Dwight Howard voices change of heart on Luka Doncic MVP snub

Does Dwight Howard make a good point about Luka Doncic’s MVP candidacy?

While Doncic finished in third place in the MVP race, many folks considered it a two-man race between Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander. While SGA had his fair share of supporters, it always seemed unlikely that he would seriously win the award over Jokic, and sure enough, that ended up being the case.

The Mavericks weren’t as successful as either the Nuggets or Thunder, as they only finished fifth in the West, but individually, Doncic put up arguably the most impressive season of his career (33.9 PPG, 9.8 APG, 9.2 RPG, 48.7 FG%). Those 33.9 points per game led the league, and he came very close to averaging a triple-double despite the fact he was scoring at the highest clip of his career.

Howard completely switching his MVP pick isn’t necessarily a great look for him, but he seems to be indicating that Doncic simply deserved more credit in the voting process. His team may not have been as good as the Nuggets or Thunder, but you can make a case that he put up better numbers than both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander throughout the course of the regular season.

At one point or another, it seems likely that Doncic will manage to win MVP, but right now, he’s focused on winning the Finals with Dallas. This is his second trip to the Western Conference Finals, and he will be hoping to have a bit more success after the Golden State Warriors bounced them in five games back in 2022.

If Doncic can lead the Mavs to a Finals victory this year, it could seriously bolster his MVP candidacy in the future. But it looks like Howard is already convinced that he deserves more credit, even if he’s going back on his initial pick. So even if Doncic can’t win it all, he’s already earned at least one more supporter in Howard.