Recent NBA MVP Ladder Hints at Verdict Between Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

How tight is the race between Nikola Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander?

While Gilgeous-Alexander remains the heavy favorite after his 34-point outing against the Boston Celtics, Nikola Jokic is still in play for the award. 

At +380 on DraftKings, he has an implied probability of 20.8% to take home the MVP for the fourth time. 

While Gilgeous-Alexander is leading the league in scoring and has commanded his team to the Western Conference's best record, Jokic is having an incredible year. 

He's averaging more points and assists than in any of his previous MVP seasons and the second-most rebounds per game of his career. 

While the oddsmakers may have Gilgeous-Alexander leading way, the latest MVP ladder from NBA.com has Jokic in front. 

The recent ladder hints at the idea that Jokic might have leaped the Thunder superstar in the race to capture the award.

The case for Gilgeous-Alexander is that the Thunder have been the most dominant West team this season and have been the whole season. 

Jokic and the Nuggets on the other hand once sat at 11-10 and No. 9 in the West. 

Since then, the Nuggets have catapulted up the standings and are the No. 3 seed in a losing tie-breaker scenario with the Memphis Grizzlies. 

If the Nuggets end up finishing the regular season in second place, it's not out of the question that the odds will shorten and make it a true coin-flip scenario for the award.