Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Machine

No. Jokic is just the superior player right now. Luka has room to grow.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=luka+dončić+4th+quarter+stats+this+season


https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/jokic-4th-quarter-stats-this-season


The analytic folks, seem to think that Jokic, is a much better defender than you too. I wonder what Luka's metrics are in comparison...this is your specialty. What you got?


https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44346405/nikola-jokic-quietly-league-analytics-defender

Still...Top 5 ain't bad though.

 

It’s just ridiculous that anyone thinks, or debates, Luka had anything to do with us getting beat by Minny.
We had an unbalanced roster even before trading for him and even more so after we lost our two best defenders- one of whom was our only option down low who just so happened to be our only capable defender in the paint.
I don’t care if he loses five or ten pounds- if he’s over is injury to start the season, he we continue to be great. If Rob gets him a lob threat, besides Hayes, he’ll look even better.

 

lol what? you're using counting stats in the 4th quarter from one season (luka's worst in years, due to an ongoing injury, i might add)?

sorry, that's ridiculous.

why not compare their age-24 seasons? or luka's last healthy year to jokic's? (because they work against your narrative)

i contend that jokic's defense looks better because of the extent to which his team protects him. they built a scheme and a squad to cover for and cater to his slow feet and lack of verticality (and to capitalize on his great hands and high hoop iq). dallas did the same with doncic last year (finally), and look what happens to his defensive analytics (he was statistically a plus defender, of basically the same quality as jokic this year and in his age-24 season).

we hung luka out to dry to protect lebron's groin.

luka's unquestionably top 5, probably top 3 (with jokic and giannis--no, i'm not an SGA guy, nor do i think ant and tatum are on that tier).

people are really letting one down year cloud judgment.

if luka shows up next year and plays similarly to last year (which is still basically top 5 lol), then the haters can say he's no jokic or whatever. but body of work to age-25, he's better than like...anyone but lebron.

 

The unbalanced roster was good enough for the 3rd seed, and top 5 isn't trash. Maybe we just lost to Minnesota, because our HC, didn't know wtf he was doing? Still...Jokic >Luka right now,

 

as in today, may 22nd, but not last may, and maybe not next may?

maybe we lost to minny because they had been on a team-wide epic heater for several weeks and were a better team than people gave them credit for? maybe because our third-best player was playing hurt? maybe because we only had 5.5 playoff-caliber players on the roster?

whatever it was, it wasn't luka's blow-bys or whatever d****** narratives are being constructed because luka joined the lakers and now must be a villain.

 

/ATTACH]



i contend that jokic's defense looks better because of the extent to which his team protects him. they built a scheme and a squad to cover for and cater to his slow feet and lack of verticality (and to capitalize on his great hands and high hoop iq). dallas did the same with doncic last year (finally), and look what happens to his defensive analytics (he was statistically a plus defender, of basically the same quality as jokic this year and in his age-24 season).

we hung luka out to dry to protect lebron's groin.




luka's unquestionably top 5, probably top 3 (with jokic and giannis--no, i'm not an SGA guy, nor do i think ant and tatum are on that tier).

people are really letting one down year cloud judgment.

if luka shows up next year and plays similarly to last year (which is still basically top 5 lol), then the haters can say he's no jokic or whatever. but body of work to age-25, he's better than like...anyone but lebron.[/QUOTE]


Where are the Jokic stats to compare, showing that Luka is better? So what now.. big Lurch is all of a sudden overrated?

Hanging Luka out to dry, in order to protect Lebron? Well s***, Lebron James is 40 years old dude. Methinks it supposed to work like that, no?

Anywho, based off what I saw, Luka would have been worse on D at 4, than the 40 year old. I take your word for it, to a certain extent, but Im not all that convinced, that he was hurt. Out of shape, yep..all season. He most definitely was not injured.

Maybe he's already peaked? We shall see..top 5 is still top 5.

 

Perhaps Pelinka is pretty mediocre at roster construction?
Or maybe Reddick is a novice, that just choked, when we got punched in the mouth? He's going to get one more crack at it next season. If we go down early again, not due to an injury, Rob will get to fire one more HC, before he's the one getting fired.

That doesn’t obscure the fact, that the guy in Denver, is the better player either. We can still win a chip with a top 5 Luka Im not getting the argument here. Villian? Who said that?

 

right in the post?

no. he's an all-time great in his prime. luka is also an all-time great heading into his prime.

you're supposed to build around your best player. we didn't do it for AD; we didn't have time to do it for luka. and we probably won't be able to do it in earnest until lebron retires because--again--our two best players want to play (or are best at playing)the same spot defensively.

hard to know if minny attacked him because they thought he was worse or if they knew tiring him out on defense was more important than tiring lebron out. i know lebron gets dusted by guards in isolation just as easily, though. we've seen that. we protect him from it as much as we can.

he had a major calf injury on christmas day and still wasn't playing when we traded for him.

says nobody about any other 25-year old player.

 

He's not the normal 26 year old player either. He's been a pro since he was 15, that's enough time, to develop some bad habits along with the success.

The Mavs said they shut him down for a couple of weeks, feigning a wrist injury, so that he could get in shape too. That's a bit concerning, I don't know how serious, this calf injury really was.

Lebron is 40, he shouldn't be compared to a 26 year old superstar, defensively in the 1st place. He still looked better on D, one on one than the 26 year old anyway. In the the paint or on the perimeter.

Rob isn't Jerry West...we already know this. So...Luka played 4 on D in Dallas last season? The Mavs were trying to hide him or something?

These stats...were is the legend? What are these numbers supposed to be showing? What is Lebron war, O Lebron, D Lebron? Break it down for me.

 

https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-introduction/

i mean, the calf injury was a problem in the finals last year. and he kept reaggravating it. this kept him off the floor, and he put on weight. if we weren't on lebron's clock, i wonder if we wouldn't have held luka out for the year--or at least longer than we did.

yes, they played him at 4 defensively. well, not at 4, but in that role. note (as i think it was sk said) that the stats above mention defensive roles more than positions. luka's been helper or low activity. helper is where he's been best. lebron, in his old age, is also in that role.

ideally, you have mobile/anchor big, wing stopper, chaser, POA to complement your "helper" types. we had two helpers and our chaser POA was reaves (who grades out worse than either luka or lebron, partly because he's in the wrong role, too).

so yeah, dallas was trying to hide/save luka. and they did it all the way to the nba finals.

 

Is there a “fat” role in a defensive scheme where Luka can excel?

 

i think you're joking, but he's got great hands, high hoop iq, and good lower body strength, so a helper role is ideal. primary assignment is the opposing pf in man coverage. he does fine there. dallas had pj washington as the nominal pf, but he typically took the top wing on the other team. when jones was there, he took the top guard, and they moved kyrie to the weakest guard.

in the future, we'll have no problem doing things like this. right now, we have lebron, who we seem reluctant to use as a wing stopper (like pj in dallas), so you've got rui or luka in that spot, which is...not great.

 

Luka looks skinny.

 

NO. It's part of LB lore already that Luka will always be FAT Luka. Thanks to our two esteemed FANS in the Philippines

 

He actually doesn't look chubby at all

 

keep in mind that nba guys are so skinny in general that even the muscular ones look thin among regular folks. the few "fat"ones probably look like some of the fitter ones amongst us.

i remember when karl malone did pro wrestling. after years of seeing his arms be like, twice the size of his opponents', he looked wiry next to hulk hogan.

 

Yeah I remember that Malone looked "slim"

I saw Elton Brand at O'Hare once - never seen anything like it. He seemed to take up the entire space of one of those big airport automated sliding doors. A real life Incredible Hulk. I have no idea how guys like Allen Iverson even play in the NBA lol.

Luka does look better though - the face fat is the big giveaway with him. Looking better.

 

Clean slate or clean plate

 

Perfectly healthy/normal man.