Best player in the NBA poll: 53 votes from media members and league insiders results in dominant winner

Best player in the NBA poll: 53 votes from media members and league insiders results in dominant winner originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Tim Bontemps' ESPN MVP straw poll has become a must-read in NBA circles. Bontemps periodically polls 100 media members to ask who the league's MVP award should go to. It's a worthy exercise that is, in fact, pretty good at predicting the winner towards the end of the year. This season, that will likely be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander based both on his poll and betting odds.

Bontemps doesn't cover who the consensus best player in the league is, irrespective of team success or games played. That's a separate question for most fans and NBA people, and definitely one worth investigating.

I decided to run my own poll, asking media members, current and former team executives, and scouts to vote on who they thought was the best current player in the league. They had the choice of remaining anonymous, which many did in their comments below. After 53 votes were tallied, a clear winner emerged.

Sporting News NBA best player poll results

Voters were free to write in any name that they chose. Somewhat surprisingly, only three players received votes.

MORE:MVP cases for Jokic, Wemby, SGA, and Luka

Nikola Jokic is expected to finish a distant third in MVP voting. When it comes to best player though, he was the runaway favorite, receiving two-thirds of all votes.

The Jokic voters

Many Jokic voters mentioned that they would not have him as their MVP, but he was the guy that they would want for a playoff series.

"Jokic is arguably the greatest, most well-rounded offensive player in history. If every contender were given a team that fit them best, I think Jokic's strengths would shine brighter than anyone's," Basketball Poetry's Mike Shearer told me.

"I don't have Jokic for MVP this season, because he's coasted on defense and been too temper-tantrumy for my liking (a slide back to his bad old days). But if we're talking who you would most want in Game 7 of the Finals? My answer is still Jokic. (For at least another month or two.)," Shearer added.

Another anonymous voter mentioned that while Jokic's health has limited his impact throughout portions of the season, he's still the league's best talent.

"I still lean Jokic. I think people are overreacting a bit to the last two months where Denver hasn’t looked quite right. It’s pretty clear Jokic wasn’t himself coming back from injury. Whether he rushed back to meet 65 games or not, he wasn’t playing to his usual standards."

"SGA’s godly efficiency becomes average in the playoffs. Some efficiency drop is normal but if both players are fully healthy, and I can only have one for a playoff run, I still lean Jokic. As great as SGA is, the Thunder win playoff series with their defense. Denver wins playoff series with Jokic."

All three players are putting up absurd stat lines, but Jokic's 28 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists per game still stand out.

"Top 10 in scoring and averaging a triple-double at center is absurd," another Jokic media voter explained. "Stats aside, Jokic's ability to make his teammates better and control the tempo of games sets him apart from the field. Not to mention, we've seen him do it repeatedly on the biggest stage in the games that matter most."

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The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander voters

Gilgeous-Alexander's two-way play was frequently mentioned by his proponents.

One SGA media voter noted his "complete control of games offensively, including but not limited to clutch time, plus defense, as or more available than any of the other options, has proven it at the highest level and no off-court issues or anything like that. Just a complete bullet-proof case in my opinion."

Others cited SGA's underrated offense and clutch shot-making.

"He can create an efficient shot in any situation," one anonymous voter told me. "The best team in the league manages on offense mostly due to his elite shot-making. We haven't seen a player this fluid in offense, especially in mid-range, in years. He does all these while being a decent defender which his nearest competition (Jokic) isn't."

Another voter put it more simply: "He is the most inevitable."

Victor Wembanyama San Antonio Spurs

The Victor Wembanyama voters

I was one of the 15 percent of voters who picked Wemby as the best player in the league. The Spurs star has made his own case, noting that defense is 50 percent of the game, his team has beaten the Thunder three out of four times, and offense is about more than just scoring.

I would disagree with Wemby that defense is half of the game. Offensive impact is more valuable. Even given that caveat, his defense is so far above everyone else's that it completely changes the tenor of games. He's the best defender in NBA history, and he's only in his third year.

"He's far and away the best player on defense, in ways that impact metrics still underestimate, and he is also a top 10 offensive player," one Wemby voter said. "He hasn't had the best season, Shai has, but Wemby is the best player when he's on the floor right now."

Kostya Medvedovsky, the creator of DARKO, agreed with that sentiment. "The defensive impact is fairly preposterous at the moment. DARKO does not yet have him #1, but that's because it can't see him play."

He's not at the level of SGA or Jokic on offense, but he's no slouch there either. The gravity that he creates is absurd. If he's near the basket, his teammates simply have to throw it anywhere within five feet of the rim and he's going to dunk it. That obviously creates a ton of open looks for teammates. The Spurs were 29th on offense and 30th on defense the season before Wemby was on the team. They're top five in both now, and it's mostly because of him.

Several voters mentioned that they couldn't vote for Wembanyama quite yet, but he would likely be their pick next season.

Other takeaways: Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo have fallen

I polled several people in both the Milwaukee and Los Angeles markets. None of them voted for Giannis or Luka, or even mentioned them as contenders for votes. Both obviously remain great players, but they are in a different tier in the minds of voters. Kawhi Leonard was the only other name outside of the big three that even drew a sliver of consideration.