Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Scoring Machine

Skip Bayless is the worst of the talking heads. He hates Luka for some reason. It is also absolutely ridiculous the narrative that Luka doesn't play defense. That was Tim McMahon that started that one along with Nico. He was desperate to become the next Skip Bayless.

I have to admit I was wrong about JJ. The dude can coach. I have a feeling LeBron comes back at a lower salary. I feel like we are building something special here.

One thing you will learn about Luka is that he takes every bit of this kind of stuff as motivation. Remember that.

 

A while back, I asked you if you felt that Luka had been getting harsher treatment from the media since he joined the Lakers, and you said no. Have you changed your mind in the meantime, or has this animosity toward Luka actually always been there—or been there for a long time—and I just didn’t notice it from afar? I’ve always had the impression that Luka is widely liked and respected, and basically every season he started out as one of the favorites for MVP.

I’m asking because your perspective as a former Mavs fan is certainly different. As longtime Lakers fans, we often feel that the Lakers are belittled in various ways by many people in the media, but I’ve always wondered how much of that is true and how much is just our bias.

 

lol the idea that we're better without him...i just...my goodness.

as for the bias, it's been there since day one. it's part of why he somehow went third in his draft. anyone serious about basketball could see that this was an all-time great in the making, and nobody thought marvin bagley or ayton was that. it's just stories people want to tell, much the same as SGA being a great defender and luka being a bad one. it fits a stereotype, and it's the story i wish to tell, so i will tell it.

 

Jokic and Luka

1A
1B

 

that's probably how i had it until this year, when wemby's offense started to catch up with his defense. he's probably already the league's best player, weird as that seems.

but jokic, luka, and giannis are all right there. i have luka and jokic ahead of giannis.

i have sga right behind all of them.

the dropoff after that is fairly substantial to your cunningham/brown/tatum/mitchell/AD (still?)/lebron (still!)/kawhi tier.

 

Yeah, Jokic, Luka & Wemby all 1ABC, depending on health and who is peaking. If all 3 healthy and peaking, it's too tough to call, would have to see playoff series imo. Hopefully we get some good ones this post season.

The April 4 SA-Denver game was amazing. Went to OT with Denver winning by 2. Wemby with 34, 18 & 7, with 5 blocks. Jokic with 40, 8 & 13, with 3 blocks. Supporting casts close-ish enough, team stats close-ish enough, but Denver shot better from 3.

Hoping for Wemby to be healthy and to get more games like that. And then for Lakers to shock the world, and Luka to face off against the Wemby-Jokic winner.

 

Sad part is that Luka was actually good on defense before he got hurt. yeah box score metrics and all but just look at thos steals number when they go from league average to best in the league that doesn't happen in a vacuum. Completely different player frankly on that end

 

Sports media: Are the Lakers better without LeBron? Should the Lakers trade him? Is he even worth a roster spot? Luka + Reaves don't need him!

Also sports media: Do the Lakers play better without Luka + Reaves?

Yet, no mention of the other teams. Just push Lakers stories because they would run out of clicks.

 

i think you get this about embiid sometimes maybe?

but denver and the spurs both won at 50+ win clips without jokic and wemby, respectively this year, and you'd think they were dragging a bunch nobodies to 60 wins or something.

 

I'm shocked. Truly shocked. Luka was usually treated very well by the media while in Dallas and talked about as the possible face of the league. Now in LA he seems to be hated. I totally see it happening.

It is a totally different thing having been on the other side of the glass and now being a Laker fan watching the hate. So to answer your question...yes I see it on full display now. He is getting very harsh treatment since joining the Lakers.

 

It's always been there to a degree but nothing like I've seen since he was traded. I think there is the common stereotype that euro players are soft. And he is anything but that. Stereotypes are ignorant. They can either ball or they can't. Doesn't matter where they are from or color of skin for that matter.

I think what the media doesn't like about euro players is that they aren't generally flashy with highlight dunks and crazy athletic. They are very fundamentally sound players and that isn't always fun to watch.

 

Thanks for your reply / confirmation. So we aren't all just crazy delusional Lakers fans .

A shame Luka has to go through this, hopefully he can use it mostly as motivation.

 

I think it's all about media engagement. People react strongly to correct somebody and Lakers have the most fans. So by creating these "hate-driven" narratives, Lakers fans engage more to defend him which is what the media outlets and content creators want.
That's why Stephen A Smith or Skip made a multi millionaire career spreading hate and hot takes about basketball and First Take has so much success.

It's a sad consequence of the social media world we have nowadays

 

Sadly that's true. I completely stopped reading or listening to the biggest sports (and most other) media and rather listen to some podcasts where I have a feeling the guys actually care and have the knowledge to provide sime insight, instead of fighting for "clicks". I don't even remember when I last watched first take and the like, not worth one second of my time.

Back to Luka - don't want to look too far ahead, but if he's able to come back in, say, one week and Jalen Williams' injury turns out more serious, this playoff run could suddenly become much more entertaining than even LTLakerFan could have ever ecxpected .

 

Yeah I've also moved off of media outlets and selected a few podcasts that are less click baiting driven. I think that's why some podcasts from "ordinary" people have been growing and it's great to see

 

That's a low bar LOL. I had no idea what to expect for the Houston series and didn't even vote in the prediction thread with Luka and AR going to be out. Had no idea even by the start of the series and having had Luke here as long as we had already that he had another level in him. Or that our half court offense and defense could do so well against all them super duper athletes. Or that maybe JJ has been sandbagging a wee bit with the playoffs tricks he's had up his sleeve?

 

I can not believe we are one game away from a sweep of this without Luka and AR. AR is now questionable for game 4 and Luka is working his way back onto the court. On top of that Denver is on the ropes. The Pistons are down 2-1 to Orlando. So far, the only one I've seen go as I expected was the Floppers and the Suns. I mean the Thunder.