Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Does Luka Dončić Deserve More MVP Consideration? (And How the Answer Reflects Lakers Chances...)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Lukadanshich is playing MVP caliber basketball. We'll tell you why he deserves some MVP consideration. Next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday,

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Starting point is 00:00:46 I'm Brian Kiminiski with Andy Keminetski. We've covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with ESPN, the LA Times and the Athletic. And in that time, Andy, we've certainly seen a lot of really good basketball players. Not many of them better, though, than Luca Donchage, particularly given how well he is playing of late. Monday, of course, named Western Conference Player of the Week, which inspired him to go out and score 36 points against the Houston Rockets and a big 192 win for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:01:18 These guys are motivated by awards, and he just, Luca clearly wants as many Player of the Week Awards as he can pile up. Yeah, this was the 18th of his career, third of this season. In March, Luca is averaging. assuming the numbers I saw were up to date, including the win over Houston, he is averaging 34.3 points per game on 49, 39, 77 splits, plus nine rebounds, nearly eight assists a game, two steals and a block. So that, my friends, I don't know what Slovenian for a heater is, but that's what you call it in English. It's a heater. If you're a casual, that's, just so you know, that's good. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:02:06 There's no really good. He has been absolutely crushing it. Not coincidentally, this is during a period where the Lakers have looked their absolute best. And it raises the conversation of, or the question I should say, and the conversation of Luca's place in the MVP race, how high can he rise, how high should he rise? does he have any actual chance of winning MVP this season? If he doesn't, you know, has he put himself in first team all NBA, lock territory, all that sort of stuff that I know a lot of Laker fans,

Starting point is 00:02:49 and in particular, Luca fans are talking about a lot right now because with Luca playing, you know, he's having a great season, but in particular the way he is playing right now and the way the lake have risen, it has led to a lot of them complaining that Luca is not getting enough accolades for the way he's playing right now. Well, here's the thing. First of all, if he's not all, assuming he keeps playing at this level or close to it and you know, doesn't get hurt and miss out on games or whatever it is, if he doesn't make all

Starting point is 00:03:24 NBA first team, it's absurd. I'd be pretty shocked. That's mind-bogglingly stupid. But you just, I think the part about this conversation that I think is really relevant, at least to me, is just that so much of this is, you know, Luca had a January, I think it was January, where his points per game went down to like 27. I just feel, yeah, so February, I should say, he averaged 27 points a game, which was a major drop from what he's been doing. we're talking about a guy who has piled up already after the Houston game Monday 52 30 plus point games with Lakers.

Starting point is 00:04:08 He has played I played 28 games last year, 55 this year. So that's not a lot of games to basically to pile up 52, 30 point games. So the scoring has always been there, a down month for Luca. He shot 43.5% that month and 27. points per game. And he was slumping and there were people kind of the questions about the defense and the complaining and all these other things got a lot louder because he wasn't playing quite as well. Well, Andy, he has solved that problem by playing so well and being on his best behavior since getting that last technical. I actually think, and we've talked about

Starting point is 00:04:50 this on previous shows, I think Luca being at that 15th technical. And he is said, he is not going to get a 16th. Like he does not want to get suspended. I think he realizes the ramifications unless he can time this thing perfectly to where like he gets suspended for the Wizards game or something like that. But even then, like for those are aware, it does not start back to zero. I believe it goes every other tech. You are suspended again. I think it's two of three, but either way, you're not out of the dangers. Right. So it's not like Luca can just get the 16th out of system and then be like, look, we only got 15 games left. I can't get suspended. It's absolutely impossible. Fun side notes. Somebody put a little, I mean, we've all seen it at this point,

Starting point is 00:05:37 but like somebody put a little video together. We tweeted out at Cam Brothers. I can't remember who, but you know, you just go to the feed and you'll see it. Like Jared Vanderbilt, who's not playing a ton these days, has taken the job of the sort of Luca Sherpa. He basically, anytime Luca goes near a referee, you see Vando like kind of sidle up and be part of that conversation. He's clearly either given himself or been given the job of keeping Luca out of trouble. He's like Robert Duval and the Godfather. He's a very specialized practice. He handles one client.

Starting point is 00:06:13 One client. His one client is Luca Donchich. And it's just, it's so funny. So something to look forward to now when you look at the timeouts and all these other things and Luca talking to officials, just keep an eye out for Vando. He's probably standing right next to him. But, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:30 Luca has been spectacularly good. Like, you know, I was just looking, you know, picked at random last 10 games. His last 10 games, it's not just the numbers that you put out, Andy, in terms of the raw counting stats. He has a net rating of plus 15 and a half. Like, it's just,

Starting point is 00:06:53 the high quality of what the Lakers are doing with him as the leader has just been fantastic. And it's built a lot. It's not even built on the highest offensive rating the Lakers have. It's built on one of the better defensive ratings. And we'll talk about some of the mechanics of how close he could get. But I'll say this. The part that I think matters is Luca is like a proxy for the Lakers, themselves. Your opinion of Luca, I mean, the Royal U, your opinion of Luca this year and his MVP

Starting point is 00:07:29 candidacy is supposedly tied to what the Lakers are doing and all that kind of stuff. Well, the Lakers who have been much maligned and picked apart and all these things are currently sitting third in the Western Conference behind other guys who have, you know, bigger MVP chances. And so I think if the Lakers keep playing like this, you have to give Luca more credit and bump him up into these MVP standings. And I'll be honest with you. I realize Shea is expected to win.

Starting point is 00:08:03 And I don't have a problem if Shea wins. But I do have a problem with people saying that Luca doesn't deserve considerations. We'll talk about that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by five-hour energy drink. And it is time for the five-hour energy flavor draft. We're looking at every aspect of the draft to let you know which tasty flavors are the best, which might be sleepers. The board's set.

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Starting point is 00:11:29 It is a quick chance to mention one of my favorite things. LeBron, Lucas with 18, now only needs 51 more to catch LeBron. LeBron has 69. Yeah, LeBron has 69 Player of the Week awards. He has 41 Player of the Month awards. That is three and a half calendar years worth of Player of the Month awards. It's just sort of crazy when you kind of break it down like that. He's like the Merrill Streep of Player of the Month awards.

Starting point is 00:12:09 It's just three and a half years worth of those awards he has been given. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty awesome. All right. So back to Luca, though. Like, okay, I understand, you know, the beginning of the season, Lakers were playing really well. You know, they tail off a little bit by his standards and all that.

Starting point is 00:12:29 But Luca, at this point, if you're going to put Yokic in there, if you're going to put other guys in there as let's talk about them, at least as MVP candidates, you need to put Luca back in that conversation because the Lakers could finish with a better record than the Nuggets. And I want to see Luca get back in there because the Lakers are doing this in large part driven by the rock solid foundation of what Luca is doing for them on a night-to-night basis. Not just with the points, obviously, but the efficiency has gone back up. And his defense, which everybody complains about, has been quite good.

Starting point is 00:13:19 It's been, at the very least, very much passable over the last, you know, since, I think since he got healthy, which was to me part of the reason. I don't think he was playing quite as well in the middle of the season. But I think, I don't think he's going to win. He's not going to beat Shea. I get that. But I do think he needs to be put legitimately back in that conversation. Certainly if you're going to talk about Yokic, talk about Luca.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Well, I mean, for what it's worth, I think Luca actually is rising. Like the last time I looked at the Fandual odds, our friends over at Fandual, Shea is getting one to 10 odds, meaning you have to bet $100 to win 10. That is how much of a runaway favorite he's considered right now. It's got to be an easier way to get $10. I understand. Like with Shea, I don't think there's much to argue about. Like he's having an incredible season.

Starting point is 00:14:10 The Thunder have been the number one team in the West, the entire season. Despite like the Lakers, a ton of injuries, the constant has been Shea. Shea has been awesome. Like it is hard to argue against his candidacy. The next top two guys at 19 to 1, it's a tie between Victor Wenyama and Nikola Yokic. Vic has been incredible this year and the Spurs are the number two team in the West, not likely dropping any lower. and Nikola Yokic is Nikola Yokic.

Starting point is 00:14:39 There's always going to be a certain baseline ceiling and floor, I think, inherent to Yokic simply because he's that great unless his team is awful. He's going to have that type of respect and odds. Next highest from there is Kate Cunningham at 80 to 1. The Pistons have been one of the best teams all season. They've been number one in the east for a while. Cade's having an incredible season. And then next behind Cade, not too far behind in odds, is Luca at 100 to 1.

Starting point is 00:15:13 Were I to guess, because I've not been keeping tabs on this all season in terms of MVP odds, but if I had to guess, he's risen up these ranks over the last month or so. My guess is if you see his candidacy become a little bit more viable, talked about among the people who actually vote on this thing. Here's my opinion. It's my opinion. You don't have to agree with it. You don't agree with that he's not getting enough love.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I just think there is one of these, part of what happens when with narrative-based awards is once something gets set, people forget to kind of reset it. And Luca, to me, is resetting. It leads to the more important question, though. The Lakers as a team have been kind of maligned and they follow the same sort of basic path.

Starting point is 00:16:01 Given what they're doing now, you look at Luca, the critics of Luca will say, well, you know, this is not a team and not a player. Luke is not going to get them, you know, pass. He's not playing enough defense. He's now he's complaining too much or whatever. He's not going to get them two or three rounds deep in the playoffs. I think the way that the Lakers are looking right now,

Starting point is 00:16:26 there is not to me a team that they look likely to play in the first round that they can't beat. And I think if you are, if you're asking me, do I think the Lakers would beat San Antonio or Oklahoma City in the second round? My answer would be no. But the answer to could they beat them,

Starting point is 00:16:51 especially if Luke is playing like this, is absolutely. Well, last thing I would say on this, just in terms of the MVP piece of this and sort of the overarching discussion and the discussion is like 50 different discussions depending on who you're talking to and what they heard. But as far as Luca in that race, I think he is being considered more a part of it just because, again, if I had to guess his odds are rising and the NBA does their weekly check-in.

Starting point is 00:17:21 Last we look, they have not updated it as of this recording, but Luca had risen up to four from six the previous week. So again, I feel like there is an increasing. acknowledgement of the way he's been playing. And again, the way the Lakers have been going up, there's only so much Luca can actually be a part of the, again, finger quotes conversation when one guy is such a prohibited favorite to win the thing. Like there's only so much substantive you can even talk about with Luca or frankly, any of the other guys,

Starting point is 00:17:52 because short of an injury, Shea's going to win the thing running away. So I think the point being, I think everybody, If for no other reason, Laker fans, Luka fans, not to piss yourselves off or get aggravated with, again, the Broadfingers conversation, there's only so much to discuss in terms of that particular thing, MVP. What does matter, and I do think there's been more of this increasingly, and I think the volume will rise if this maintains, I think there is more of an increasing acknowledgement of the way Luca has been playing. the effect on the Lakers and that, you know, some of, after they, for example, beat the Knicks, it's like, okay, show me more. They beat the Timberwolves. Show me more. Beat Denver. Show me more. Like at this point, like, I can tell you from listening to some of the national NBA podcasts I check in with, there is increasingly more, hey, look at the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:18:52 Like this looks like it might be real. I know these discussions have been taking place on the locked on NBA daily show. Like, I do think. This is happening. I mean, I think there was a moment where, you know, certainly Laker fans were getting super kind of annoyed with, with Luka, and the complaining was at its peak. And the Lakers were a very frustrating team. And all we heard from you all.

Starting point is 00:19:16 All right. So the main thing, though, let's see what happens. Do they keep doing it? Because for any of this to matter, the Lakers need to keep winning. And Luka needs to be at the front of it. But the more this goes on, the more the notion of Luca as the type of nuclear star that can carry the Lakers a little farther than people would have thought in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:19:41 If you have a functioning big three and you've got a good enough supporting crew and you've got that guy at the top of your team, I think the Lakers become a much scarier group than they would have been regarded five or six weeks ago for sure. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel back of course for the full show tomorrow. We'll see everyone then.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Does Luka Dončić Deserve More MVP Consideration? (And How the Answer Reflects Lakers Chances...)

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