Welcome to this article Smash fans! As we are a week away from the NBA season, I thought today was as good of a day as any to talk about who I think will win the MVP: 6 foot 7 point god Luca Doncic. To show, my reasoning, let’s go through why the other top candidates can’t win it this year.
LeBron James
Every year LeBron has won the MVP, he has had a concrete narrative and that includes last year. There were so many questions and so much doubt surrounding LeBron for the first time in almost a decade and that allowed the MVP voters to doubt his true greatness for the first time in a long while. However, this year LeBron won’t have those doubters this year and he won’t have a narrative. You add this to the fact that he has another top 5 players on his team and it is clear why he won’t win the MVP.
Antony Davis
Anthony Davis has all the same downsides as LeBron, but worse. Anthony Davis is not playing with a top 5 player in the league, he is playing with the best player in the league. He's second fiddle, which makes his chances even slimmer. And Anthony Davis doesn’t even have a lick of a narrative. At least Lebron has the fact that he is in year 18 and is still dominant. Anthony Davis is supposed to be as good as he is.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
The argument for Giannis is simple: voter fatigue. No MVP voters will want to vote for someone who has choked in the playoffs for two straight years no matter how good they are during the regular season. For that reason, there is no way that Giannis wins the MVP for a third straight year.
James Harden
This argument is also simple. James Harden is out of shape and unhappy. James Harden will not be a Rocket for the rest of this season. That is a fact. The longer James Harden stays there, the worse of a reputation he is going to get and the harder it will be for him to recover and win the MVP. Because of this, I don’t think there is any way that James Harden wins this year’s MVP. The MVP is about perception and his is not great.
Kawhi Leonard
A lot would have to go right for Kawhi to win the MVP. He would have to stop load managing, he would have to become his defensive player of the year self while still putting up the same office production, and the Clips would have to land the 2 seed at minimum. With all these factors in mind, I do not think there is a realistic chance the Claw wins MVP.
Now that I disqualified all of the players above, it is clear that Luca is not going to have that much competition when it comes to the MVP. Not only will Luca have the narrative on his side, but he will also have the stats to back it up, and a record to match. I don’t think many people realize that Luca averaged a near 30 point triple-double last session. If he is able to improve his numbers ever so slightly, he would achieve this mark. You add the above to the fact that the Mavs will be completely healthy for the majority of the season and you get a team that can get the 3rd seed in the west. If all of the above were to happen, it would be extremely hard to deny Luca the MVP.
Until next time, PD Smash signing off.