Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Machine

Meh...He's not as bad as Tinkerbell, and Luka da Don, damn sure gets buckets at a much higher clip!

 

if the opposition keeps getting luka switched onto their all star pg, that's a coaching/team defense issue.

 

Excerpt from a new book on Luka. How he was basically seen as a hoops Mozart at age 13, etc.

Book: The Wonder Boy: Luka Dočić and the Curse of Greatness, by Tim MacMahon.

HERE

 

nah man, its literal effort. Reminds me of melo just not caring or entitled to not play defense. While I dont think its the latter, but its pure lack of effort.


If he's exhausted than he needs to condition better, hes getting paid millions to play a sport. No excuses

 

Luka needs to shoot man. He had Patrick Williams beat in the post in the last minute and just didn't want to take the easy bank shot

 

Shot poorly, but clearly our best player. He needs to take the reigns from LeBron already.

 

By the looks of it, he already has.

 

Chemistry leveling up

 

Luka "cooling off" Gabe with the towel was funny

Still annoyed he keeps not wanting to shoot when he's right at the rim. Stop passing those out to mediocre 3 point shooters like Vando

 

He used to dunk when he was “younger.” This is the only thing that I’ve noticed, so far, that has been affected by his weight gain.

 

i think "he used to dunk more" is a little disingenuous, mostly because his season high for dunks was 25 his rookie year. his next highest was 14, then 12, then 7, etc. iow: he's never dunked much at all.

so, you start with a pretty low ceiling and then follow the general trend of dunking less over time, and you end up dunking rarely if you're luka.

for context, anthony edwards dunked 70 times his rookie year and has done so 45 times this year. most of your athletic wings dunk 50-60 times a year, just by a quick look.

anyway, i'm just not sure it's a great measure in this case unless the argument is luka lost a tremendous amount of athleticism from year one to year two (despite making tremendous gains in impact over time).

 

Okay, I was just speculating that it was from his weight gain.
Fact remains- he rarely dunks the ball and it seems like an obvious thing to do at the rim, instead of making a wild pass through multiple defenders for a lower percentage shot.
He obviously doesn’t need to dunk the ball to be great. It’s just easier to get the whistle when you’re there instead of throwing it back out or getting it shoved back in your face by an embarrassing block.
Anyway, that was my point.

 

yeah, i wasn't trying to say you were making a disingenuous argument, just that i've seen it used by folks who definitely know it's not a great measure.

and i'm not arguing that a) luka is heavier now, b) that's not entirely great, and c) it might impact his ability/willingness to finish at the rim.

i just think he's been increasingly effective offensively without dunking (almost at all), and that's what matters most.

but i'm with everyone saying that if he dropped 10lbs he'd still have all the strength benefits plus lower injury risk and greater ability to finish on those specific plays. more importantly, it would help his knees and back in general. he's big enough at 240, even if he doesn't dunk.

 

Here's a plus -- Bron and Luka know the 2-man game needs reps. Awareness if half the battle.

Hoping they're just waiting until the post-season, so teams don't have tape on it. They're smart enough, great enough, and can dissect a game to where they can even implement some pretty basic stuff really quickly and successfully.

 

I noticed they ran a few pick and rolls together. I was thinking, don’t do too much of it. We’d like to be able to shock teams in the playoffs for a game or two.

I’ve actually really liked the double pick and roll up top with DFS and Rui in the corners. Luka runs a pick and roll with LeBron first to see if there’s any advantage and then Lebron sets a reverse screen and Luka goes straight into a pick and roll with Reaves. I think this move is going to force help off the corners, we were getting lots of good looks for Rui and DFS off of this.

Once teams feel they can’t help off of the shooters, it’ll be either Luka in the lane with no paint protection or it’ll be Reaves or LeBron rolling to the basket for a layup. It’s a really unique set where we can also have dribble handoffs instead of rolls because all 3 players are great creators.

 

Took a few days for this one to get dissected to the point of facial reactions. Worth the wait.

 

He still doesn't look right to me, IMO. (maybe it's just me).

If he can unlock a fully unhealthy in shape Luka, I think we'll have a better Luka (more efficient).

 

Another injury to his left elbow .

He's not making shots as a Laker ( yeah I know TS%) but his gravity and shots creation for others are still great .

I disagree with Rockets decision to double him so much but we'll gladly take it

 

He actually tried to finish at the rim last night! It was good too!

Didn't love that step back 3 without really attacking his defender early in the shot clock but I guess you just live with those. I guess what bothered me about it he wasn't really feeling it from 3 but he was getting to the rim so didn't seem like a great decision based on his game

 

Luka already made history
Way to go, Chubby Balkan