5. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks
Every year, the Slovenian savant that is Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks continues to dazzle with his magic on the basketball court with his cerebral-ness and the way he sees the game, unmatched by any other players in the league outside LeBron James and Nikola Jokic, who's perhaps a bigger version of him.
Doncic has been one of the favorites to win MVP since his sophomore season in the NBA in 2019–20. Since coming into the league in 2018, he has been selected to the All-NBA First Team for four consecutive seasons, and a fifth looks like it's incoming.
Despite his great accomplishments, he has yet to win MVP, in large part due to some seasons not coming in the best shape and also due to the gauntlet big man trio of Giannis, Jokic, and Embiid wreaking havoc on the league in their primes, which doesn't make things easier.
However, Doncic came into the year in shape and has had the best year of his career thus far, averaging 33.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game shooting 49% from the field and a career-high 38% from three.
Doncic is amongst the top in the following categories:
- 1,077 points (1st)
- 33.7 PPG (2nd)
- 9.3 APG (3rd)
- 27.8 PER (Player Efficiency Rating) (5th)
- Box +/- of ( +9.4) (4th)
Doncic is shooting the ball better from distance than ever before and seems to have more energy in crunchtime than recent seasons due to being in better physical condition.
He's had some classic performances such as the 50-point, 15 assist masterclass on Christmas against the Phoenix Suns (who he seems to love playing against) where he scored his 10.000th career point in that game.
The Mavericks currently only sit 7th in the Western Conference which hurts his chances against some of his peers you'll see on the list who all have their teams in the top three of their respective conferences.
If the Mavericks can find a way to sneak into the top four, we can see Doncic raise his first MVP trophy in what should be the first of multiple.