The Luka Doncic injury has been devastating on every level for the Los Angeles Lakers. The ripple effects may impact the entire league. And one of those ripples could go all the way to Charlotte, NC and decide the Rookie of the Year race.
When Doncic suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the midst of a beatdown by the Oklahoma City Thunder, it would have been hard for Lakers fans to feel much lower. In a flash, all of their hopes for this season were essentially snuffed out.
Luka Doncic cannot help the Lakers
To win in the Western Conference playoffs, the Lakers needed a superhuman Doncic. They needed the player who was dropping 40-point games left and right, who was unaffected by opposing defenses, the inevitable scorer and playmaker who was causing Lakers fans to wade into the MVP battle with fists flying.
Now Doncic will miss the rest of the season and almost certainly the start of the playoffs as well. Perhaps the Lakers survive until he can return, but he will likely be a limited version of himself when and if he does return this season. Is there a sliver of hope? Perhaps, but it's small.
The ripple effects go out from there. One playoff team will now have an easier first-round matchup facing a Lakers team without its best player. That could change the makeup of the West playoffs enough to shift who emerges from the carnage.
It will also impact the awards race, unless Doncic is deemed eligible based on extraordinary circumstances. Right now, he is sitting on 64 games played, not enough to meet the 65-game minimum for awards. That means no MVP ballot for him, no first team All-NBA. Other players will now ascend a rung on the ladder.
Doncic is impacting Rookie of the Year
It even has a ripple effect into the Rookie of the Year race, a race that Doncic once won himself. One area where Doncic was at the top of the league, in addition to pure scoring, was in made 3-pointers. Despite not truly being a sharpshooter himself, Doncic ranks second in the NBA in triples -- behind, somewhat amazingly, rookie Kon Knueppel.
In the past few weeks, Doncic had been closing the gap on Knueppel for that distinction. And the Charlotte Hornets star is currently the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year -- but hadn't necessarily locked the race up over former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg.
A key piece of Knueppel's ROY resume is his 3-point dominance this season. He doesn't score as much as Flagg, nor is he viewed as the better long-term prospect, but his shooting this year has been historic. He blew through the rookie record for made 3-pointers, and being able to say that as a rookie he leads the entire NBA in 3-pointers is the kind of narrative headline that wins awards.
If Doncic had overtaken Knueppel, his resume looks a little less impressive. Perhaps losing that simple achievement would be enough of a hit to his candidacy that Flagg could overtake him -- especially as he makes history of his own, dropping 50 points as a teenager just this weekend.
Doncic was once the rookie savior of the Mavericks; now he has been replaced by Cooper Flagg. For a moment, it looked like he would do his part in helping Flagg win Rookie of the Year. Now he cannot do that, just as he cannot help the Lakers achieve their goals down the stretch of the season.
It's a devastating injury all around -- and it could impact all manner of NBA award races. Even Rookie of the Year.