Nikola Jokic has won the 2023-24 NBA MVP Award. The Denver Nuggets star was selected as a finalist alongside Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. In the end, Jokic was ultimately voted as the recipient of the award for the third time in his career. So where did Doncic finish in the voting?
Doncic ended up finishing third in voting, as Gilgeous-Alexander was second. All three players had legitimate cases for the award. It would not have been shocking to see any of them win the MVP.
Luka earned four first-place votes, via NBA Communications. He received 36 second-place votes, which was just four behind Gilgeous-Alexander’s 40 second-place votes. Doncic ultimately received 50 third-place votes, which is where he ended up when all was said and done.
Doncic enjoyed a strong all-around 2023-24 regular season. He led Dallas to the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. He has already been considered a superstar for years now, but he took a step forward this season nonetheless.
Luka Doncic falls short of winning MVP despite impressive 2023-24 season
Luka turned only 25 years old in February. Yet, he is clearly one of the best players in the league.
Doncic had previously finished as high as fourth in NBA MVP voting. In 2023-24, it appeared as if Luka had a realistic chance of winning the award. However, Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic played for the top teams in the Western Conference which unquestionably helped their cases.
Nevertheless, the Mavs hovered around the NBA Play-In Tournament spots early in the regular season. The Mavericks then acquired PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline and did not look back. Dallas immediately began to surge up the standings and finished as the No. 5 seed.
Doncic led the league with 33.9 points per game. He also shot 48.7 percent from the field and a career-high 38.2 percent from beyond the arc. The Mavs star contributed in other ways as well, averaging 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 1.4 steals per outing.
Doncic and Kyrie Irving also silenced their critics.
Expectations were high after Irving was traded to the Mavs during the 2022-23 campaign. Dallas ended up missing the postseason, though.
This led to questions about the Irving-Doncic duo and their fit alongside one another. In 2023-24, however, Kyrie and Luka proved they could find success while playing together.
It was an impressive overall campaign. But for Doncic, he was focused on winning rather than individual awards.
Doncic’s mindset amid previous MVP buzz
Mavericks fans felt that Luka deserved to win the NBA MVP Award. He continued to climb the rankings as the 2023-24 campaign continued, but Jokic remained the favorite once the regular season came to an end.
Doncic was not bothered by the conversations. In fact, he had no interest in discussing it. Luka’s primary goal was, and still is to win a championship.
With that being said, one has to imagine that Luka Doncic will win at least one MVP during his career. He will probably win more than one given his immense ceiling.
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