ESPN panel picks Luka Doncic to win major NBA individual award
· Yahoo Sports
Luka Doncic appeared to enter the prime of his career last season. He averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals a game, and he won his second scoring title in three years while getting a bit of consideration for the NBA's regular-season MVP award.
Now that LeBron James has headed East to join the Philadelphia 76ers, Doncic may end up carrying a slightly heavier load for the Los Angeles Lakers this coming season. He had already gotten into much better shape last summer, but this summer, fans have noticed that the Slovenian superstar looks particularly svelte and fit.
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ESPN polled its NBA experts on who will win certain major individual honors this season, and Luka Doncic led the polling for who will take home the scoring title.
"Winner of two of the past three NBA scoring titles, our panel has Doncic as the overwhelming favorite to become the first player with back-to-back seasons of scoring supremacy since Joel Embiid (2021-22, 2022-23).
"The Lakers star averaged 33.48 points a season ago, accounting for the second-best mark of his career and the third time he's averaged north of 32 points in eight years in the league. With LeBron James and his 15.3 field goal attempts per game from a season ago relocating to Philadelphia, it will be interesting to see how many of those scoring opportunities Doncic will absorb and how high his average can go -- [James] Harden (36.1 in 2018-19), Kobe Bryant (35.40 in 2005-06) and Michael Jordan (37.09 in 1986-87) are the only players to average more than 35 points in a season in the past 60 years. Before his season-ending hamstring injury, Doncic was nearing peak form in March, averaging 37.5 points on 49/39/79 shooting splits over 16 games."
Doncic's ability to hit contested 3-pointer after contested 3-pointer has consistently kept his scoring average sky-high for most of his young career. He got as high as 33.9 points per game during the 2023-24 season, which was the season he led a solid but underwhelming Dallas Mavericks squad past the favored Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves and into the NBA Finals.
The Lakers' offense is expected by many to be excellent, if not elite, thanks to offseason additions such as Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili. But defense remains the big concern for the team. It finished 20th in defensive rating last season, and its perimeter defense still looks at least somewhat iffy.
Doncic also got the third-most votes from ESPN's experts to win the 2027 MVP award. Last season, he finished fourth in the balloting for that honor.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: ESPN panel picks Luka Doncic to win major NBA individual award