At this point, there's no argument against Damian Lillard being the 2020-21 Most Valuable Player. You can make arguments, and strong ones at that, for other players, as most do in the latest edition of MVP Power Rankings, but there is no legitimate claim to be made that the 6-3 guard in his ninth season out of Weber State hasn't done everything he possibly could through the first two-thirds of the season to be consider the league's most valuable player.
So while "valuable" is certainly a nebulous term that means different things to different people, it is difficult to think of a team that would suffer more without their best player than the Trail Blazers would without Lillard. That alone might not be enough to win MVP -- after all, that's been true for at least the last five seasons -- but with the wins and the stats, not to mention the leadership, durability and importance to the community, Damian Lillard has as good of a case as anyone, and a lot better case than others, to win the the Maurice Podoloff Trophy at the end of the season.
Luckily, it seems like the national media has taken notice, also a requirement to win MVP, this time around. Most of the rankings have Lillard behind Nikola Jokic for the top spot, though he's No. 1 in at least one ranking and has steadily been moving up in the others.
• Michael C. Wright of NBA.com has Damian Lillard at No. 2 on his "Kia MVP Ladder" rankings this week, one spot better than last week...
Wright has Lillard behind Denver's Nikola Jokic at No. 1 and ahead of Brooklyn's James Harden at No. 3.
• Chris B. Haynes at Yahoo! Sports has Lillard in the top spot on his weekly "NBA MVP Watch" rankings, also a one-spot improvement over last week...
Haynes has Lillard ahead of Nikola Jokic at No. 2.
• Brad Botkin at CBS Sports also has Lillard at No. 2 in his lateast (and rather detailed) MVP rankings...
As you probably picked up, Botkin has Lillard behind Nikola Jokic at No. 1 and ahead of James Harden at No. 3.
• Sam Amick at The Athletic has Dame at No. 3 in his latest MVP race ranking, one spot better than in the most recent ranking...
Amick has Lillard behind Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 2 -- and Nikola Jokic at No. 1 -- and ahead of Philadelphia's Joel Embiid at No. 3.
• Apparently one MVP ranking isn't enough for The Athletic, as Zach Harper also has an MVP ranking, and his has Lillard at No. 2 this week...
As you can probably surmise even if you don't have a subscription, Harper has Lillard behind Nikola Jokic at No. 1 and ahead of Joel Embiid at No. 3.
• Finally, the super computers over at Basketball Reference have Damian Lillard at fourth with a 4.0 percent chance of winning MVP in their NBA MVP Award Tracker, which "ranks candidates based on a model built using previous voting results." Lillard is behind Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 3 with 10.5 percent and ahead of Kawhi Leonard at No. 4 with a 3.5 percent chance. Nikola Jokic is far and away the favorite with a 48.3 percent probability to win MVP.