1 Award Luka Doncic may win this season that isn’t MVP

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks have gotten out to a decisive 3-0 start ahead of their Wednesday night matchup versus the Chicago Bulls, and while the Mavericks offense has been operating at an obscene rate to start the season, they’ve still had their fair share of defensive woes.

Luckily though for Dallas, Luka Doncic’s shotmaking and 3-point shooting ability have seemingly helped the Mavericks get over the hump late in the game in each of their first three contests.

Dallas may not have had the toughest strength of schedule in their first three matchups, and they’ll obviously need to patch up a lot of their perimeter defensive issues if they want to continue to stack up wins once they face more stout opponents.

1 Award Luka Doncic may win this season that isn’t MVP

Dallas will need to be careful to not rely too heavily on Doncic’s late-game heroics and insane shot-making to bail them out of tough situations, as had been the case too much the last few seasons. However, once Kyrie Irving finds his stride on offense that shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the Mavs.

Nonetheless, Doncic’s ability to will the Mavericks to victories late in the game has been unprecedented so far this season. In clutch minutes (Five minutes or less left in the game, and point differential between two teams less than five as defined by the NBA), Doncic has already scored 20 points and has shot 83.3 percent from outside in those minutes through just three contests.

Most of these shots have come with an insanely high degree of difficulty, typically being step-back threes with the defender draped all over Doncic.

Doncic’s late-game heroics have catapulted Dallas to some wins that they otherwise probably should’ve dropped. The end of the game versus Brooklyn essentially turned into a shootout that could’ve gone either way.

If it weren’t for Doncic’s dagger in San Antonio, maybe the Spurs extend that game a little bit.

Doncic may not be able to reciprocate his four wild game-changing 3-pointers in the last three minutes of the game against Brooklyn every night, but if he continues to be this consistent in the clutch, he may have a shot at the NBA Clutch Player of the Year Award.

The award just came into effect last season, and De’Aaron Fox was the first candidate selected to win the award.

Doncic has been operating in another stratosphere so far to start this season, and he may very well be poised to be in contention for MVP per usual. However, if he misses more than 17 games this season or the Mavericks don’t perform as well as expected record-wise, Doncic could easily be expelled from most media members’ MVP ballots.

Doncic seems as confident as ever this season in the clutch, and regardless of how MVP voting turns out he should have a pretty good chance of taking home the newly appointed Jerry West trophy this year if he continues to be a hallmark of efficiency from beyond the arc in late game situations as we continue to get through the season.

We’ll have you covered with everything surrounding Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks going forward, so make sure to stay tuned for our game coverage tonight as the Mavericks take on the Bulls at 7:30 p.m. CT.