Last season's MVP battle was one of the best the league had ever seen as Russell Westbrook edged James Harden in the voting.
The superstars enjoyed outstanding individual campaigns with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets respectively and put up otherworldly numbers throughout the year.
Westbrook became just the second player in NBA history, along with Oscar Robertson, to average a triple-double for an entire season.
He also surpassed Robertson for the most triple-doubles in a single season with 42 and broke multiple other individual records along the way in a memorable year.
With OKC winning less than 50 games, in any other season, the award probably would have gone to Harden.
He averaged 29.1 points, 11.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds per game and led Houston to a third place finish in the Western Conference with a 55-27 record.
The Beard will therefore not be too pleased to find out that Russ is the early favourite to win the award next year, along with Kevin Durant.
According to betting odds in Vegas, the former Thunder teammates are the frontrunners for the league's top individual honour at 7/2 and 9/2 respectively.
However, with Paul George joining Oklahoma City and Chris Paul suiting up for the Rockets, Westbrook and Harden will surely have a dip in their numbers as they share the ball more.
With a star-studded lineup in Golden State, it will also be difficult for KD as he and Steph Curry may cancel each other out.
Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and Harden make up the top five with KD and Russ.
It'll be interesting to see how James approaches the regular season as he's recently prioritised his health and doesn't go at full tilt in an effort to stay fresh for the playoffs.
In that case, Leonard should be a good bet at 13/2 as he'll have to take on more responsibility for the San Antonio Spurs and his numbers could improve as a result.
Seeing Curry's name at number seven with odds of 11/1 is the big surprise, but again that is mainly due to the presence of Durant on his team.
The two-time MVP even finds himself below Giannis Antetokounmpo who is 17/2 to receive the honour.
The Bucks star recently claimed he could win MVP next season and it seems the bookmakers agree with him to an extent.
These odds don't mean anything right now but it helps to create a debate for who could be named as the regular season's best player because we will be in for an intriguing battle.