SI's NBA 1st-Quarter Awards: Mavs' Luka Joins Giannis and Harden as Top 3 MVP Candidates

SI's "The Crossover'' examines: Will Giannis Antetokounmpo take home his second MVP award? The battle between the Greek Freak, James Harden and Luka Doncic is one for the ages. Here's the ballot and more NBA first-quarter awards.

DALLAS - We are more than one-quarter of the way through the NBA season, and SI's "The Crossover'' has decided, "It's time to take stock of the league’s award races. Favorites are starting to emerge, trends are becoming truths, and teams and players can no longer hide behind early season slumps. While circumstances can certainly change, there’s also enough of a sample size for us to start judging the players who will ultimately determine how this season plays out.''

We certainly agree it's not too early to judge the youthful brilliance of Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, and we're intrigued at just where The Crossover places our guy. So ...

Let’s get to the awards.

Most Valuable Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo, BucksRunners-Up: James Harden (Rockets), Luka Doncic (Mavericks), LeBron James (Lakers), Anthony Davis (Lakers)

Writes "The Crossover'': "The gaudy scoring numbers and flashy highlights of James Harden and Luka Doncic ultimately can’t hold up to Giannis’s overall dominance. There is no two-way force in the game like the Greek Freak. Antetokounmpo is second to Harden in points per-36 minutes, and fifth in rebounds per-36. The Freak has been an absolute monster, and his per game stats are taking a hit because the Bucks are blowing teams out so thoroughly, he doesn’t have to play as much as other top guys. Giannis may not carry as much of a burden as Luka or The Beard offensively in terms of ball-handling, but ...''

The logic, the mentions of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and more awards are here at SI.com.