Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Machine

Putting this in perspective. Lakers have lost in Utah every year since the 1987 season, execpt for the COVID year.

If you want to dig deeper, in the 45 years the Lakers have played the the Utah Jazz, they have only had 5 years where they didn't lose in Utah. 4 of those years were in the 80s.

So for you parlay patrons, always bet against the Lakers when it comes to playing in Utah. It's virtually guaranteed they will lose one over there in their two visits.

 

I think we should all just accept now that there is going to be some frustration with Luka. He's one of the biggest ref complainers in the league (although a lot of the time he has a point) and it is going to cost easy buckets like that. He'll certainly round into better game shape than he is now, but like Shaq we'll probably always wish he took that a little more seriously. Now that its been almost two weeks since the trade, we can start to acknowledge his very real flaws (that the Mavs completely overblew). But when he's right, his strengths outweigh those weaknesses by leaps and bounds. He's playing at like 70% of his potential right now. There's probably still some calf soreness, his conditioning is worse than even his usual suspect condition level, and he's in a completely new system. 3 weeks from now he'll be dropping 30+ and getting MVP chants. Just got to be a little patient.

 

He is fat, though.

 

He's so slow right now - looks like he moving in molasses out there.
I hope he takes his conditioning seriously - he's a wonderous talent but he could eat/drink himself out of true greatness easily

 

who better than Lakers fans know thar story, and the opposite one.

 

I’m not worried. I’ll say it again the conditioning issues didn’t stop Luka from leading Dallas to the Finals last year and if you ask Mavs fans he was the only one who showed up in that series against Boston. I think anyone expecting Luka to come in and light the world on fire just because he put on a Lakers uniform was setting themselves up for disappointment. It’ll take time, but we’ve already seen glimpses of Luka’s greatness.

 

Luka puts the slow in Slovania, it's just the way he plays.. whether he's in shape or not.

 

This thread will be very entertaining to come back and read many years from now

 

Lebron, Austin and the crew, will hold down the fort, for the month or so, it takes the chubster to get right

 

What makes Luka great is not how fast he moves but how quick he can stop. Defenders fly by giving Luka open looks, almost comical.

 

https://www.wsj.com/sports/basketball/luka-doncic-los-angeles-lakers-trade-f57df096

 

I still think there is some truth to his poor conditioning. There were quite a few seasons where he showed up early into the season looking like he was just eating all summer. One of those Shaq-like players who used the regular season to get back into shape. The problem with a guy like Luka is he's been so good at an early age for so long that even with poor conditioning, he's still one of the best players in the league.

Imagine if he had LeBron's diet and dedication. There'd be no stopping Luka in today's game. And this speaks volumes as to how good LeBron is. Luka is basically LeBron without the athleticism and defense. Everything Luka has done, LeBron has done better while being in better shape, playing better defense, and being vastly more athletic. Imagine drafting LeBron today... he'd be unstoppable at his young age in today's game.

 

Not really, Lebron had no isolation game until later on in his career. He had no post game or a go-to move in the midrange. I think he got better in his Miami years and now he's excellent in nearly every aspect.

Luka came into the league as a natural scorer at all 3 levels.

 

Yeah it is weird watching him play.

First off, I think he has a really strong core. He always plays physical and leans into the defender using his weight to his advantage. I've heard NBA players say that Luka isn't necessary strong but he feels incredible "heavy." He's like a truck that slowly plows through cars.

Add into that, he's got tree trunks for legs and he's always in balance. He moves at his own pace and can shift or brake into any direction at any moment. He's crafty as they come making him impossible to predict because he can score at all 3 levels AND he can also pass like Magic.

Offensively, he is the one of the best that has ever played. He's been compared to prime Harden in the past but I think Luka is better. Harden never developed a midrange game so once you chased him off the 3-point line he became very predictable. (as evidenced by him being exposed in the playoffs) Luka is also bigger/stronger and a better passer.

 

the core/legs power is underrated. you're just not used to seeing it in hoops because the nature of the game generally prioritizes speed and quickness, but if you're large, strong, exceptionally skilled, and exceptionally intuitive you can overcome tremendous speed and quickness disadvantages. even on defense, tbh--knowing where the ball and people are going to be in advance can make up for two steps of speed/quickness. being strong means that once you're in position, you can't get shouldered out easily, etc.

agree on the harden comps, too. i've said since luka came into the league that he actually is who the media told us harden was. i think it's weird the nba fans and especially the press really embraced harden's foul-baiting, midrange-less version of the game but seem generally annoyed by doncic. he's basically better than harden at everything and has had much more success already as a #1 guy than harden did at his apex, imo.

yes, he needs to drop some weight if he's going to reach any higher individual levels (i'm not even sure how possible that is, tbh), but there's suddenly a ton of nitpicking about a guy who's just dominated the league for most of his career and is still only 25.

and lakers fans have only seen basically the worst version of him so far. i don't think that will continue. even if it does, you can actually still build a credible team around this less impressive version.

 

I think he will get better. He's been gone a while so the conditioning isn't up to par, but I also think it takes time for him to ramp up because a lot of his game is based on feel and instincts, unlike a player like Lebron, who is more methodical and calculated with his approach. I think he just needs more reps. Once he gets healthier and more comfortable with the team, he will become the killer we're used to seeing.

 

It's still a formula x(initial speed) -y (braking)= y (separation/ change in speed)

The slower he goes due to weight the less effective the deceleration. Hope he gets into shape. He's been great in his career but Lebron, Jordan ,etc all had to start adding to their games right around year 6 to 7 to reach that peak generational level. Both of them started developing that turnaround post shot. Luka has to work on his conditioning and defense

 

he has to work on his conditioning, but i think the defensive issues are overplayed. it wasn't until the finals--when he was on one leg against what had been one of the best offenses in nba history--that anyone successfully exploited him, imo. teams have tried in other playoff series and not been very successful. his defensive metrics are fine and comparable to guys like magic (mid-career) and bird.

it's just really weird to me that dallas seems to be basing this all on his conditioning. it wasn't a problem until this year, really. he had come in out of shape in the past, but had always recovered and been himself. the first time he misses time, they panicked.

i guess time will tell if they panicked or if they made the tough call at the right time.

i think they panicked.

 

somewhere I read about him playing ball year round for Olympics, etc, and needed some downtime. Sometime your body let's you know whether you want it to or not.

I could see them being tired about his complaining, his drinking, his conditioning, his commitment to defense, etc, and if they felt he didn't fit into the culture they wanted to build making that difficult choice, but me thinks Kidd would have rather worked with him to get there with maturity vs pull the plug.

But they didn't do bad in the trade if guys were playing. Time will tell, but to give up on a young star like this seems to indicate there's more to the story. It can't be only what they've said IMHO. Maybe he started popping off to management or getting grief from other players referencing double standards if Lufa wasn't falling in line, but everyone else had to. We'll see eventually.