NBA MVP Race Player Rankings: James Harden back into the top 10?

We’ve had a chaotic week in the NBA MVP race this past week in more ways than one, between a spreading COVID outbreak and a James Harden mega-trade. By this point, multiple teams have had games postponed and the Washington Wizards haven’t even played a game since January 11th.

On a happier note, James Harden’s presence may be the catalyst to move the Brooklyn Nets from the ranks of the superteam-in-waiting to the realm of the NBA’s truly elite. A win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday showed the potential of what may be ahead at the top of the Eastern Conference.

NBA MVP Race Player Rankings: Week 3

Before we get started, let’s go over our ground rules as established in Week 1:

"This won’t be an exact science as we’re not going to be plugging everybody’s BPM, RPM and PIPM into a calculator and dividing by 36 minutes. It’s going to use healthy amounts of recency bias, popular narrative, team success (or lack thereof) and whatever other elements I choose to incorporate at a given time. It could be messy, chaotic and a bit unpredictable, and it’s certainly going to get flipped on its head every week."

Now that we have entered a challenging portion of the NBA season thanks to COVID and contact tracing, there will be a matter pertaining to how to treat missed games. Much like these rankings will be an inexact science by design, so too will be the way we handle missed games by players.

This is the second week with players essentially being taken off the board (Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were docked last week for the Boston Celtics missing games), and there will be some precipitous declines as a result in at least one case. We’ll find injuries of a more typical style playing a role here too, so before we go over our snubs, let’s address our biggest drops going back to our previous ranking period starting with the games on January 14th.

Dropping out of rankings

Bradley Beal, Washington Wizards

Last ranking: 8

Over time we will likely have players drop from the top 10 completely beyond the realm of snubs, but it’s important we discuss Bradley Beal’s situation. He is currently the NBA’s leading scorer, putting up a spectacular 34.9 points per game, but the Washington Wizards haven’t played a game in almost a week. Thanks to what appears to be a COVID outbreak in their ranks, and there’s no clear indication of when they’ll be back in action.

In fact, they’re only tentatively planning to start practicing again on Wednesday, so there will most likely be more missed games. Beal will surely be back in the mix in these rankings sooner than later, but he and his Wizards are going to need to be playing games again before he can be added back into the mix.

CJ McCollum, Portland Trail Blazers

Last ranking: 3

This time a week ago the Portland Trail Blazers were winning and CJ McCollum was shooting the lights out and putting up legitimate MVP numbers. Unfortunately, he suffered a fracture in his foot that will sideline him for at least four weeks and as a result, we’re going to preemptively move him out of the rankings.

Like Beal, he has a clear path back into the top 10 if he is able to return to his previously productive self, although missing four weeks of an already abbreviated season will hinder his chances.

Now, let’s talk snubs.