Checking in on where Victor Oladipo stands in the NBA MVP race

Three quarters of the way through the season, the order of the MVP race is starting to take shape. Here’s a look at where Victor Oladipo stands in the pecking order.

If the MVP race were a night out, it’s about 2:30 in the morning and anyone with notions of getting lucky already has their foot in the door. For everyone else, thankfully, God invented 24-hour diners.

At one point this season — maybe as late as 1:00 a.m., when the bathrooms still look respectable and the only spilt drinks came courtesy of that annoying group of college kids with fake IDs – Victor Oladipo at least had an argument for finishing top-five in the voting.

Now he’s starting to look at his watch as the bottle of Jose Cuervo gives him a menacing stare.

The Indiana Pacers have stumbled a bit of late, dropping road tilts to the previously 18-win Mavs and Hawks, respectively, before taking down the Bucks in Milwaukee. Oladipo’s best hope to nudge himself into the tier of guys who can’t actually win the award but could snag a few votes seems to rest on the Pacers closing the year on something like a 22-5 tear with Vic leading the charge. That ship appears to be sailing away.

That doesn’t mean he can’t sneak his way into the top 10. Let’s take a look at where things currently stand in the MVP picture.