Luka Doncic is 5th in the first MVP straw poll

Entering the season, Luka Doncic found himself in a familiar spot: atop the odds as the favorite to win the MVP award. He had the narrative working for him, seemingly more deserving of the award than his third-place finish last year would indicate after the Mavs’ run to NBA finals. But to take advantage of the narrative shift, it’s important to play up to your standard. Which brings us to now, where Luka has found himself fifth in ESPN’s inaugural MVP poll. It has been a bumpy start for Luka as he has battled through a number of injuries to start the year and therefore played below the level he was at last year. Our editor Kirk Henderson and friend of the site Jason Gallagher had an excellent conversation about this a few weeks ago, with most of the talking points still relevant today.

Results of straw measurement

Three players have seemingly separated themselves from the pack, with Nikola Jokic (827 voting points), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (678 points) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (643 points) each receiving first-place votes. Fourth place was Jayson Tatum, who was nearly 400 vote points behind Antetokounmpo (267 points).

That brings us to Doncic, who finished fifth with 123 points. Of the 100 voters participating in the poll, only 67 had Luka Doncic on their ballot, and the vast majority of those were fifth-place votes. It’s pretty clear that Luka is on the outside of the race at the moment. However, the Mavericks have flown a bit under the radar to this point, so any traction the Mavs make between now and the All-Star Break will obviously help him get back into the running. It’s just too bad he’s once again finding himself needing a big finish to really get into the MVP race.

These five were the only players to be on over half of the ballots. Bontemps has written about the results and the narrative surrounding the award, which you can check out here. (ESPN+ required) For what it’s worth, our friends on DraftKing’s Sportsbook has Luka fourth in MVP odds (+800), behind Jokic (+115), SGA (+260) and Giannis (+500). Tatum checks in at (+1300), which puts him in fifth place. There are a lot of twists and turns left in this race, so we’ll see how things shake out over the coming weeks.