2022 NBA Hall of Fame Inductee Predicts This Season's MVP Winner

Who will win the 2025-26 NBA MVP? Nikola Jokic has won the award three of the last five years. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just won his first MVP and NBA championship, and he is just 27 years old. As dominant stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic age towards the end of their primes, is a new, younger player going to take the mantle as the league’s MVP?

One former MVP candidate and Basketball Hall of Famer, Tim Hardaway, was recently asked who he thought would be the MVP next season. 

"He actually should have probably won it one time, but I’m gonna go with Luka Dončić. I think that if he has a really, really good year—if he has a good year like he normally has and they end up in the upper echelons, 1-4 seed, right around there—I think he has a really, really, really good chance of winning MVP. He should have won it probably about two years ago."

Luka Dončić is a pretty safe pick for the 2025-26 NBA MVP. He has been in the conversation ever since he entered the league, but has yet to put together a full MVP campaign.

Luka is coming into the season with a new and improved body and an attitude of revenge. Expect Luka to have one of his best NBA seasons yet, and in a Lakers uniform, that goes a long way toward national media attention.

Hardaway is right. If Luka can lead the Lakers to one of the top seeds in the completely stacked Western Conference, he will likely be deserving of MVP consideration.