NBA Awards Watch: Is Luka Doncic a serious MVP contender? - ESPN

Can Luka Doncic win his first MVP award this season?

Here's why he can: Doncic is having the best season of his career. He is currently on personal-best pace in scoring (33.6 PPG), distributing (9.3 APG), 3-pointers (3.9 3PG), steals (1.4 SPG) and blocks (0.6 BPG). He has the Mavericks within a game in the loss column of first place in the Southwest Division, and winning their division is a key marker of team success for any MVP hopeful. Plus, he is flirting with history. No NBA player has ever averaged at least 33 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds per game for an entire season, so we can honestly say Luka is on pace to do something we've never seen before.

Here is why he can't: Joel Embiid is playing like a cyborg right now. Embiid had a historic streak of 16 straight games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds from mid-November through mid-January, is currently on an active 21-game streak of at least 30 points scored, and he outdueled fellow MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic to the tune of 41 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds in a 5-point victory over the Nuggets last week. Oh, and Embiid just dropped a 76ers record 70 points against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Monday. After that game, Embiid's MVP odds improved to even money, meaning he is considered as likely to win as the rest of the NBA field combined. So, there's that.

But, there's a plot twist that re-opens the MVP door for Doncic, as well as the other non-Embiid candidates: the new 65-game rule.

In early October, the NBA set a rule that players «will be all but certain to be ineligible» for the major individual awards, including the MVP, if they don't play in at least 65 games. Embiid has already missed 10 of the 76ers' first 42 games this season, putting him