NBA MVP Rankings: Top 10 Rankings for 2024-2025 Season | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

Luka Dončić enters as an odds-on MVP favorite at FanDuel, and while my own rankings differ from the overall betting odds in many cases, this isn’t one of them.

Multiple forces are converging into signature momentum for the 25-year-old. His grades will never be a problem. He averages over 30 points and over eight assists per game and generally makes opposing defenses swoon.

The fact that they made it to the final has also turned a lot of skepticism on its head. It’s a tribute to his heliocentric approach, his ability to co-exist with another star (Kyrie Irving) and his ability to work within a top defense even if he isn’t the main factor behind that success.

Pie in the Dallas Mavericks’ ascent into bona fide contender territory, and Dončić will benefit from a variety of angles, including the “Best title-threat player” and “It’s his turn, honestly” angles.

If you rest on these arguments, you’re still selling Luka’s MVP stock short. This is someone whose playing style is portrayed as grating and persistent. Dispelling these concepts is just as important.

Yes, Doncic will dominate the ball. He is Luka Doncic. It would be foolish to reinvent its use. But he showed last season that he can play faster. Dallas got into transition much more often last season and did so even more often with Luka on the field for just the second time in his career.

We already had plenty of evidence of his dominance and importance to the Mavs. Now, however, Dončić’s indispensability is even more striking: a transcendence that no longer exists solely on his own terms, but that undeniably persists within variable and larger team constructs.