#1 Luka Doncic – Dallas Mavericks
The favorite for the 2021-22 NBA MVP award has to be Luka Doncic and for good reason. At 22-years-old, Luka Doncic has already cemented himself as being one of the best players in the world and with Jason Kidd now as his head coach, Doncic could wind up having the basketball in his hands a lot more.
In his third season in the league last year, Doncic averaged 27.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 8.6 assists and shot 47.9% from the floor, 35.0% from three-point range and he had 11 triple-doubles, the fourth most in the league last season.
Seeing as the Mavericks did not add a third top-tier talent and basically return the same team from a season ago, Luka Doncic is going to be a better version of what he was last year and he could definitely wind up averaging a triple double for the season.
Only Russell Westbrook (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021) and Oscar Robertson (1962) have ever averaged a triple-double in a season, with Westbrook winning the league-MVP award during the 2016-17 season with the OKC Thunder. Putting up “empty” stats means little in terms of MVP voting, especially if your team is not a top team in the league, but then again, Doncic is single-handedly the reason why the Mavericks have been in the playoffs the last two seasons.
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Without him, they would be nothing more than a middle-of-the-pack team in the NBA at best, which is why he truly is one of the “most valuable players” in the league. Doncic is only going to get better and seeing as he is already one of the faces of the entire league, he could very much take the next step in this career during the 2021-22 season.
As mentioned, stats are not everything when it comes to league-MVP honors, but over the last handful of years, the MVP award has been given to a player with some of the best complete stats in the league. Team wins and prestige is a big part of winning the MVP award, but entering the year, Luka Doncic should definitely be the favorite to win the award, which would mark the fourth-time that two international players win the NBA MVP award in back-to-back years and the first-time that an international player would win the award for four consecutive years.
