James Harden Pulls Away In MVP Futures Odds Halfway Into The Season

More than halfway through the 2017-2018 NBA Season, the race for the Most Valuable Player award has changed over time. The beginning of the season saw San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard as the favorite to win, but since the Klaw has only played less than 10 games, he dropped out of the race in an obvious decision. Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo who was once a front-runner for the award also dropped out of the race. All of these Bitcoin basketball odds changes is a result of James Harden’s recent performance.

James Harden is now the favorite to win the award in June with -290 odds. When looking into Harden’s numbers, it’s easy to see why he has the best chances to win the award. Harden leads most players in points per game with 31.3 PPG, even in total points in the season with 1596 points, PER with 30.3, in free throws with 441 total, and in win shares with 11.3. Other candidates are also included in the leaderboard in the statistics, but no other player matches Harden’s in terms of the many leads in statistics he earned.

Here are odds for the other MVP contenders. LeBron James packs +275 odds, Giannis Antetokounmpo has +1,400 odds, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving nabbed +2,000 odds, last season’s MVP, Russell Westbrook earned +2,200 odds, Anthony Davis with +2,500 odds, and Chris Paul sports +3,300 odds.

Attempt To Make The Case For Other Contenders

LeBron James is playing like a mammoth this season. The King continues to dominate and was added to the 30,000 point club, in which he was the seventh player to do so, joining the likes of Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, and more. The case to make here is at 33-years old, James is still putting up unreal numbers and has earned his 11th triple-double this season. The question that’s been constantly asked is why is LeBron James playing this many minutes and putting up huge stats on a regular season. This might eventually hurt the Cavs when they reach the playoffs.

Furthermore, it is most likely that no player in the Golden State Warriors will earn an MVP award this year as they share both the ball and the stats. Although, this doesn’t mean that Curry, Durant, Thompson, and Draymond Green did not put up great stats this season. It’s just that with the way they play now, they’re likely to cancel each other out when it comes to the MVP talks.

Futures Betting

Lastly, with more or less than 25 games left to play for each team, is there enough time for any of the contenders to chase Harden and steal the award? Or will this season finally become Harden’s first MVP award? There’s still time to place bets on futures if you’re certain that any of the players above will take home the coveted award.