The Lakers are set to face the Wizards tonight without their MVP candidate, Luka Doncic, who will be serving a one-game suspension after receiving his 16th technical foul of the season in their last game.
Before the game, JJ Redick spoke to the media and addressed Doncic’s contributions, including explaining why, to him, the Slovenian superstar deserves the Michael Jordan MVP Award for the regular season.
Redick began by saying Doncic’s fitness is “probably as good as it’s been since he was a first- or second-year player.”
“If we continue to finish the season the way we’re playing right now, and he continues to play that way, to me, he is the MVP. But sometimes there’s a recency bias, sometimes there’s a bias of a certain stretch of the season.”
“When we started the season, 15-4, you could have made an argument he was the MVP then. He’s been the MVP for two of the three segments of the season.”
“Our losses, they’re just so loud,” said Redick in frustration. “I use that January 18 day all the time. I don’t know what it is as of today, but as of our last film session yesterday, we’re tied for second in the league since January 18th in terms of total wins,” Redick further explained.
“So it hasn’t been as bad as people have made it out to be, particularly when you factor in all of the injuries that we’ve had, like several teams. I think we’re all very comfortable with where our top nine is when we’re healthy, and he’s the engine that’s driving all of their games.”
Considering that the Lakers are heading into their 75th game of the season, let’s divide the season into three segments of 25 games to understand how Doncic performed.
In the first 25 games of the season, Doncic averaged 33.6 points, 8.7 assists, and 8.1 rebounds while shooting 45.9% from the field and 31.7% from beyond the arc.
The Slovenian superstar averaged 33.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.4 assists while shooting 48.5% from the floor and 39.7% from behind the three-point line in the last 25 games of the season.
For comparison, let’s look at the reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to understand where Doncic stands. The Lakers guard is widely considered the biggest threat to Gilgeous-Alexander’s potential back-to-back MVP wins.
Over the first 25 games, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.4 points, 6.4 assists, and 4.6 rebounds while going 56.0% from the field and 43.7% from beyond the arc.
The Canadian superstar averaged 30.6 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.2 rebounds while making 55.8% of his field-goal attempts and 34.1% of his three-point shot attempts.
Other than shooting efficiency, Luka Doncic clearly dominates over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in almost every category.
However, one factor that Redick has not considered in his prediction is that, beyond the exceptions given for Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook, averaging triple-doubles in a season, the most common objective rule that the league has followed in the MVP award has been that it is awarded to the best player on the best team in the league.
The Lakers (48-26) don’t have the best team record in the West, let alone seeing where the team stands in comparison to the East. Therefore, a player on the Thunder (59-16), the Spurs (56-18), the Pistons (54-20), or the Celtics (50-24) would ideally have a better claim on the award than Doncic.
Considering that Cade Cunningham is likely out of the race, it will be agreeable to say that Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and Jaylen Brown may have a better case to make for the MVP award than Doncic.
