Mvp is crazy talk for Westbrook, with Luka, giannis, taytum, ja, jokic, etc etc but I do think he will have a bounce back year. He is crafty he will figure it out. Last year was pretty much the worst of it. He is ultra competitive let's see what kind of summer he had training. I'd like to see him bounce back. NBA is always better when teams like the Lakers are competitive.
Aside from the competition, he is not the first option on his team as well. It is hard to stack stats if you are not the first option. He is the third option at best. He can have a bounce-back year but aiming for an MVP is just too much for him to achieve. He is not the prime Westbrook that we used to know.
Lebron still be their number one option and second is Davis so its hard for him to snatch the MVP this season since the ball rotation of lakers is not focus on him. Maybe if he can provide solid numbers to purple and gold plus he will be consistent on number of games played the phase will change then their management will decide to make him a number two option for them. So Westbrook really need to work hard this upcoming season since he have need to prove his worth for second time.
Or at times, it will be Davis, doing low post if they wanted to slow down the tempo a bit as a first option. And then when they are running, Lebron could anchor or even pass to Davis as well or Westbrook.
But I do agree that it will be hard for Westbrook to be running for MVP, he should have crazy numbers, triple double and carrying the team in his shoulders. But it won't happen since Lebron and Davis are the top two options. Might be good for Westbrook to have good numbers though, as we all know that he is a statistics whore.