Columnist’s case for Luka Doncic MVP centers on a simple idea: the Lakers’ engine has to keep running

The question of who will win NBA MVP is rarely answered with certainty before the season’s work begins. But a recent Yahoo Sports column makes a direct argument anyway, saying Luka Doncic is positioned to take home the award for the 2026-27 season, or at minimum finish as the runner-up if the Los Angeles Lakers fall short of what the writer expects. The central claim is not that Doncic will simply have a strong statistical year, but that his impact will be large enough that voting results will tilt toward the star who drives the team’s best basketball.

In the column’s framing, Doncic is the type of on-court player whose value shows up across multiple dimensions at once. As the Lakers’ primary offensive engine, he can create advantages in the half court, generate offense through playmaking, and also shape possessions with shot selection and shot-making gravity. That combination matters for MVP because voters commonly look for players who change the team’s ceiling, not just its floor.

The writer’s baseline prediction is emphatic, “Mark my words,” language that indicates confidence in a specific outcome: Doncic MVP, with the only stated caveat being whether Los Angeles can match the level of play required to make the award argument impossible for voters to ignore. That caveat is important. NBA MVP voting has often rewarded the best player on the best team, even when the “best player” part is doing most of the work. In other words, the column treats team success as the pressure point that could determine whether Doncic wins or ends up second.

For the Lakers, the MVP question is intertwined with the broader question of identity. In a league where offensive efficiency and half-court organization often separate contenders from pretenders, a star’s ability to repeatedly manufacture high-quality looks can become the most reliable pathway to winning. Doncic’s role on Los Angeles, as presented in the column, is essentially that responsibility made continuous: he is not a finisher in one lane of the offense, but a recurring source of creation that forces defenses to respond to him possession after possession.

Still, the column is a forecast, not an announcement, and it is built on projection rather than already-completed season evidence. MVP voting typically depends on what actually happens across the season, and the award race can shift quickly due to team record, injuries, and the emergence of other candidates. With no additional reporting attached beyond the writer’s prediction, it is best to treat this as an informed opinion about a plausible storyline rather than a verified expectation grounded in league-wide consensus.

What to watch next is how the Lakers’ season narrative evolves around Doncic’s role. If Los Angeles establishes itself as a team that can control games through its offense and sustain that level against quality opponents, the “MVP because he leads the team” logic becomes stronger. If the Lakers struggle to convert games into wins or fail to achieve the level of consistency that drives postseason positioning, the column’s own caveat suggests Doncic’s case could still be strong but not necessarily decisive.

Finally, the MVP race is never only about a single player. Even a dominant season can be overshadowed if another candidate turns in a better overall combination of production and winning. The practical takeaway from the column is not that Doncic’s candidacy is guaranteed, but that, in the Lakers’ postseason posture and the team’s ability to win when Doncic is on the floor, the award case may ultimately be decided.

In the end, this is one writer’s strongest version of a familiar argument: that MVP goes to the player who makes everyone else’s job easier, most clearly and most often. For the Lakers, that player is framed as Luka Doncic, and the season will reveal whether Los Angeles’ results match the confidence behind the prediction.