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The NBA season is fully underway, with three weeks come and gone since the 76ers upset the Knicks on ring night. So, too, is the MVP race.
Victor Wembanyama and Luka Dončić entered the season as two strong favorites and have lived up to those expectations with exceptional starts to the year. But they won’t be alone in pursuit of the NBA’s most prestigious award. From former MVPs like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to perennial superstars like Jayson Tatum, all kinds of high-level players will be vying for votes backed by strong play and great team records.
It doesn’t have an impact on the title race but there’s no overstating the importance of the NBA MVP award. It is one of the key measuring sticks used when discussing Hall of Fame candidacy and who earns honors like a spot on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
As such, we at Sports Illustrated will be keeping close track of the race for the 2026–27 NBA MVP throughout the season. We’ll rank the top contenders and break them down into tiers so you know exactly where they stand—as well as who to keep an eye on if the leaders start to fall down the ladder.
Thus, without further ado, we present the first iteration of the SI 2026–27 NBA MVP rankings.
10. Alperen Şengün, Houston Rockets
The Rockets’ great start this season is in no small part due to the play of Şengün. The two-time All-Star is putting up career-high numbers in points and assists while playing the best defense we’ve seen from the young Turkish star yet. Şengün’s vision is what allows Houston’s roster of questionable shooters to thrive without overly relying on Kevin Durant and the center position must be a defensive linchpin in Ime Udoka’s scheme. As the best player on one of the West’s best teams, Şengün gets due consideration here and will climb if this hot start proves to be his new reality.
9. Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks
Flagg’s leap is real. He’s putting up star-level stats while shouldering an offensive burden on par with true No. 1 options (despite Kyrie Irving getting more involved in the offense by the day) and the defense from the 19-year-old wing is nothing to sneeze at, either. On top of all that Flagg has been absolutely nails in crunch time, shooting 84.6% (!) in 17 clutch minutes. It would be unprecedented for a star as young as Flagg to garner serious consideration—yet his talent suggests it’s only a matter of time before he demands it, especially if the wins continue to pour in.
8. Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons
Cunningham is once again the sun at the center of the Pistons’ solar system. Detroit’s decision to add more diverse offensive talent has resulted in a decrease stats-wise so far but he remains critically important on both ends of the floor for the third-best team in the East. Once his favorite pick-and-roll partner Jalen Duren returns from a hamstring injury (or once Cunningham snaps out of his cold streak from deep) his production should once again rise to the level required of a genuine MVP candidate. Until then we can’t put him much higher.
7. Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers
Maxey has been by far the best player on a loaded Philly team that has racked up wins in the early going. What comes next will determine his MVP candidacy this season. Will his stats drop off somewhat as the Sixers try to get everybody further integrated into an offense that has struggled at large? Or will they rely even more on the lightning-fast guard to be the engine of a contending team? If it’s the latter Maxey will remain a persistent name in the rankings as long as Philly keeps winning. Otherwise it’ll be tough for him to keep pace.
6. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
There are two schools of thought in regards to Jokić’s performance thus far and his place in the MVP rankings. You either believe a big man averaging a near triple-double with the capability to lead his team in scoring on any given night is an automatic MVP candidate. Or you believe that Jokić’s stats, down year-over-year at large, are far enough below the outrageously high standard he himself set with three MVP awards that he doesn’t have a realistic shot at a fourth.
After some consideration, I ultimately fall into the former category. If the vote were held today Jokić wouldn’t finish top three, but he’s still such an offensive monster that he would deservedly finish top-10. He’s not as great as we’ve become accustomed to—but his subpar is still better than every other big man in the NBA (with one glaring exception mentioned below) and the Nuggets would be lost without him.
5. Steph Curry, Golden State Warriors
Curry’s greatness is apparent every night he takes the court, which has been the case for a few years. But this season the Warriors seem to finally have what it takes to translate his excellence into victories. Golden State is back near the top of the conference standings while Curry drops nearly 30 points per night while hitting a whopping 45.7% of his three-point tries. His case is not bulletproof by any means; the future Hall of Famer missed nearly 40 games last season and suffered an injury on Wednesday night that Steve Kerr sounded quite pessimistic about. But this has been a strong enough start to consider him officially part of the conversation at 38 years old. Pretty sick stuff.
4. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Tatum is the best player on the East’s best team while enjoying a career year as a passer. There are only three players in the NBA right now averaging at least 26 points and seven assists per game: Tatum, Dončić and Kings standout rookie Darius Acuff Jr. Perhaps most impressively the Boston star is doing all that with a usage percentage well below most other serious MVP candidates as Joe Mazzulla’s staff concocts creative ways for Tatum to open up the offense without the ball. He isn’t yet scoring at an efficient enough rate to join the front-runners but he is the key to the Celtics’ entire system—a system that is producing at league-best rates on both ends.
On top of the production, Tatum has the potential to put forth the strongest narrative case of this year’s MVP grouping. In the wake of the Jaylen Brown trade and entering his first full post-Achilles season, there was plenty of reason to doubt whether Tatum could return to his former All-NBA level with ease. Yet he is, thriving without his All-NBA wingman and looking like the exact same superstar he was before the devastating injury. That’s a compelling story.
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
The reigning winner’s counting stats are a bit down from his last two seasons and history works against players vying for a third consecutive MVP win; only the most exceptional seasons are rewarded in that context. But Gilgeous-Alexander’s campaign so far is still extremely impressive considering his OKC team lost three starters in October. Despite no Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren to pay attention to, despite no Cason Wallace (or even a fully healthy Alex Caruso) to tackle the toughest defensive assignments, SGA is leading his team to win after win anyway. The weight of creation he shoulders every night is forcing the superstar to exert himself in ways we haven’t seen since his ascent to best player in the league status.
As a result the other parts of his game are suffering, with lower assist numbers and worse defense than we’ve seen in some time from the star guard. Yet if Gilgeous-Alexander can carry the Thunder to another top seed in the conference, the effort will be Herculean and perfectly fitting to the purest version of what it means to be the most valuable player in the NBA.
2. Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers
Dončić burst out of the gates as the early MVP favorite by averaging nearly 40 points per game. It’s been a ludicrous display of shot-making from the Slovenian superstar, who leads the league in points, shots and three-pointers made per game. His current PPG average is territory only Wilt Chamberlain occupied; even Michael Jordan only sniffed those numbers. There is no doubting Dončić is the best scorer alive right now and the Lakers lead the West as a result of his talents. He’s playing better defense than ever, too! He just needs to stay healthy after missing double-digit games in each of the last two seasons; hopefully the tweaked ankle he suffered against the Bucks on Wednesday night doesn’t hinder him going forward.
It is no knock to have him ranked second here. He could quite easily take the top slot in the next round of rankings. It is just a reflection of the reality that exactly one player has been better over the first handful of games this season.
1. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
Wembanyama’s struggles to kick off his fourth NBA season have been completely forgotten already. The Spurs superstar has led his team to 10 straight wins after an 0–2 start with every part of his game clicking. He is learning how unstoppable a force he is offensively while blocking more shots per game personally than seven NBA teams have managed as a collective. This is the version of Wemby everyone was talking about during offseason discussions about whether his enormous frame was about to eclipse the league for years to come.
If Wembanyama continues to play anywhere near this level he’ll figure prominently into MVP discussions over the course of the season. There’s plenty of room for discussion if his scoring falls to something closer to his career average in the low-to-mid 20s. But as it stands, averaging 30 points per game in 30 minutes per game as the best defensive player in the league is impossible for anyone to top.
Listen to SI’s NBA podcast, Open Floor, below or on Apple and. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
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