NBA midseason awards: Who wins MVP? Most improved? Greatest rookie?

Recency bias aside because of his 70-point performance Monday against San Antonio, Philadelphia 76ers All-NBA center Joel Embiid has been at or near the top of the MVP race all season. He has been a force. But this is not a one-man race nor does one game determine the MVP. The remaining half season will do that. Plus, Embiid is in danger of not playing the minimum required games to qualify for season-ending awards. He has missed 10 of Philadelphia’s 42 games and can only miss seven more the rest of the season to reach the 65 games played necessary to be eligible for awards. Now that every NBA team has reached the midway point of the season, let’s take a look at the players who have emerged as leading contenders for the major awards. The voting panel consists of: USA TODAY Sports NBA writer Jeff Zillgitt and USA TODAY NETWORK reporters Duane Rankin (Phoenix Suns beat writer for the Arizona Republic), Jim Owczarski (Milwaukee Bucks beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), Dustin Dopirak (Indiana Pacers beat writer for the Indianapolis Star), Damichael Cole (Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Memphis Commercial Appeal) and Omari Sankofa II (Detroit Pistons beat writer for the Detroit Free Press). MVP: Joel Embiid 76ers center Joel Embiid is doused with water by teammates after scoring 70 points in a victory against the Spurs. The MVP race is far from settled. It’s a tight race between Embiid, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Our voting panel puts Embiid, who won his first MVP last season, atop the list followed closely by the other three players based on his body of work. He averages a league-best 36.1 points per game plus 11.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.2 assists while shooting 53.9% from the field and 36.3% on 3-pointers.