Luka Doncic: All-NBA voting proves should’ve been Most Improved Player

Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic had an incredible second year in the NBA, arguably one of the greatest of all time for a sophomore player.

Luka Doncic had an incredible second year in the NBA, arguably one of the greatest of all time for a sophomore player. He was the first player in his second year to make All-NBA First Team since Tim Duncan in the 1998-99 season, and he became just the third player ever, at any point in their career, to average 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists in a season.

Luka had a great rookie season, but he wasn’t an All-Star and he only received 1 All-NBA vote. On the Locked On Mavericks Podcast, Isaac Harris and I counted up the All-NBA votes for Luka Doncic this season and wondered again why Doncic didn’t also win the Most Improved Player of the Year award.

Nick Angstadt: Luka Doncic, First Team All-NBA, he got 59 first place, 40 second-place votes, and only one third-place vote, that’s a pretty convincing score for me. He didn’t get a bunch of random third -place votes and that’s 100 points right there, so that means that everybody voted for him.

Isaac Harris: I don’t want to do the broken record part of this ,but he should have won the Most Improved Player, and this, I think this further adds to the resume of that and proves the point.

Nick: Last year, one second-place vote, that was it, no other votes. So Luka Doncic, went from not an All-Star with one All-NBA vote, which is basically just a beat writer doing somebody a solid. Giving him a vote just to curry favor or whatever. And then this year every single voter voted for him.

Isaac: I wonder how many players have made the jump from no All-NBA team to First Team All-NBA.

Nick: Barely any votes to first team.

Isaac: I’ve talked about this 1000 times on this pod and so many people wrote at me and tweet at me asking why do you care so much about this; whatever I just do, so get over it. The fact that Luka last year didn’t make the All-Star team on a 33-win Mavericks team ,and then a year later, his second year in the league, he goes up to not just an All-Star reserve or replacement but an All-Star starter, in the MVP conversation, Mavericks in the playoffs, leading the highest offensive rating offensive in the league, and he’s First Team All-NBA which only five players get that honor. That is one of the biggest jumps that we’ve seen.