2022-23 NBA Preseason Awards Media Poll: Most Valuable Player

Fastbreak on FanNation polled 21 different NBA media members from around the country ahead of the start of the 2022-23 NBA season. Here are the results of the voting for who the media believes will win the Most Valuable Player award.

A new NBA season is upon us and with it comes speculation about what will happen over the next few months.

Who will win this season's awards? Which teams will finish with the best and worst records? Who has the best chance to make the All-Star Game for the first time in their career?

Fastbreak on FanNation polled 21 different NBA media members, some who cover the league as a whole and some who cover an individual team, asking them these specific questions and gathering their results.

Below are the results from the voting that took place for the 2022-23 NBA Most Valuable Player award:

Media Members Pick To Win MVP: 

Joel Embiid - Philadelphia 76ers

Finishing as the runner-up for the Most Valuable Player award in back-to-back seasons now, Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid received the most votes to win the MVP award this upcoming year.

Embiid has been dominant for the 76ers over the last couple of seasons and the 2021-22 season was a special one for him. He not only became the first center to lead the league in scoring, averaging 30.6 points per game, since Shaquille O’Neal did so during the 1999-00 season, but Embiid played in a career-high 68 games and recorded 40 games with at least 30 points, the most in the league.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has now won the MVP award in back-to-back seasons now, but out of the eight players to receive at least one vote in our Preseason Media Poll, Jokic surprisingly did not receive a single vote.

Instead, Milwaukee Bucks forward and two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo finished second in the voting with five votes and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic finished third in the voting with four votes.

Antetokounmpo is certainly a candidate to win the league’s MVP award this upcoming season simply because he is the best player in the world. There is no blueprint to stopping Giannis Antetokounmpo on either end of the floor and he is the main reason why the Bucks were able to win the 2021 NBA Finals.

As for Doncic, he continues to get better each and every season and he is coming off a year in which he was able to carry the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2011. Like Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic stuffs the stat sheets, which is why he enters the season as the favorite to win the award in many people’s eyes.

Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles Clippers), Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) and Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves) all also received some consideration for preseason MVP in the poll, as each of the five players received one vote.

Health will play a big factor in who ultimately wins the 2022-23 NBA Most Valuable Player award, but Joel Embiid is certainly at the forefront of many people’s minds across the league entering the new season. Philadelphia has a chance to have a special season and if they can finish with the best record in the Eastern Conference, it will be hard not to give the MVP award to Embiid. 

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Complete voting results from 2022-23 NBA Preseason Media Poll:

• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Most Valuable Player
• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Rookie of the Year
• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Most Improved Player
• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Sixth-Man of the Year
• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Coach of the Year
• 2022-23 NBA Preseason Defensive Player of the Year
• Who Will Finish With The Worst Regular Season Record?
• Who Will Finish With The Best Regular Season Record?
• Which Team Will Win The Eastern Conference?
• Which Team Will Win The Western Conference?
• Which Team Will Win The 2023 NBA Finals?
• Who Is Most Likely To Be A First-Time All-Star During The 2022-23 NBA Season?