The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t had a player win the NBA MVP while on their team since Kobe Bryant did it in the 2007-08 season.
However, that could change this year, with Luka Doncic preparing for his first full season with the Lakers alongside LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton, and Marcus Smart. According to Kendrick Perkins on NBA Today, he ranked Doncic as his top MVP candidate heading into next season.
“I said it the other day, I’m saying it now,” Perkins said after naming Doncic his leading MVP candidate for 2025-26. “He’s engaged, he felt disrespected, the Mavs gave up on him, they traded him. There was a lot of offseason noise, criticism, a lot of it came from me, about how he couldn’t defend. Now all of a sudden we get an engaged, disrespected Luka who’s holding himself accountable.”
Doncic has received top-five MVP votes in five of the past six years. While he missed significant time due to injuries across both the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks this past season, his 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 7.7 assists are certainly MVP-quality numbers, but the 50 total games he played didn’t meet the threshold for the award.
Perk’s Bold MVP Take
Doncic finished ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Perkins’ early MVP rankings for next year. While both he and Edwards are the only two players on the list who haven’t won the award yet in their careers, the two have been in the mix for the honor over the past few seasons.
“The Lakers have a fairly weak supporting cast around he and LeBron,” Tim Bontemps added on NBA Today. “If the Lakers are in the 50-plus win range, and Luka is playing like he did two years ago, before he had the injuries and everything last year, Luka’s going to have a shot (at the MVP award).”
In response to Perkins’ list, David Dennis said he feels Gilgeous-Alexander is still the favorite to win MVP next season. However, he mentioned that if Doncic plays at an MVP level, it could lead to success for the Lakers.
“Luka needs to be on this list for the Lakers to be remotely competitive. I’m with (Perkins) that we need an MVP-caliber Luka. I’m not sure he’s going to be MVP-caliber over SGA, but at least SGA is on the list, though.”
Through the first seven seasons of his career, Doncic has the third-highest points per game average in NBA history during the regular season. This past year was his first year not playing at least 60 regular-season games, but he has yet to average less than 21 points, seven rebounds, and six assists since entering the league in 2018.
Luka’s Lakers Contract Extension
After being traded from the Dallas Mavericks at the deadline in February, the Lakers have the chance to lock down Doncic for the next few years with one of the largest annual contract extensions in NBA history. On August 2nd, Doncic will be able to sign a four-year $229 million extension that would keep him in Los Angeles until the end of the decade.
All reports show that Doncic expects to sign the extension with the Lakers, and the annual salary would make him the seventh-highest paid player per year. He previously signed a five-year $215 million deal with the Mavericks in the summer of 2021, but a new contract would put him in line to be one of the highest-earning players in NBA history, despite being only 26 years old when potentially signing the deal.
While a majority of their salary cap will be tied up with Doncic, James, and Reaves, Los Angeles appears ready to hand out that huge deal in just a few weeks.
The Lakers have been busy over the offseason in hopes of competing against a strong Western Conference. They added Ayton and Smart, while re-signing Jaxson Hayes to a one-year deal. They did lose Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency, but hope their currently constructed roster can go head-to-head against teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, and Los Angeles Clippers.
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