NBA Finals MVP Opening Odds: Victor Wembanyama Favored Over Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns

San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama had made his case to be considered the best player in the world, and he could complete that by winning the 2026 NBA Finals.

San Antonio reached the NBA Finals on Saturday night by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7, setting up an exciting series with the New York Knicks, who have the best net rating of any team this postseason and have won 11 games in a row.

Oddsmakers have the Spurs favored to win this series, which has an impact on the odds to win the NBA Finals MVP award.

Wembanyama is an odds-on favorite to win Finals MVP in his first playoff run while New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson (+210) is second and the only other player with shorter than 18/1 odds to win the award.

The two-way impact of Wembanyama makes him the safe choice ahead of Game 1, but if the Knicks pull off the upset, Brunson may not be the only player to consider to win Finals MVP.

Here’s a look at the opening odds and a few players that I’d consider betting on in this market before this series begins on June 3.

NBA Finals MVP Odds for Spurs vs. Knicks

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Victor Wembanyama: -185
Jalen Brunson: +210
Karl-Anthony Towns: +1800
Stephon Castle: +5000
OG Anunoby: +6000
De’Aaron Fox: +10000
Mikal Bridges: +15000
Josh Hart: +15000
Dylan Harper: +20000
Devin Vassell: +40000
Julian Champagnie: +70000
Mitchell Robinson: +100000
Landry Shamet: +100000
Miles McBride: +100000
Keldon Johnson: +100000

Wembanyama and Brunson are the clear favorites to win this award, and they’re priced in accordance with the series odds (San Antonio -205) when it comes to the Finals MVP.

While Towns (+1800) is viewed as an outside possibility for the Knicks, it’s hard to see a scenario where he outperforms Brunson on the offensive end throughout the entire series to win Finals MVP.

With that in mind, I do believe there is a dark horse on the New York side.

OG Anunoby guarded Victor Wembanyama a ton during the regular season, recording 34.8 partial possessions against him in the two regular season games (I’ll have more on the NBA Cup meeting in a second).

In those games, Wemby shot 5-for-9 and scored 10 points against Anunoby and was 5-for-10 for 14 points against Towns. Since Towns has a penchant for getting in foul trouble and Mitchell Robinson (hand/finger) is banged up, the Knicks may turn to Anunoby as the primary defender on Wemby in this series.

While the NBA doesn’t have tracking data for the NBA Cup Championship game, Anunoby was arguably the best player for New York in that matchup, scoring 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting while the Knicks held Wemby to 7-of-17 from the field.

That could open the door for him – he’s currently +6000 to win Finals MVP – in this market. We’ve seen players win this award for their defensive performances before (Kawhi Leonard, Andre Iguodala, partially Jaylen Brown in 2024), and Anunoby has been rolling in the playoffs even though a hamstring injury cost him two games in the second round.

The Knicks star is averaging 19.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.9 assists per game in the postseason, shooting an impressive 57.7 percent from the field and 48.3 percent from 3.

If he ends up swinging this series on defense, Anunoby is more than capable of putting up the offensive numbers to earn an all-around NBA Finals MVP. Outside of Wemby and Brunson, he’s the only other player I’d really consider ahead of Game 1.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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