Doncic's great opportunity to win the MVP this season
We reveal the keys as to why this could be the pivotal year for Doncic to secure the MVP award.
His status as a generational talent makes it imperative to achieve individual statistical successes, in addition to winning a ring. Luka Doncic is aware of the difficulty of being the MVP of a season in these times, with real and potential monsters as competition, but a window of opportunity has opened for him that he should take advantage of, being seen as an ideal moment for it.
Until a few days ago, there was no debate that Nikola Jokic had to be awarded the NBA MVP 2026 if everything continued as planned. The feelings of overwhelming superiority that the Serbian conveyed, his surreal numbers, and the good competitive dynamics of a team that orbits entirely around him, made the achievements of Luka Doncic and even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completely overshadowed and not real contenders to dethrone Jokic.
Doncic has missed 7 games, so he could only be absent in 10 more at most to vie for the MVP
However, his injury will make it unrealistic to expect him to play 65 games this season. This opens up a range of candidates where names like Antetokounmpo or Wembanyama will not be included, due to the large number of games missed due to injuries and how impossible it seems for them to comply with the requirement of missing, at most, 17 games. Taking this into account, Luka Doncic's main rival for MVP 2026 at this moment would be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Nothing foretold such a tremendous collapse of the Thunder, but if they fail to quickly reverse the situation, Shai's responsibility in that, combined with voter fatigue and the good performance of the Slovenian, could create an ideal breeding ground for Luka Doncic to become the MVP. There are other candidates, such as Cunningham, Brunson, or Brown, but Luka Doncic's numbers are superior. He needs the Los Angeles Lakers to establish themselves in the elite, continue to achieve astonishing statistics, and avoid injuries, which could thwart his aspirations.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La gran oportunidad de Doncic para ganar el MVP esta temporada
