On Sunday, the NBA announced the three finalists for this year’s regular-season MVP award, and Los Angeles Lakers fans were largely unhappy. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the winner of the award last year, Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama were named as the finalists, but Luka Doncic didn’t make the cut.

Doncic, who had never won the MVP in seven previous seasons, had a sensational 2025-26 campaign. He averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals a game and won his second scoring title, and it was very much the “revenge season” that some predicted he would have after he received a lot of criticism for his lack of conditioning.

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Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick admitted that he’s disappointed Doncic wasn’t named as a finalist for the league MVP award, but he also admitted that perhaps the team’s lack of regular-season success had something to do with that, via Daniel Starkand of Lakers Nation.

“Disappointed. I think he deserved to be there and I think all three guys that did end up being finalists had strong cases. A lot of this, unfortunately, is media momentum. Sometimes a team, I guess we underperformed even though we didn’t have any expectations coming into the year. But I guess we underperformed for a couple months despite him getting Player of the Month one of those months. The media momentum just never got built.”

After the Lakers started the season 15-4, they went into a prolonged slump, and they won only half of their total games during December, January and February. They then ripped off 16 victories in 18 games before Doncic suffered a hamstring strain and Austin Reaves sustained an oblique strain on April 2 versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.

By then, Doncic had at least placed himself on the periphery of the MVP discussion, especially after winning Western Conference Player of the Month honors for January and March. Perhaps L.A.’s late-season success and Doncic’s huge statistical production, not to mention his improved conditioning and defense, will set the scene for him to have a better shot at the Michael Jordan Trophy next season.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick is ‘disappointed’ that Luka Doncic isn’t MVP finalist