Coming into the 2025-26 season, there has been a lot of anticipation about Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic and the kind of year he could have in his first full season with the franchise. After getting into the best shape of his career, Doncic was exceptional during the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 tournament only furthering the idea that he could be in for the best year of his NBA career.
Now, with LeBron James set to miss the early part of the season, head coach JJ Redick will be even more reliant on Luka to carry the Lakers offense, leading many to wonder if he could make a run at the regular season MVP. Redick believes that’s possible as long as the Lakers as a whole are successful.
Redick recently spoke on this, saying that Doncic is motivated by winning and if the Lakers are winning at a high level, he has no doubts the guard will be in MVP conversations, via Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the L.A. Times:
“He’s motivated by winning,” Redick said. “I know this because I talk to him about it all the time. He’s motivated by winning and if we win at a high level, he will be in that conversation for MVP.”
There is no doubt that team success plays a large role in MVP voting as players on teams with records hovering around .500 rarely get considered. But if the Lakers are a top-four seed in this gauntlet of a Western Conference, and Doncic puts up the numbers he is capable of, he will be right next to the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic in the debate.
So far in his career, Luka has three top-five finishes in MVP voting with his highest finish being third in 2024. That year, the Dallas Mavericks won 50 games and advanced to the NBA Finals on the back of Doncic and he and the Lakers would be ecstatic if they can replicate that level of success in the purple and gold this year.
Luka Doncic believes Lakers need to improve physicality
As JJ Redick said, Luka Doncic cares more about winning than anything and he will do whatever he can to lead the Lakers to victory. And one thing Doncic feels the Lakers must improve upon is their physicality, especially at the start of games.
“I think when we start games being physical is when we’re at our best. So we need to be more physical for sure, getting the ball in the pick-and-rolls. So just be more physical.”
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