. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs won a combined 57 games over the past two seasons heading into the 2025-26 campaign. With a healthy Victor Vembanyama, this team is already ranked 52nd and is headed for its best season in a decade. Let's also keep in mind that he just turned 22 in January, and this is only the second time in three years that he's played more than 50 games. Since he rejoined the starting lineup in San Antonio after returning from injury, Wembanyama has averaged 24.5 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He has also averaged 2.4 three-pointers per game during this run, in which the Spurs have compiled an unprecedented 25–6 record in the last 31 games with Wembanyama in the lineup. He's also going to win Defensive Player of the Year. The NBA MVP award won't be his this season, but we're probably just a year away from him winning both DPOY and MVP.
4. Luka Doncic, Los Angeles Lakers
Nico Harrison is hurting right now and with the way Luka Doncic has played recently, the Los Angeles Lakers look like NBA Finals contenders. During this eight-game winning streak, Doncic has averaged 40.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game. He's accomplishing all this while shooting 50.2 percent from the field, making 6.1 three-pointers per game and even averaging 8 free-throws per contest. Oh, even sweeter for Los Angeles, he's playing passive defense. Doncic, the NBA's leading scorer, has made 83 three-pointers (5.2 3PM per game) and scored 561 points (35.1 PPG) in his last 16 contests. We're not ready to include him among the top three NBA MVP candidates because it's a season-long award, but his performance was by far the best we've seen from him during the regular season.
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5. Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham is likely to miss the remainder of the regular season due to a bad lung, putting him under the 65-game threshold for NBA MVP consideration. This moved Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown to fifth place. Let's take you back to the preseason: With many projecting Boston to win anywhere between 38-42 wins, some were wondering if the team would reset this season. Evolving into a superstar for the Celtics, Brown has had a career year. Boston is going to finish with over 50 wins and will likely be the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. He has scored more than 30 points in 19 games this season with six 40-pointers. If you don't have Brown as a top-five finalist for MVP, assuming Cunningham is ineligible, we have to assume you have Joe Mazzulla as NBA Coach of the Year. It's either or both, neither.
