dpDraymond Green has stood witness to greatness before. Nearly a decade ago, Green was a pillar of the Warriors’ budding dynasty, spearheaded by two MVP seasons from Steph Curry.
Since Curry’s first MVP in the 2014-15 season, half of the award’s winners have been guards, including Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the last two seasons.
But one name has been around the conversation and never won it: Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić.
On Monday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show,” Green explained why he does not envision Dončić ever taking home the trophy.
“I still don’t think there’s any chance that he’s going to win MVP, because the moment he has a few bad games or an injury that costs him a couple games, people are going to flip back on ‘Oh, same Luka,’ and that’s just my opinion,” Green said. “I think people get bored with with greatness. I think Luka’s been doing great things for a very long time now, and I think they’re going to stay bored with it.”
In his first season on the Lakers without LeBron James, who now is a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, Dončić has led the Lakers to a 3-0 start.
Dončić had 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in the Lakers’ 127-105 season-opening win over the Warriors, where rookie Yaxel Lendeborg said he lost respect for Dončić.
Dončić has ended up top five in the MVP race on four different occasions, with a career-high finish of third place in the 2023-24 season as a member of the Dallas Mavericks, before he was shockingly traded to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis.
The Lakers superstar also is a two-time scoring champion and a five-time First-Team All-NBA selection this decade.
Green mentioned that voters are likely to look at previous MVP winners like Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, in addition to San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, and the lack of an MVP award would not be an indictment on Dončić’s production.
“He’s in Year 9, and the people who vote, they’ve already moved on,” Green added. “Hopefully, for his sake, he can go beat that out. But I stand by what I said. Voters get fatigued with seeing you be great over and over again, and if you haven’t jumped that threshold of the MVP-great, then they move on, and they’ve moved on … But not because of his play, as I said from the gate. It’s just the way it goes.”
Through three games, Dončić is second in the NBA in points (34.3), ninth in assists (8), fourth in free throws made per game (8) and first in 3-pointers made per game (5).
His seven turnovers per game also are a league-high, a number which needs to come down if he does want a shot at winning his first MVP.
But, if Dončić is able to maintain this level of play as the Lakers continue to win, Green’s prediction could be quickly proven wrong.
