Luka Doncic is ranked 5th in the first MVP straw poll

Heading into the season, Luka Doncic found himself in a familiar place: He was at the top of the odds list and the favorite to win the MVP award. He had the narrative on his side and seemed more deserving of the award than his third-place finish last year after the Mavs’ run to the NBA Finals suggested. However, in order to benefit from this narrative shift, it is important to live up to your standard. That brings us to now, where Luka is ranked fifth in ESPN’s inaugural MVP poll. It was a rocky start for Luka as he struggled with a number of injuries at the start of the year and therefore played below last year’s level. Our editor Kirk Henderson and friend of the site Jason Gallagher had an excellent conversation on this topic a few weeks ago, with most of the topics of conversation still relevant today.

Straw poll results

Three players seemingly stood out from the crowd: Nikola Jokic (827 points), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (678 points) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (643 points) each received first-place votes. Fourth was Jayson Tatum, who was almost 400 voting points behind Antetokounmpo (267 points).

That brings us to Doncic, who finished fifth with 123 points. Of the 100 voters who took part in the poll, only 67 had Luka Doncic on their ballot, and the vast majority of those voted for fifth place. It’s pretty clear that Luka is on the outside of the race at the moment. However, the Mavericks have flown somewhat under the radar until now, so any performance the Mavs get between now and the All-Star break will obviously help him get back into contention. It’s just unfortunate that he needs another big finish to really get into the MVP race.

These five were the only players represented on more than half of the ballots. Bontemps has written about the results and the history surrounding the award, which you can read here. (ESPN+ required) For what it’s worth, our friends in the DraftKings Sportsbook have Luka fourth in MVP odds (+800), behind Jokic (+115), SGA (+260) and Giannis (+500). Tatum checks in at (+1300) and is in fifth place. There are still many twists and turns in this race, so we’ll see how things develop in the coming weeks.