thread of luka doncic

yeah i mean the thing is even when a young players is putting up all nba number vs the wizards on a tuesday night we all know it takes years of honing their game before they can dominate vs the real good teams when it really counts (the nba playoffs baby)

i mean like even giannis whos been at this a while longer and has an mvp still kinda got exposed in last years offs

kawhi leonard on the other hand got very not exposed

I really think luka is in that giannis/kawhi class in terms of talent, even if he’s not quite there yet. not sure I’ve felt more sure of a young dude since maybe anthony davis, and lebron before that

only thing i wld say is he doesnt have the defensive or athletic ceiling near any of those guys, hes more like...........harden

but a harden who plays joyfully and unselfishly, sounds pretty great!

i think u cld also compare him to steph or kyrie tho obvs those are smaller guys and so a little different

harden is closest tho, theyre both chuckers

but harden is an efficient chucker something that is apparently possible now

another big game tonite

he is good at basketball

Doncic is probably done for the night. The line he achieved in three quarters -- 24 points, 14 boards, eight assists -- has only been done in nine other regular season since last season's All-Star break. Doncic has now done it three times this week.

— Bobby Karalla (@bobbykaralla) November 10, 2019

on the second night of a back to back, man. I miss being 20

http://bkref.com/tiny/6Rdfq

looks like only the fifth 24-14-8 on a back to back since 83, joining barkley, bird, jeff ruland(!), and...david lee?

luka basically a combo of all those guys (idk who jeff ruland is)

consecutive games of 24-14-8, that is

would be cool if luka was part jeff ruland

hello handsome

https://kronozio.blob.core.windows.net/images/card/6f86d5ae55494a72970c13e5c85b1646_front.jpg

lmao

both guys wearing the same shoes except one is hi top and one is mid

lol that is exactly chicago mike d'antoni from the reg season thread!

lmao IT IS

what is chicago mike d'antoni from the reg season thread

xp with a name like hat he oughta be coachin DA BULLS

― i'm not a government man; i'm a government, man. (m bison), Saturday, November 9, 2019 11:21 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wld be a fitting last stop for him

― lag∞n, Saturday, November 9, 2019 10:26 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he gets fat, grows the mustache out, holding polish sausage and spilling sauerkraut while he yells at the ref, what a fucking life that would be

― i'm not a government man; i'm a government, man. (m bison), Saturday, November 9, 2019 10:27 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

jeff ruland looks like this ^^^

but thats not the regular season thread

sir YES IT IS it is the regular degular thread

i feel like you guys arent being clear tbqh

luka basically a combo of all those guys (idk who jeff ruland is)

Just read up on him. Getting an Achilles injury from an arena worker accidentally slamming cart into the back of his foot...

damn

i forgot luka wears 77, definitely an honorary ilxor

exactly he is one of us

luka already does that harden thing on a regular basis where it seems like he didn’t have a great game and then you look at the box score and he had 34 on 21 shots

both him and harden have super elite level ability to read and react to the defense that keeps them a half a step ahead of everyone even tho theyre technically slow, its the opposite of robotic play (tho harden is often scientific)

thinking abt it one thing that will determine how far luka will go is his 3pt shooting, his % have been pretty bad so far ~33%, a lot of that is he just takes really difficult shots, like stepping back five feet and shooting from 30, just adjusting his shot selection which fwiw i have full confidence he can do cld help him level up one level

but the thing that cld cause him to level up like three levels is learning how to hit difficult 3s like james harden, which really is a combo of shot selection and getting better at shooting, like he hit a deep jab step 3 last night that is such a better shot than a stepback, or like doing a small stepback that keeps him on balance is viable

not sure if he has the stuff to be a super elite shooter but if he does it wld go a long way towards making his game true superstar ready, the blueprint he has now with not great outside shooting and lots of flippy stuff in the paint seems like it cld be exploitable by a very good determined playoff defense, tho his great passing offsets that somewhat

the other path is getting good teammates and just shooting less creating more, which if u look at the mavs front office history might be a big lift, also they run the risk of getting stuck in the middle with one great player and a great coach they cld always be sniffing the playoffs even if the rest of the roster is bad

+having bad teammates is causing him to carry too heavy a load especially for a young player, he got tired and a little out of control at the end of the game last night started throwing his body around which is obvs not great

tho the sight of him bleeding from the mouth making very eastern european smiling youve got to be kidding me gestures at the refs was pretty charming, tough guy for sure

he does seem to love getting out there and mixing it up, wld be a fun guy to root for

btw lol at tommy last night “wheres this kid from slovenia we gotta send him back there buy him a plane ticket”

Oh my god you’re still skeptical

This is like when I thought James harden was a sixth man type

feel like my analysis is pretty fawning tbf, no ones game is complete their second year

Already elite at reading the D/seeing the floor. Prime Chris Paul-level of orchestrating things.
Shot looks good tho? Good form, consistent stroke, nice arc. Yeah prob just needs to take better shots + get better at making difficult ones.

he has that quality of being able to make the defense panic and make mistakes too like last night he repeatedly sucked four celtics into the paint and hit wide open shooters (who then missed), when obvs the celtics shdve just played him straight up and let him take his floaters or just sent one man to double team

tho it cldve been just disrespect for the rest of their roster too

anyway i think we can all agree that the bbiomechanics guy should have the last word on lukas jumper re adaptively groove variations in arm swing timing

Although we can adaptively groove variations in arm swing timing relative to 2nd ground contact:
🔺It is substantially earlier than the R foot contact
🔺Energy must be organized w/upper body dominant (swing like motion of arms, late wrist, & slight pause at top)@bballbreakdown pic.twitter.com/vufKF9MmAq

— BBiomechanics (@BBiomechanics) November 12, 2019

I’ve pondered making a parody of that acct

BBiomechanicBs

i think it already is a parody acct

A video of Greg ostertag jumping 3 inches that focuses on contralateral hip flexion

luka donthicc etc etc

excuse me jokic has been in shape for like 2 years now

yeh he figured it out

hes still got a lil dough, still claiming him as a fellow fattie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X93GyqpdM3w

jokic will be back hes a husky boy at heart

no doubt, this is the "im trying not to get fined" body, hes gonna have a boris in charlotte moment

he’s a changed man!!

let me say this from firsthand experience as a fat kid who lost a bunch of weight as an adolescent and then gained that shit back in my 30s, no the fuck hes not

Since Jan 1st, Luka is shooting the most pull-up threes per-game in the league (7.4) and he's made 37.8% of them. He's about 15 miles past unguardable when he has it going.

— Paul Don't Lie (@PaulHeadleyNBA) March 21, 2022

every time footage of luka pops up from like 3 seasons ago its just so eye opening the contrast. dudes been moving like an overweight 35+ year old for two seasons now

yup

yeah I am trying to heed the twitter embargo but that video going around is absolutely maddening

I was pretty otm about luka btw 😬

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l2yxTsj2TM

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5p0uyQW0AAN9oT?format=jpg&name=medium

hmm

^ they cheated on the vertical axis to make it look worse

indeed they did but that's still quite a trendline over the past 5 years

its not cheating you just have to read the numbers

fits the eye test too