I think a guy like Doncic, who isn't all that athletic, needs to make sure that he gets proper spacing in the NBA. If all those athletic 6-9 guys "body him up", he will struggle to operate in the NBA. Therefore the flopping "danger" ensures that he doesn't get D'd up too closely. I think a guy like Harden who is extremely athletic and has crazy hops, its embarrassing for him to flop. A guy like Doncic is making effective use of it to his advantage and I don't think that's excessive.
I think extremely athletic is very generous I’d say more skilled than athletic, but maybe that’s because I saw a video of him doing a boxing workout in the off-season and was thoroughly unimpressed
eh, he really doesn't have trouble getting by those guys. draymond tried to body him up, and luka just cooked him. most of his complaints come on finish attempts at the rim. in our last game, he clearly got hammered across both arms with no call--that s*** never happens to harden. why? because defenses are so afraid to get the whistle, they pull their hands back. the lesson for doncic seems to be to get to that point by flopping, then not have to anymore! again, one of the reasons i've been so anti-harden is that it has implications for the way everyone plays (and thinks about) the game going forward. i really think harden's made the game worse. or maybe more appropriately--nba officials' treatment of harden made the game worse.
True story, with one of my 5th grade clients at an elementary school: “Check out my crossover!” Nice! “Check out my jump shot!” Nice! “Check out me getting some free throws! *throws himself into retreating defender, arms flailing, crashing to the blacktop, during a recess pickup game* F*** Harden’s influence on the game.
Man, I forgot he even used to do this, I guess all that beer really weighs you down and does a number on the joints crazy
i'm pretty sure he dunked the ball similarly last year. and if he didn't, he still basically singlehandedly took a team to the finals.
ok, those are weaker, true. the 1:40 mark here is from the previous season, though. so unless the argument is that he lost a ton of athleticism in one year (which had no other discernible effects on his game), i'm unconcerned. he played the second most games of his career at the highest mpg of his career last year, all while putting up what was statistically his best season.
the footage from that pickup game was concerning--he was super fat even by his standards. but i think he's kind of used to the yo-yo-ing. harden did it for years with basically no problems. he was in the league 10 years before he had any significant games lost (and played 72 last year!). anyway, we'll see what happens this year. if he has wear-and-tear type injuries from being out of shape (early in the season, that's usually muscle strains/pulls, later it's tendinitis stuff i think), then the critics are right. and you can't really argue that he wouldn't be at least a little better if he didn't gain so much weight in the offseason.
