The NBA regular season is coming to an end and the final sprint that will decide the campaign’s individual awards is underway. The MVP does not have a runaway winner with less than a month to play, but five candidates stand out above the rest.
With Embiid out of the equation after going down with a meniscus injury in his left knee (the Sixers’ center has missed too many games to be elegible), Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić and Jayson Tatum lead the race for the award.
Despite being ranked fourth in the latest power rankings (published on March 16th by the NBA), Dončić is having a historic season and his Mavericks have improved significantly after the moves they made during the trade deadline, so it could be said that he is closer than ever to compete until the very end for the trophy.
Luka Dončić, an unparalleled offensive genius:
Although it no longer comes as a surprise, the Slovenian guard has improved his production from the previous season once again. This year, Luka is scoring (34.1 points per game) and assisting (9.8 assists per night) more than ever, while maintaining his great rebounding numbers for the point guard position (nine captures each contest).
To put the former Real Madrid player’s feat into context, if we look back in time for players who have recorded 34-9-9 averages over the course of the regular season, we find a whopping zero.
Dončić’s monstrous numbers paired with a substantial improvement in efficiency, especially in three-pointers (he has improved his shooting by more than 3% compared to last season) and free throws (he scores 5% more of his shots compared to last year), further enhance the value of his achievements this season.
Players like Embiid may be able to match his scoring output, and Jokić may be a slightly better passer, but no one has mastered both skills like the Mavs’ number ’77’, who has earned his reputation as the greatest offensive talent on the planet.
Luka’s defense as the main hurdle:
While he ticks all the boxes to qualify for the MVP on offense, the doubts with Luka ‘Magic’ arise when taking into account the player’s impact on both ends of the court. Out of the five superstars competing for the award, the Slovenian is the least capable defensively.
Far from being a liability on defense like his critics say, the truth is that Dončić is an average to mediocre defender. In no case will he be in charge of guarding the opponent’s best scorer, but he possesses good instincts (he leads the Mavericks in steals per game) and an overwhelming physique for his position that makes him a capable defender in the post.
He is certainly not a player to be considered for the all-defensive lineups of this season, but Luka’s immense offensive contribution should far outweigh his defensive shortcomings.
Team success, a defining factor:
Having gone over the main arguments for and against Wonder Boy as an individual, only one question remains: is a team led by Dončić capable of competing with the best rosters in the league? This is a difficult question to answer.
Going by the most recent events, failing to qualify for the playoffs last season might lead one to believe that the answer should be negative. However, it would be negligent to only take into account the most recent results, as the Mavericks made it all the way to the conference finals a season earlier, during Luka Dončić’s fourth year in the NBA.
All things considered, it is clear that Dallas have been surprising in both good and bad ways with Dončić leading the pack, and this season has been no different.
In spite of the Slovenian’s titanic efforts, the Mavericks have not been able to establish themselves in the direct qualifying spots for the postseason and have consistently flirted with the play-in. However, after acquiring P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford during the trade deadline, they have looked a lot better.
The Texans currently rank seventh in the Western Conference, an insufficient record to solidify Luka Dončić’s case for MVP when compared to that of his biggest rivals, who lead the two top seeds in each conference.
As a result, the Mavs will have to play their hearts out in the remaining 13 games of the regular season if they want to give Luka a shot at winning the award.
Main image: @dallasmavs.
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