ESPN released their top 10 NBA players of the 2024-25 season on Thursday after releasing 100-11 on Tuesday and Wednesday. A few Dallas Mavericks had already been listed, with Klay Thompson at 71, Dereck Lively II at 53, and Kyrie Irving at 25. Everyone was waiting to see where Luka Doncic would check in.

The MVP candidate was listed in second place in ESPN’s top 100, finishing only behind Nikola Jokic, who has won three of the last four MVP awards. This is supposed to be a prediction of the upcoming season, and it’s hard to imagine voter fatigue not setting in for Jokic at some point.

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Of Doncic’s placement, ESPN’s Tim McMahon said, “Doncic won his first NBA scoring title while producing an unprecedented stat line — averaging 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game — in the most efficient shooting season of his career (57.3 effective field goal percentage). He answered any questions about whether his astounding production could truly drive winning by leading the sixth-seeded Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals while becoming the first player in league history to lead a single postseason in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals. Doncic also showed dramatic improvement on defense for a team that had the league’s stingiest unit on that end of the floor for the final quarter of the season.”

Doncic enters the season as the betting favorite to win MVP in most sportsbooks, as he has all of the momentum following last year’s run to the NBA Finals. The criticisms about his defense and conditioning will always be there, even if they’re vastly overstated.

McMahon said the biggest thing to watch for Doncic and the Mavs this season is the team’s defensive ranking. They were as good as they were at the end of last year because of their defensive improvements, but Klay Thompson’s placement in the starting lineup may change that.

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