The 2024 NBA MVP odds were released after the Denver Nuggets conquered the NBA championship, and now a panel of ESPN NBA experts have released their early voting projections for next year's award.

Joel Embiid dominated the second half of the the 2023 season to prevent Nikola Jokic from earning three straight MVP awards, after he took the trophy home in 2021 and 2022. Looking forward to next season, there will be a heated race between previous winners with Jokic, Embiid, and Antetokounmpo responsible for the last five seasons.

Nikola Jokic received 42% of the first place votes from panel experts, resulting in 77 points for the tw0-time winner. He was followed further behind by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who earned 23% of the first place votes and ended with 58 total points.

After those two stars, there is a large drop off, finding Luka Doncic in third place with 31 points. Jayson Tatum (13), Joel Embiid (12) and Kevin Durant (11) round out the top six.

All six of the top candidates received a first place vote, except for reigning champion Joel Embiid, likely due to pending Philadelphia 76ers drama.

Now, how do the odds stack up against the voting of the ESPN experts? When matched up with the FanDuel Sportsbook odds to take home the award in 2024, the experts were pretty spot on in their projections.

Jokic leads the pack with +430 odds to earn his third trophy in the last four seasons, and is closely followed by Giannis who has +500 odds. Similar to the voting, these two have the best odds by far, and the most dollars wagered on them in the early going. Luka rounds out the top three with a +650 offering, so far equal to the ESPN panel.

The odds finally divert from the experts in the four and five spots, where the most recent winner Embiid has earned +700 odds, slightly edging Tatum out at +800. Kevin Durant falls further back at +1400 in sixth place, but don't count out the 2014 MVP as he begins his first full season with the Phoenix Suns.

Will one of the four winners add another trophy to their collection, or will rising stars Luka Doncic or Jayson Tatum grab their first Michael Jordan trophy? That will be settled on the court, but for now, the experts and oddsmakers are in pretty close unison on who has the best shot.