What does Luka Dončić need to do this year to win the MVP?

The changes Luka Dončić can make to improve from last season are hard to find. But minor adjustments might help. 

Luka Dončić had one of the best seasons in NBA history last year.

He was the leading scorer in the NBA last season with an average of 33.9 points. Add to that 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds in 70 regular season games, which means he was close to averaging a triple double.

Luka Dončić also joined the exclusive group of players in NBA history to record 600+ points, 150+ rebounds and 150+ assists in a single postseason. The other players are Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Larry Bird.

He became the first player in NBA history to record six consecutive triple-doubles with 30+ points. And he begins this season with the third-highest career scoring average in NBA history, behind number one: Michael Jordan and number two: Wilt Chamberlain.

To put it straight, on the court, Luka Dončić is a constant problem for coaches and defenses. He rarely has bad games outside injuries, is consistency itself when it comes to scoring numbers, and has an answer to everything opponents throw at him. There’s hardly anything one could suggest, basketball-wise, that could improve his chances of winning MVP this year.

So does he just have to replicate his effort from last season to secure the MVP this year? Not quite.

There are a few things that don’t necessarily have to do with the actual playing of basketball that could help increase Luka’s chances. Some points which could help quiet the critics, some of which believe that his basketball talent and dominance on-court is diminished by certain behaviors.

Improving on these points will not only help his MVP chances, however. They will also contribute to team success and help the Mavericks potentially get all the way to the top this season.

These (mostly past) offenses often seem to distract from what Luka Dončić is doing on the court. If they are removed from highlight reels and diminished, it would help make the case of Luka Dončić for MVP this year much more obvious to the voters.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those:

1. Take health seriously.
2. Leadership and body language.
3. More effort on defense.
4. Stop complaining!

We can cross off the first one to start. Luka Dončić has hired a whole team of health and fitness experts, who help him stay in shape, prevent injuries, build muscle and work on explosiveness and strength. We saw the effects of this last season, and this season it will be even more distinct.

Luka Dončić’s body language has improved tremendously over the last year. In the past, he had games where he simply was neither motivated nor seemed to want to be there, hanging his head and snapping at teammates. Kyrie Irving, on the court next to him, is a master of understanding what a positive mindset can do, and he never allows Luka to go too low. Not necessarily through words, but in the way he carries himself and leads on and off the court. In his presence, the whole team is lifted.

Unfortunately, when things got really tough and Kyrie was struggling as well in June, Luka reverted back to his old ways in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

“A moment where Luka takes a minute to bark at the officials, doesn’t sprint in transition and you’re playing 5-on-4,” as the announcer says.

And as frustration over officiating, teammates, opponents and probably of playing through injuries for weeks showed up in game three of the Finals, Luka Dončić did the inexcusable: he fouled out when his teammates needed him the most.

Reverting back to old habits when things are tough is natural. We all do it and it’s a human defense mechanism. But for Luka Dončić to be considered the MVP frontrunner this season, this type of behavior has to be eliminated once and for all. No matter whether the officiating seems personal or unfair, no matter if he is feeling clubbered on the defensive end, he has to keep his composure and poise. Let the coaches and teammates fight that battle.

This leads us straight into the defensive aspect. We’ve seen some very good defense from Luka Dončić last season, and if he continues to hold his own, especially on the perimeter and post, as he has shown he can, he can come out of this season as a plus defender.

But in all honesty, if he puts up what pundits call “effort” on just team defense consistently, all season, not just when he’s amped or just made a big three or someone’s trash talking him – that’s when it will be really hard to ignore him. Highlights are great, but “never be a traffic cone ever” is a good goal for this season defensively.

This is what effort on team defense looks like:

And it looks like Luka Dončić is doing just that. A few days before the season started, Jason Kidd said that Luka has made a conscious effort on the defensive end. “He’s doing that at a high level.”

And that leaves us with the complaining. We’ve already touched on this, but there’s no room for any meltdowns or what some may call “Balkan temper” this season. To reach the top of the ballot, Luka Dončić has to stay on the straight and narrow. He has to let others fight this battle, he cannot give the pundits content or feed the narrative.

There’s no leash for Luka Dončić this season. No room for error. He is not given space to vent or be upset. People are sick and tired of seeing this behavior and because it’s stuck in their memories as who he is, they will cling to the tiniest of frowns from him and hold on to that as being proof of their narrative.

This season, to reach the highest level personally and for the team, he cannot give them anything. He has to turn away, walk away, let Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington, Dereck Lively, and maybe some of the new defensive additions, Quentin Grimes or Naji Marshall, be his stand-ins, his placeholder. The good news; these guys are ready for that role.

As Brian Windhorst going off on Luka Dončić and his behavior after the Finals shows, there is no space for error here for Luka. He can’t give them a reason to feed the narrative, he has to change it.

It’s not all about winning an MVP for Luka. He has said as much in the past. He’s going for the title. But to elevate the team and make sure it reaches its full potential, all these small details matter. How you eat, how you conduct yourself, how you react, how you think about things. If you want to reach greatness, you have to act accordingly.

As Luka Dončić said himself about winning at the highest level: “every little detail matters”.

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