Luka Doncic used the shock of being traded to the Lakers and criticism of his defense and conditioning to motivate him to make the coming season the best of his career and win his first MVP award and championship ring.
There’s no shortage of wild cards when it comes this Lakers team winning an NBA championship but nothing in the purple and gold universe matters more than hearing how a driven Luka Doncic was dominating EuroBasket. While Germany finally ended Slovenia’s EuroBasket run, Luka Doncic was clearly the best player in the tournament both offensively and defensively. He led the EuroBasket tournament with 34 points and 3.2 steals per game.
While the Lakers hope LeBron can still beat up Father Time, Reaves can raise his ceiling to All-Star, and Ayton can actually learn to play winning basketball, they know their championship hopes rest on Luka’s shoulders.
Seeing the slimmed down version of Luka was promising but watching how better conditioning has transformed his game offensively and defensively is simply astonishing. This is a smoother more polished version of Luka.
In EuroBasket, Luka seemed to be totally in charge and under control, splitting double teams and getting into the paint with ease and making midrange jumpers and floaters or drawing fouls and making free throws.
A career 75% free throw shooter who averages 8 free throw attempts per game, this version of Luka is getting to the line 13.3 times per EuroBasket game and making 12.3 free throws per game for an 89% free throw rate.
Luka’s world-best EuroBasket play immediately raises quixotic visions of him winning the regular season MVP and then crowning even that success with an elite dominant postseason that leads the Lakers to a championship.
HOW OFTEN HAS A PLAYER WON MVP & CHAMPIONSHIP?
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The NBA is the top superstar driven pro sports league. In 70 seasons since the league began honoring the Most Valuable Player, a player has won both the regular season MVP and Championship 25 times or 35% of the time.
The most recent example was last season when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, won both the 2025 Most Valuable Player and 2025 NBA Championship.
Ironically, SGA was first since Curry in 2015 to win both MVP and ring.
Winning the MVP and a championship ring in the same year is special because a player was able to lead his team to dominate the regular season and elevate their game to a higher championship level in the postseason.
Historically, there’s around a 35% chance that the team with the regular season MVP will be the team that ultimately wins the NBA championship, although the percentage over the last 10 seasons has been much lower.
The 15 NBA players who won both regular season MVP and championship in the same year include Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, LeBron James, Larry Bird, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who have accomplished it multiple times.
The 5 early favorites to win the 2025–26 MVP award in order are the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards.
The 5 early favorite teams to win the 2026 NBA Championship in order are the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets. The Los Angeles Lakers were #6.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Luka Doncic appear to be three most likely superstars who have a realistic chance to win both the regular season Most Valuable Player award and a championship ring this season.
WHY LUKA WINNING MVP RAISES LAKERS’ TITLE ODDS!
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Luka Doncic defeating Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Giannis Antetokounmpo for the NBA MVP award might be the single thing that could dramatically raise the Lakers’ odds of winning the championship.
While winning MVP is not a guarantee the same team is going to win the NBA Championship like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder did last season, the award always goes to a legitimate championship contender.
Considering the parity dominating the league right now, one could argue that the winner of the 2026 NBA Championship will likely be the team whose face-of-the-franchise superstar generated the best MVP season.
Luka Doncic has taken the shock of being traded and thrown under the bus by Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks as a harsh wakeup call that he’s answered by getting into elite physical shape and playing better than ever.
Now 26-years old and a 7-year veteran who’s never won an MVP or played in the NBA Finals, Luka Doncic is committed to elevating his game to new heights and becoming the best possible version of himself right now.
It’s as if Luka has suddenly realized he wasted the first 7 years of his NBA career in Dallas. Now that he’s in L.A. he’s not going to repeat that mistake. When it comes to winning right now, Luka’s right there with LeBron.
With Luka playing like EuroBasket’s MVP and best defender, new reports say the Lakers are now willing to make an offseason trade for a wing like Andrew Wiggins before the start of the season instead of at the deadline.
Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick have been watching how Luka Doncic has been choreographing and masterminding the heroic Slovenian EuroBasket run. Next step: Regular season MVP. Then: Lakers 18th NBA Championship.
You take the time to write a sensible article, I’m reading-I’m into it, aaaaaaand you just can’t help yourself. Here’s another “not happening” trade proposal to end it lol.
A lot depends on the W/L record which depends on decent health which relies on conditioning and some luck. While I’d love for Luka to win MVP, take the scoring title and win DPOy (the NBa version of the triple crown) all of that pales to another banner on the wall.
SGA has a target on him for the first time in his career, same with his team. It’s not easy going from hunter to hunted. So that’s a plot point to keep track of. Jokic has a mostly new team, hard to have MVP chemistry while also winning his 2nd title.
Giannis and Ant Man have a decent path to MVP, Giannis just needs to stay on the floor and the Timberwolves can’t plateau or take a step back in the west
LMAO. There’s a lot of legitimate talk right now about the Lakers looking to trade for Wiggins before the start of the season because of their optimism with Luka signed and playing like an MVP. Both Stein and Woike have confirmed the rumors.
I don’t think the Lakers are willing to give up their only tradable first round pick but they can offer a second and a swap of their 2028 pick without affecting having 3 tradable picks on draft day next summer.
What I think is the Lakers have done a good job posturing that they will not give up their draft pick. This could easily end with the Heat refusing to make a trade at this time but there’s also solid reasons why Miami it’s better for them to move on from Wiggins in the offseason rather than midseason. Same with Lakers.
Remember last season when the Knicks and Timberwolves made a late summer mega trade that was a huge win-win for both teams. I doubt either team would have fared as well if that trade had been done midseason.
I read it 50/50 that Wiggins will start the season as a Laker.
I can’t see anybody winning MVP while LeBron is still on the team. His presence is just too dominating.
It’s an uphill climb, to be sure.