CayceL

Luka's 81 points added on offense are #1 in the league, a full 20 points ahead of 2nd place. His +11.42 Defensive Points Saved rank 54th, which is awesome placement for him.

Luka leads the NBA in WAR accumulated over the last 37 days (since he returned from injury). He's added 3.76 Wins in that time. No player has been more impactful than him during this stretch of the season.

@MeFanGirlOutlet It’s crazy that the other team’s podcasters are generally all in on their guys and pushing them blatantly for MVP. And the Lakers podcasters are like well we should point out to you what we think Luka has struggled with despite him playing at a BITW level and getting the 3 seed.

"He can be inconsistent" Leave it to Lakers podcasters to throw in the little dig at him at all times! They just cant not do it! Even in their praise, they also have to make sure to throw that dig and that "but" cause God forbid Luka can be praised like everyone else.... Smh

@LALMuse The media will do anything they can to discredit Luka. They move the goalposts constantly for him and set standards that have never been applied in MVP voting before.

Chris Mannix, who has an MVP vote is using a stat that isn’t an individual measure to “prove" why Luka is a bad defender He puts Jokic in his “Tier 1” right after 😂

@LukaUpdates I think the coaches who actually have to game plan to face all of the MVP candidates are way more of a reliable opinion than sports media members who make it their goal every day to smear and discredit Luka. @SIChrisMannix

"I’ve got Luka Dončić in my second tier. Now, I know there’s going to be some criticism about Luka being on the second tier, he’s been outstanding offensively... just can’t get past the defensive numbers for Luka Dončić." Where to begin... Luka Dončić's defensive rating (DRtg) for the 2025-26 NBA season is currently actually 113.6. Which is pretty average... However, raw DRtg has limitations, it’s heavily influenced by teammates, scheme, and role. Luka plays heavy minutes with high usage on offense, which can fatigue players defensively. Advanced metrics like DBPM sometimes show overall impact better than raw DRtg alone. Luka Dončić's +1.2 DBPM this season is solidly good for a high-usage offensive superstar like him, it's a positive, above-average defensive contribution. Those MVP voters will even lie about his numbers just so they can hate. It's not even moving goalposts anymore... It's completely removing them! @SInow

@deanisreal_ How does Dort end up on the floor every single screen. He’s built like a linebacker.

Funniest part about this is the ref standing right there didn’t think it was an illegal screen but the cocksucker 30 feet away did

@Xmz1980 @CoolHandMe33 Every single player being considered for MVP complains to the refs. In fact, in case you hadn’t noticed, most players do that. Even players like Jordan.

@CayceL @CoolHandMe33 Yes, he prefers to complain to the referees...

This is crazy! Even if you’re a Victor Wembanyama fan (which I am) you know this shows how dumb MVP narratives are right now. Victor has a bad game on the 25th but because he argues for the MVP award he goes from 5% to 27% odds to win the MVP 😂 Luka is on an all time heater and his odds dropped in half. We’ve never seen anything like this.

@MatejSportinfo The only reason Wemby is in talks for front runner right now is because he went out and begged for it to the media. And people like @_JasonLT just ate that right up. Meanwhile Luka has more PoTM and PoTW than anyone else and he tries to say Luka’s only been playing well 3 weeks.

You're being disingenuous. Luka was averaging 35-9-9 on 62 TS% in oktober and november. He's averaging 34-8-8 on 62 TS% since january 1st. He was player of the month in january and might be again for march/april. Luka's been playing like BITW for a lot longer than just 3 weeks.

@_JasonLT @cannonkeziah Are you for real? Luka is leading the league in ppg, do you know how you do that? You play well all season. The reality is the media hates him and changes the goalposts for him every single year. And they’ll do it again next year. You all want him to never win a single MVP.

I think if Luka wins the Shai head to heads and looks like the better player, Wemby probably gets the 1 seed, wins MVP and you could argue Luka at 2. But I agree that Luka’s MVP ship has probably sailed this year. Needs to be better from start to finish, that’s the next step for him.

The “Wemby’s total minutes” convo seems silly to me considering he’s 2nd in total +/- in the NBA. He’s accomplishing a hell of a lot more on the scoreboard per minute than anyone else this year. By the way, SGA is #1 on that list. Feels right to me that they’re 1 & 2 for MVP.

@_JasonLT Y’all don’t even care what MVP means anymore. “Luka has been playing like the best player in the world.” “The Lakers will be a play in team this season.” Yet Luka has them as the 3rd seed while LeBron and AR have both missed 20+ games. OKC wins whether SGA plays or not.

Luka is having an incredible season and has arguably been the best player in the world for 3 weeks or so, but he feels like a clear #3 to me in MVP this year, unless he continues this run through the end of the year and wins the SGA head to heads, which is certainly possible.

@SIChrisMannix Luka is 4th in steals in the league and also:

Monster game for Joel Embiid: 29 points, six rebounds, two blocks, including swatting away Brandon Miller's potential game-tying three. Sixers move into a tie with Atlanta for No. 6 in the EC.

This is why it’s disturbing to me that these are the folks responsible for deciding MVP because they’re not even aware of how certain metrics that they wanna use to justify their decisions work. DrTG measures how many points per 100 possessions a team allows when a player is on the floor. That’s a metric heavily influenced by the team. Luka’s DRTG on basketball reference is 114. Jokic’s is 112, but somehow that gets Jokic in a different tier even though by your own admission, Luka’s the best offensive player in the game. Individually, Luka does rank 7th in steals, but I know, that doesn’t mean he’s a great defender. Well in the month of March, the Lakers are giving up 10(!) points per 100 more with Luka off the court vs on. @SIChrisMannix you gotta do better.

The last two players with 500+ points 100+ rebounds 100+ assists 35+ steals in a month.

@PurpGoldLakers Or Jokic.

All of a sudden the media cares about defense being included in MVP convos Where was this when Steve Nash or even when fucking Curry won twice? Luka is the real MVP

Where MVP candidates rank leaguewide in "points plus points generated by assists" per game: 1. Nikola Jokić (53.6) 2. Luka Dončić (52.8) 3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (48.0) ... 40. Victor Wembanyama (31.5)

@TheNBABase x.com/trevorlane/sta… Just admit you don’t actually watch the games or follow them and are just on an anti Luka agenda. He’s been far better defensively than anyone wants to admit. 4th in steals in the league.

SI’s Chris Mannix Snubs Luka Dončić from Top 4 MVP Candidates, Calls His Defense ‘One of the Worst in the League’ "I’ve got Luca Dončić in my second tier. Now, I know there’s going to be some criticism about Luka being on the second tier—he’s been outstanding offensively—I just can’t get past the defensive numbers for Luca Dončić. The defensive numbers have just been they’ve been bad. I want to read some of this: Luka has an individual defensive rating this year of 115.6. That would rank 119th among the 180 players with 25-plus starts this season. So he has been, in any measurable statistic, one of the worst defensive players in the league. And when the competition is this close, I’ve got to factor that in. I’ve got to include what you’re bringing to the table defensively. He’s the best offensive player in the game, the best offensive weapon in the game, but defensively he’s coming up short. My first tier is the group of players that we’ve been talking about: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokić, Jaylen Brown. Those four guys are in my first tier and those are the four guys that I am considering casting my MVP vote for." (Via @SInow )

On Luka's defense, for the month of March, the Lakers are giving up 10(!) points per 100 more with Luka off the court vs on. He also ranks 4th in the NBA in steals & blocks combined during that stretch with 3 per game. He can be inconsistent but the improvement is real

@LegionHoops @LukaUpdates Facts. The sports media just hates him is the problem

Luka on winning MVP: “Yeah hopefully, but the better I play the more I go down in ratings so I don’t know what more I can do.” (@LukaUpdates)

@TheDunkCentral Apparently you have to go to the press and complain about why you should be MVP. Luka stays humble though.

Wemby’s MVP odds continue to rise, while Luka’s have dropped drastically 😳