B/R’s 2025 NBA MVP Leaderboard: Victor Wembanyama Has Entered the Chat, Passes Curry

Who’s ready for our first NBA MVP ladder of 2025?

Questions abound as we near the season’s midway point. The last time we met, as well as the time before that, Nikola Jokić enjoyed a stranglehold on the top spot. Is that still the case? And if he remains at No. 1, can anybody realistically catch him?

Beyond that, have any new faces entered the top 10? Is anyone in danger—or guaranteed—to slide in the weeks and months to come? Just how many members of the Cleveland Cavaliers can we fit onto this list? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Like previous iterations, this exercise will be guided by a singular question: Assuming the season ended right now, which players have established themselves as the biggest, most valuable difference-makers?

Previous Rankings

Jalen Brunson: 8

Darius Garland: Unranked

Donovan Mitchell: Unranked

More than one player populates the bottom of the ballot for a second consecutive ladder. I make no apologies. The swings outside the top three or four candidates this year are wild. Ties reflect those circumstances.

Distinguishing between Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell is getting tougher. Both headline a Cleveland Cavaliers squad that might crack 70 wins. Mitchell is the more leaned-upon scorer. Garland is the higher-volume playmaking engine. Both can captain the offense as scorers or table-setters. Garland shoulders harder defensive assignments. Mitchell faces tougher defensive assignments. You see my dilemma.

Tons of metrics paint Karl-Anthony Towns as the New York Knicks’ MVP candidate. I can’t get there. Brunson is slumping from the field, but the offense would crater against rival starting units without his playmaking. He profiles as the more dangerous unassisted shot-maker as well. If not for a recent cold spell and defensive issues (despite plenty of fight), he’d be a standalone top-10 entrant.

Kevin Durant (previously ranked No. 10) and Cade Cunningham (yes, him) end up being the toughest cuts. Both have compelling cases. Durant is defying time, and I’m not sure any of us realize how central Cunningham is to one of the NBA’s biggest surprises. Including them just doesn’t feel right when their teams are net minuses for the season with them on the floor.

Also Considered: Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons; Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns; Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves; Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies

Previous Ranking: 9

Putting Evan Mobley ahead of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland is counterintuitive to what we often value most. Both guards have stronger agency over the offense and counting stats more in line with MVP conversations.

Whatever.

Mobley remains front and center in the Defensive Player of the Year discourse. And he’s expanded his offensive armory and impact enough to be considered a primary catalyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ success.

No, he’s not initiating sets left and right. But the passes he does make are more meaningful, a byproduct of both his vision and a more dynamic offensive structure. His scoring arsenal, meanwhile, is plumbing personal-best depths. He has never looked better traversing contact, and he’s averaging 8.1 drives per 36 minutes, up from 5.6 last year.

Oh, and for good measure, Mobley has materially drummed up the three-point volume. He’s at 4.0 attempts per game since the last installment of our rankings and is knocking them down at a 44.4 percent clip.

Previous Ranking: 10

Evan Mobley came oh-so-close to usurping Anthony Davis in the latest MVP pecking order. But most will view including Mobley at all as a stretch, and rolling with him discounts the discrepancy in offensive usage.

Davis is used more like a hub for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is both responsible for initiating more shots for himself and for others. Though his scoring has dipped since the last ladder, he’s still over 25 points per game on the season.

Although the Lakers got shellacked by the shorthanded Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, AD has proven instrumental to the team’s climb up the standings. There is no overstating his defensive importance, even during Los Angeles’ lowest moments. Without his body of work this year, the Lakers wouldn’t even be on the periphery of the hellacious Western Conference playoff picture.

Previous Ranking: 7

By this stage of Stephen Curry’s career, we are collectively numb to his counting stats. Averaging over 22 points and six assists per game on mythical three-point volume and efficiency is cool and all, but it’s nothing new. And the Golden State Warriors’ tumble down the Western Conference standings doesn’t help matters.

That isn’t just cause for treating Steph as anything other than incomprehensibly transcendent.

According to BBall Index, he ranks in the 99th percentile of three-point shot-making despite placing in the 4th percentile of three-point quality. He’s also in the 96th percentile of self-created shot-making and the 100th percentile of passing quality.

Other players are ferrying heavier lifts across larger samples. That matters. But Dunks & Threes’ Estimated Plus-Minus still pegs Curry as a top-10 player—a mind-melting notion backed up by the Dubs posting what would be a top-seven net rating when he’s in the game.

Previous Ranking: Unranked

Victor Wembanyama is probably going to win Defensive Player of the Year, which could have earned him MVP consideration before now. He has rendered his on-the-ballot-but-not-quite-atop-it candidacy undeniable by going kaboom on offense over the past month or so.

Since our last ladder released on Dec. 12, Wemby is averaging 28.8 points while converting 57.3 percent of his twos and 37.3 percent of 9.8 triples per game. That is patently absurd. And also apparently not absurd enough. Because he’s blocking five shots per game during this stretch, too.

The San Antonio Spurs aren’t quite winning enough to thrust Wemby to the tippy top of the MVP field. That could change. San Antonio is a few losses outside of home-court territory and, most critically, is outscoring opponents by 4.9 points per 100 possessions with its 21-year-old super-duper-alien-star on the floor.

Previous Ranking: 7

Please take this opportunity to bid farewell to Luka Dončić’s MVP case. He will no longer be eligible for the award by the time he returns from his left calf strain.

In the here and now, when he’s yet to miss more than 17 games, he absolutely belongs.

Spotty efficiency out of the gate threatened Dončić’s efficiency. Although his overall shooting splits are down, he’s still averaging around 28 points and eight assists while canning over 55 percent of his twos and 35 percent of his triples on absurd volume.

Spending more time off the ball has diminished Luka’s traditional counting stats. But his ability to function in a less heliocentric role, and at varying speeds, is now part of his MVP appeal. The Dallas Mavericks’ net rating with him on the court (plus-11.3) speaks for itself.

Previous Ranking: 3

Jayson Tatum has firmly entrenched himself inside the top five of these MVP shindigs. The Boston Celtics are no worse than the league’s third-best team, and he’s the primary force driving their offense.

Much of what he does can be lost in the shuffle of the top-end talent he plays alongside. That is fair, to some extent. His workload at either end of the floor will never be as heavy as many of his peers, particularly as a playmaker and defender.

Still, Tatum’s perimeter shot-making is a boon for a Boston offense that has seen Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown slip from beyond the arc.

Downing around 37 percent of your treys is a big deal when you’re launching more than 10 per game. It’s an even bigger deal when you also rank in the 3rd percentile of three-point shot quality, according to BBall Index.

Previous Ranking: 4

As of now, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the player who’s most likely to party-crash what’s become a two-person debate.

The 30-year-old’s numbers continue to read like a run-on typo. His 31.6 points per game lead the league and come on better than 60 percent shooting inside the arc. He’s also clearing 11.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.5 blocks.

For so long, the Milwaukee Bucks were barely treading water during Giannis’ court time. That messed with his MVP case. It doesn’t anymore.

Tack on enduring mid-range magic, as well as better defensive activity than we saw to start the year, and Giannis is one gnarly Bucks winning streak away from busting this race wide open.

Previous Ranking: 2

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has maintained the No. 2 slot pretty much all year. Not only isn’t he going anywhere, but the margins separating him and Nikola Jokić are shrinking by the game.

Turning to the “SGA is the best player on a team tracking toward 70 victories” argument is both effective and an oversimplification of his claim. He is very much the lifeline of a squad that good.

His numbers are bonkers. He leads the league in scoring since the last MVP ladder with 33.8 points per game on preposterous efficiency, including a 41.5 percent clip from distance on 5.5 attempts per game. Oklahoma City’s offensive rating improves by over 15 points with him on the floor—the third-largest swing in the league among everyone to log at least 150 minutes.

Those campaigning for Jokić like to note the Thunder win by virtue of generational defense. This is true. But SGA is an active participant in that defense. So much so that the MVP race has become a two-man race that has officially entered either-or territory.

Previous Ranking: 1

Nikola Jokić’s MVP case is close to checking all the necessary boxes, including team success.

Though the Denver Nuggets are far from juggernauts, they are just a few losses behind the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed. And while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is arguably level with him, he hasn’t quite caught up to the three-time MVP’s individual production.

Despite SGA’s recent uptick, Jokić is still averaging more points per game on better true shooting. He comfortably has the edge in assists. SGA has the heavier workload when accounting for defense, but Jokić’s true usage—which incorporates playmaking—outstrips that of Oklahoma City’s megastar, per BBall Index.

Jokić’s defensive slide opens the door even further for SGA. And the latter has (ever so slightly) tallied more total minutes. For me, the difference comes down to the quality of the surrounding talent they’re buoying.

Take any catch-all metric you please. SGA’s teammates are going to grade out waaaay better than Jokić’s supporting cast. Never mind the actual on-off swings. The Nuggets outscore opponents by 12.6 points per 100 possessions with Jokić in tow—a mark much closer to OKC’s net rating with SGA (plus-16.3) than it has any business being.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.