Jayson Tatum is having another awesome season for the Boston Celtics, and he'll be one of the starters at the All-Star Game on Sunday in Golden State.
But unfortunately for Tatum, it doesn't look like he will be one of the top contenders for league MVP barring a dramatic shift in the race.
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ESPN's Tim Bontemps conducts a few MVP straw polls each season. Around 100 media members, many of whom end up having an actual MVP ballot at the end of the regular season, take part in his polls.
Bontemps released the results of his second 2024-25 MVP straw poll Friday, and Tatum is in fourth place.
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Here are the top four in the poll:
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC: 910 voting points
2. Nikola Jokic, DEN: 788 points
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL: 430 points
4. Jayson Tatum, BOS: 299 points
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Tatum has a comfortable 226-point lead on Donovan Mitchell in fifth-place. But there's also a decent-sized gap between him and Antetokounmpo in third place. The C's forward did not receive any first- or second-place votes.
Tatum was also fourth in Bontemps' first straw poll of the season back in late December, when he had 267 voting points. Jokic was in first place at that time with 827 points, while Gilgeous-Alexander had 678 in second place.
Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging a league-leading 32.6 points per game and the Thunder sit atop the Western Conference standings. After finishing second in the actual MVP voting last season, the Thunder guard could take home his first MVP in a couple months. And it would certainly be deserving.
That said, it's hard to find many players as valuable as Tatum, even though it would appear his chances of winning MVP this season are pretty slim. He's the most durable superstar in the league and plays at an elite level on both ends of the floor. Last weekend, he scored 40 points in a dominant victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Tatum leads the Celtics -- who sit in second place in the East with a 39-16 record -- in points (27), rebounds (8.7) and assists (5.6) per game.
Tatum could still win an MVP trophy this season. If the Celtics make it back to the NBA Finals and repeat as champions, he'll be a leading candidate for the Bill Russell Finals MVP Trophy. And that's the MVP award that really matters.
