Pacers HC Rick Carlisle has bold Luka Doncic prediction

One opposing NBA head coach is under the spell of Luka Magic.

Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle spoke this week to Fan Nation’s Grant Afseth in a wide-ranging interview. One of the topics discussed was Carlisle’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks. While on the subject, Carlisle made a very bold prediction about Mavs star Luka Donci: that Doncic will win NBA MVP next season.

“I’m sure he’s doing all the right things for him,” Carlisle said of his former prodigy Doncic. “He’s been on the cusp of being the best player in the world. He’s right there, and I think he’s going to be the MVP this year. I think he and Kyrie [Irving] are going to play great.”

Carlisle certainly knows Doncic’s all-world talent firsthand. He coached the Slovenian star in Dallas from Doncic’s 2018-19 rookie season to the 2020-21 season (after which Carlisle was fired by the Mavericks and then became the head coach of the Pacers).

An MVP next season for the 24-year-old Doncic might seem a bit optimistic after the Mavs belly-flopped last year upon pairing Doncic with Kyrie Irving (going 38-44 and missing a 20-team postseason). But Doncic has already had multiple top-five MVP finishes in his brief NBA career and continues to progress even further in his Pokemon evolution (turning in a career-high 32.4 points per game last season). Based on evidence from this summer, Doncic is looking the part of an incoming MVP as well.