NBA: Top 10 candidates for MVP in 2017-18

In a superstar-driven league, who will rise above the pack to earn the NBA’s 2017-18 MVP Award? Here are the top 10 candidates.

More than any other sports league, the NBA’s end-of-year awards season is a spectacle. With so many creative and colorful awards like Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and Rookie of the Year, NBA awards season is simply more entertaining and incites more discussion than any other sport.

In a superstar-driven league, however, the one award that every other sports league offers eventually comes to centerstage for the NBA as well: the Most Valuable Player Award.

The NBA’s MVP Award is as important as any in sports, mostly because basketball is a sport where one player can singlehandedly sway that outcome of a game, a playoff series or even an entire season. In a league dominated by larger-than-life personalities and exemplary on-court talents, MVP is a regular season designation that celebrates the alpha dog of an entire season.

That’s not to say the voters always get it right. Even last year, there was a strong case for a certain infamous Beard down in H-Town despite the MVP’s triple-double exploits. Heading into a new season, however, who are the favorites to bring home the Maurice Podoloff Trophy?

In order to sort it out, here’s a look at the 10 candidates most likely to bring home the NBA’s 2017-18 MVP Award.

Honorable Mentions:  John Wall, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard, Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gobert, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, DeMarcus Cousins