By Daniel Marcum, Sport Management, 23
Many people have an idea on what NBA player will win the NBA’s MVP. As many players such as Nikola Jokic (DEN), Jayson Tatum (BOS), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC), Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL), Joel Embiid (PHI), I think the most deserving award goes to Luka Dončić (DAL). At being only 25 years old and being in his 6th season in the NBA, Dončić is showing out this NBA season averaging 34.4 PPG leading in the league’s leading scorer. Embiid is averaging 35.3 PPG but will fail to meet the 58 minimum games played requirement to be able to win the award. Dončić is also nearly averaging a triple double with 34.4 PPG, 9.7 APG, and 8.8 RPG. Being in his sixth year in the NBA, Dončić has put up some unbelievable numbers like in his historic game against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 26th, where Dončić scored 73 points off of 33 shots, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists to complete a victory over the Hawks. Dončić is has the 4th most scored points in NBA history. That want the only outstanding performance he had in his 6th year, He scored 50 points, 15 assist, 4 steals, 3 blocks on Christmas day against Devin Bookers and the Phoenix Suns. In this NBA season, there are only 5 games where a player has scored 50 or more points in a game and Dončić hold two of those spots.
Who has your vote for @Kia MVP? 🏆
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— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 1, 2024
Luka Dončić has been in the MVP race many times and have gotten close to win but there are some of Dončić weakness that is stopping him. Arguments that have prevented Luka Dončić to win MVP is that he doesn’t put much effort in defense. In this season Luka Dončić has had more great moments of defense this year and tend to improve more this year than his previous years. The Dallas Mavericks have been keeping Luka Dončić lower on the floor to limit his defensive issues with footwork and footspeed to help him look better on the defensive side of the ball. Believe it or not, that the last 5 MVP winners were over 7 foot tall. Luka Dončić is 6 foot 8in in the league going against these tall players and put up outstanding numbers and still continuing to improve on defense.
Another reason that Luka Dončić should win MVP is because doing the most with the Dallas Mavericks with the least. The Mavs did acquire Kyrie Irving and he being helpful at time but he has missed 32 games this season leaving Luka Dončić on his own. Luka Dončić has made the rookie Derick Lively II and a veteran Derrick Jones Jr. become beneficial to the Mavs roster. Kept Jones Jr. NBA career still alive and Lively II to look like a steal in the 2023 NBA Draft. As other teams have lots of stars and veterans on their team such as Jokic has Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordan, G Antetokounmpo has Damion Lillard and Brook Lopez, Gilgeous-Alexander has Chet Holmgren and deeper rosters in the NBA. While Luka Dončić is carrying his team with young unproven and castoffs players, along with only having Irving for half a season due to him having injuries. Looking over the other MVP candidates, Luka Dončić leads in both PPG and APG with the young unproven and castoffs players. The Dallas Mavericks are currently 34-27 and in 8th place in the Western Conference. Luka Dončić still keeping there hopes alive to be a potential strong play-off team.
As Luka Dončić sits at the #5 spot in the KIA MVP Latter behind Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, Luka Dončić is still continuing to stay consistent every year and still averaging 28.5 points a game in his career and still competing against the best of the best NBA stars in the league. I think that Luka Dončić should win MVP and certain that he should if the Dallas Maverick finish the season strong and get into the NBA Play-offs. Everything that Luka Dončić has done for the Dallas Mavericks and what he can do in this league shows how much he deserves to win NBA MVP.