Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady has thrown a serious curveball into the MVP race, arguing that Jaylen Brown is more valuable to his team than both Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It’s a take that flips the usual stat-based debate and instead centers on one question: who matters most to their team’s success?
Speaking on the Cousins podcast alongside Vince Carter, McGrady made it clear his argument has nothing to do with availability or raw numbers. Instead, he pointed to Brown’s situation in Boston, claiming no contender depends more on one player than the Celtics do on him.
McGrady framed his argument around team dependency. “If you take him off, I still think they’re a playoff team,” he said about Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder. “I don’t think that’s most valuable to your team. Jaylen Brown is more valuable to Boston than Shai is to OKC.” He applied the same logic to the Lakers, adding, “You take Luka off—are they a playoff team? I still think LeBron James can get them there with AR.”
Tracy McGrady on the MVP race
“I’ve always said if you take a player off, I still think they’re a playoff team. I don’t think that’s most valuable to your team. Jaylen Brown is more valuable to his team than SGA is valuable to OKC. You take Wemby off, they’re a very different… pic.twitter.com/VpwpuYooI7
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) April 9, 2026
The argument gains weight when Brown’s production is viewed in context. He’s averaging 28.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.0 steals per game while carrying the scoring load during Jayson Tatum’s extended Achilles-related absence. He’s done that on a roster that also moved on from Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.
Doncic, meanwhile, is putting up 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per game on a Lakers team featuring LeBron James and Austin Reaves. That contrast is exactly where McGrady’s argument lives the stronger the supporting cast, the harder it is to define a player as truly indispensable.
The same applies to Gilgeous-Alexander, who is leading a stacked Oklahoma City Thunder roster that includes rising stars like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. While SGA’s numbers remain elite, the Thunder’s depth reinforces McGrady’s point that they’re built to compete even beyond one player.
McGrady also addressed the momentum behind Doncic’s candidacy separately on the same podcast. He noted that the narrative shifted late in the season. “Although Luka was putting up crazy numbers in terms of leading the league in scoring, we didn’t consider him one, even at the halfway point of him being an MVP candidate,” McGrady said. “We talk about guys when they’re hot. He’s hot now, for sure. But when I look at the grand scheme of things, the big picture, the consistency over the whole entire season, I got to go with Jaylen Brown.”
Brown’s Own MVP Case Over Doncic Has Been a Theme All Season
Brown himself has been direct about where he stands in the race. In an earlier appearance on the Cousins podcast, Brown said, “I feel like I fit the criteria for it. Especially what people were saying about me before the season, that I couldn’t do it or I wasn’t capable of being this or being that. I’ve been able to kind of shoulder that and then also help lead my team to where we’re at now, but people constantly just move the bar.” Despite that, Brown still sits outside the very top tier of the MVP ladder, trailing names like Victor Wembanyama, Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Doncic.
McGrady’s stance carries added weight given his history with Brown. Back in 2019, Brown turned to him for guidance during a pivotal moment in his career, even spending time training with him in Houston. Whether that connection makes McGrady biased or simply more insightful is up for debate—but his definition of value is clear. For him, it’s not about stats. It’s about who a team can’t function without. And in that conversation, he believes Jaylen Brown sits above even the league’s most dominant names.
