Luka Doncic is gearing up for his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers, and some think it could end with the NBA’s highest individual honor.
Former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins didn’t hold back on his MVP pick for 2025-26, speaking on NBA Today.
“I said it the other day, I’m saying it now,” Perkins said. “He’s engaged, he felt disrespected, the Mavs gave up on him, they traded him. There was a lot of offseason noise, criticism, a lot of it came from me, about how he couldn’t defend. Now all of a sudden we get an engaged, disrespected Luka who’s holding himself accountable.”
Doncic, has finished top five in MVP voting in five of the past six seasons.
Last year, he averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists but only played 50 games, falling short of the threshold needed to qualify for MVP consideration.
Perkins has him ranked ahead of names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in his early ballot.
“The Lakers have a fairly weak supporting cast around he and LeBron,” Tim Bontemps added. “If the Lakers are in the 50-plus win range, and Luka is playing like he did two years ago, before he had the injuries and everything last year, Luka’s going to have a shot (at the MVP award).”
David Dennis also weighed in on NBA Today, saying, “Luka needs to be on this list for the Lakers to be remotely competitive. I’m with (Perkins) that we need an MVP-caliber Luka. I’m not sure he’s going to be MVP-caliber over SGA, but at least SGA is on the list, though.”
Doncic has the third-highest career scoring average in regular season history, and now he’s eligible to sign a four-year, $229 million extension on August 2nd.
READ MORE: Lakers Confident in Luka Doncic Extension as Window Nears
