JJ Redick: Luka Doncic Is the MVP If Lakers Keep Winning
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LOS ANGELES — First-year head coach JJ Redick believes the NBA’s Most Valuable Player trophy should go to Luka Doncic — provided the Los Angeles Lakers close the regular season the way they have been playing for the past six weeks.
“If we continue to finish the season the way we’re playing right now, and he continues to play that way — to me, he is the MVP,” Redick said Monday, hours before the Lakers hosted the Washington Wizards at Crypto.com Arena.
Redick highlighted two stretches to support his claim. Los Angeles opened the season 15-4, and since Feb. 28 the club has gone 14-2 with Doncic averaging 36.5 points on 49.3% shooting (39% from three), 8.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 2.3 steals. Overall, the Lakers are 24-10 since Jan. 18, the league’s second-best record during that span, pushing them to third place in the Western Conference.
“He’s the engine that’s driving all of our winning,” Redick said. “Certainly, we have a ton of guys starring in their roles, but he’s the driver.” The coach also praised the 27-year-old’s conditioning, calling it the best it has been since Doncic’s first or second season.
Despite perennial contention, Doncic has never captured the MVP award. He placed third in 2023-24, eighth in 2022-23, fifth in 2021-22, sixth in 2020-21 and fourth in 2019-20. Speaking after Saturday’s 116-99 win over the Brooklyn Nets — a game that earned him a one-game suspension for his 16th technical foul — Doncic said he is puzzled by the voting results. “The better I play, the more I go down in rankings,” he said, adding, “I don’t know what more I can do.”
Doncic currently leads the league with a career-high 33.7 points per game. He also tops the NBA in 40-plus-point outings (15) and 30-plus-point games (43), while ranking third in assists (8.2). On the defensive end, he is third among guards in rebounds (7.8), sixth in steals (1.6) and seventh in charges drawn (14).
Asked during a 60-point performance against the Miami Heat earlier this month whether he would campaign for the award, Doncic deferred. “It’s you guys, the media,” he said. “I ain’t got nothing to do with it.”
The Lakers continue their playoff push Monday night without their star, who will serve his one-game suspension against Washington.
Source: ESPN
