MVP Watch: Where does Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell rank among stars?

MVP Watch: No. 4 – Jayson Tatum

If the Boston Celtics didn’t have the Cleveland Cavaliers on their schedule, they would have just one loss and be at the top of the league again. Those two losses to the Cavs have dinged their record just slightly, but they still look like one of the inner-circle title contenders again this year, especially when Robert Williams III returns.

The primary reason is that Jayson Tatum has continued to grow as a player. The Celtics’ wing is averaging 30.3 points per game on a combination of great shooting and foul-drawing ability; he is shooting 8.1 free throws per game and hitting 90.4 percent of them. His 65.6 percent true-shooting (which takes into account free-throws and 3-pointers) is up with Stephen Curry and just behind Nikola Jokic among MVP candidates.

MVP Watch: No. 5 – Nikola Jokic

Speaking of the reigning two-time MVP, Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have clawed their way back from a wobbly start to get to 6-3, with the Joker unsurprisingly leading the way. The box score says he is averaging a ho-hum-for-him 20.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 9.2 assists; nearly every advanced metric you can find screams that he is dominating the league once again.

Jokic absolutely controls a game when the Nuggets have the ball, orchestrating the offense with the ball and unlocking it without with his timely cuts and screens. Having Jamal Murray back, while bringing some rust to be knocked off, has begun to reveal even more facets of Jokic’ game that have been missing for nearly two years. He just barely beats out Devin Booker for the fifth spot on our MVP ballot.