The NBA MVP vote failed and Luka Doncic is unfairly paying the price

Last season, the Dallas Mavericks had their best season of the Luka Doncic era.

Despite being in play-in territory in January and February, the Mavs managed to put together a magical run, securing the No. 5 seed and later reaching the NBA Finals. Dallas’ moves for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington undoubtedly gave them the boost they needed to get back on track, but Doncic’s play really helped them dominate last season.

He averaged 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 38.2 percent from downtown. Doncic’s major improvement as a shooter, historic performances that included a 73-point game, a league-leading 21 triple-doubles, and his overall offensive mastery stunned the NBA and helped the Mavs be as great as they were , but it still wasn’t enough for Doncic to win MVP.

Doncic surprisingly finished third in the MVP voting, behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic. While both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander had incredible seasons, the NBA had never experienced a season like Doncic had just experienced. Doncic won the scoring title, became the first player in NBA history to average 33 points, nine rebounds and nine assists per game for a season, and tied the NBA record with six consecutive 30-point triple-doubles on, but at least that wasn’t enough.

The MVP goalposts continue to move and it is Doncic who is paying the price

Voters seemed concerned that Doncic’s team was the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference while Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic’s teams were No. 1 and 2, respectively, and Doncic’s end-of-season success wasn’t enough to justify it an MVP in the eyes of voters.

Even if Doncic isn’t having quite as good a season this season as he did last year, the targets for MVP seem to have shifted again.

Despite being the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference and his team having had an extremely slow start to the season, Jokic is currently almost unanimously at the top of most MVP rankings. Although his statistics are excellent, averaging 31.0 points, 13.0 points and 9.8 assists per game, the team’s success has not been particularly notable.

At one point this month, the Nuggets were the ninth seed in the Western Conference and were 10-8. They’ve been better lately as they’re now the No. 6 seed, but that doesn’t change the fact that Denver isn’t one of the top seeds in the Western Conference and Jokic appears to be the absolute MVP favorite right now.

That’s not to take away from Jokic’s outstanding statistical season, as he seems to dominate every night, but it is to point out that voters’ criteria appear to have changed again. Jokic isn’t being cut at all because of the lack of team success Denver has had, while voters didn’t even bat an eyelid at Doncic’s historic season last year in which he averaged nearly a triple-double with 34 points and his team won 50 games in a loaded Western Conference.

Jokic’s Nuggets are currently on pace to win 45.92 games, almost four games back from the Mavs’ last season, and it still seems like he’s most people’s MVP right now. That’s not to say Doncic should be the MVP now, as he’s suffered a lot of injuries and hasn’t started the season strong, but Mavericks fans should be angry that MVP voters’ minds on this continue to change they are looking for the most.

Doncic’s stats this season could be very similar to what we saw from Jokic last season, and even if he gets healthy and helps the Mavs finish with a top seed, it doesn’t look like he’ll be for considered for this award.

The fans just want consistency with this award, and what has happened in recent years is a world away from that.