NBA experts pick Luka Doncic as MVP over Nikola Jokic this year

The NBA MVP is always a heated debate every season, and the experts at ESPN have it coming down to Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic this year.

However, they have the Dallas Mavericks star dethroning the Denver Nuggets legend, with Doncic preventing Jokic from getting his fourth MVP in five years.

Those predictions were released on Wednesday, with ESPN asking its “Summer Forecast panel — a group of NBA experts, including reporters, editors and analysts,” to vote on six major awards. A first-place vote got five points, a second-place vote three points and a third-place vote one point.

Doncic finished with 61 points and 48 percent of the first-place votes. Jokic was second with 40 points, but just 10 percent of the first-place vote. That means many folks must have selected him second or third.

Rising Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was third, with 37 points. Although he outpaced Jokic in first-place votes, getting 24 percent of them. Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo rounded out the top-5. Philly’s Joel Embiid, who took the award from Jokic in 2023, was sixth.

Jokic showed at the Olympics he’s still the best player on Earth, but voters might have some Jokic fatigue. It’s nearly impossible to win four MVPs in five years, as only Bill Russell and LeBron James have ever pulled it off.

If Jokic does get his fourth MVP award, not only will he join Russell and James in doing it so spaced together, he’ll be just the sixth player in the history of the league with four of them. That would put him alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain as well.

Elsewhere in the expert predictions from ESPN, the newly added Russell Westbrook finished tied seventh in the sixth-man of the year projections. He’ll have to come off the bench to be eligible, something we’re not 100 percent sure is happening yet.

To see the full list from ESPN, click here.