The MVP in the NBA is the league’s second most prestigious award, only behind the championship. The MVP race is mostly a 4 person race between Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokumpo, and Luka Doncic. The person putting up the highest stats in almost every category is Luka.
According to ESPN, he is averaging unreal numbers 34.6 points per game, 9.0 rebounds per game, and 9.8 assists per game. He is averaging astounding numbers which to most players, would be the best night of their careers. That makes it even more insane that Luka is averaging these stats on a nightly basis. This might cause you to think that it’s obvious that Luka should win the award and that there’s no question. However, it is not that simple when it comes to the decision.
Luka’s Mavericks are currently the 9 seed in the East, qualifying them for the play-in tournament. According to the previous years, we can see that a player playing for a play-in team has never won the MVP. This is because one of the most important stats when it comes to making the decision is how successful their team is. If someone is truly of MVP caliber, they should be able to carry their team to at least be seeded in the playoffs. It isn’t the end of the world for Luka though. The Mavs are only three games behind the 6 seed, which would put them in the playoffs. If Luka continues to put up these monster stats and strings a couple of wins together and makes it into the playoffs, there is a very good chance that Luka will win the MVP. However, if the standings don’t change much and stay pretty much where they are, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is very likely to win the award.
Shai is the best player on one of, if not the best teams in the West. Shai is averaging 31.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game this season. You might think that all of these stats are substantially lower than Luka’s, but the stats do not tell the whole story. Shai is extremely good at spacing the floor for his teammates and allowing them to put up monster games. Shai is very unselfish and creates very well for his teammates like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. In their last two games, Shai has put up very good games scoring 34 and 31 respectively. However, in the same two games, Jalen Williams, the second scoring option on the Thunder, scored 33 and 38 points in both of those games. This has allowed for the OKC Thunder to be one of the most high-powered offensive teams in the entire league. The Thunder are second in the West and are almost guaranteed to be a high seed in the playoffs.
This is the downside to Luka as he does not create for his teammates as well and has even been seen to get very frustrated at his teammates. This does not mean that Luka could not turn things around as there are still around 25 more games to be played. However, if things continue how they have been, Shai is on the top of the list for MVP voting.
