thread of luka doncic

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

iirc no one gave me a satisfactory answer when i asked why he wasn't the consensus #1 on draft night

cos he didnt play in the ncaa

That’s true but he’s slow so how does he do that and could a 19 year old Luka Doncic maybe get better at it
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, November 2, 2018 2:39 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark

im too lazy to find it now but i remember reading or hearing somewhere that harden is elite elite at deceleration, so he's stopping and then starting back up again before defenders can catch up to him

― J0rdan S., Friday, November 2, 2018 5:52 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a cool article on his similarities to harden: https://www.wsj.com/articles/luka-doncic-big-data-nba-11552413548

🖼

iirc no one gave me a satisfactory answer when i asked why he wasn't the consensus #1 on draft night

yeah shit like that happens all the time

chris paul went 4th

after being the consensus best prospect for a few years

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

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, November 12, 2019 4:11 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

seems like the guys who end up total consensus #1 picks are usually not only good at basketball but also athletic freaks, and obvs it matters alot who else is in the draft

does luka have the celtics mindtype

oh definitely

i am not convinced he does

Ayton was a really bad pick but you could at least understand the outlines of it, Bagley I just didn’t get at all. What was the best case scenario for him?

My theory is that Ranadive thought Bogdan was better

the ol weve already got a guy like that

which prob factored into the suns pick too

then theres atl who had luka fall into their lap and traded him, tho trae is looking pretty great too

The odd thing about the Suns is a big reason not to take Luka would seemingly be that they already had a good sf but then they handed him to the pacers inexplicably

mightve been worried abt the fit w booker in that theyre both ball dominant, which is silly imo but bad teams stay bad for a reason

Rubio and Doncic would have been a questionable fit so they’ve got that going for them. But unfortunately Ayton is Rony Seikaly without the style

well they probably wouldn't have signed rubio if they had doncic. at least a sane team wouldn't do something like that.

rubio and doncic would be kinda fascinating

this is fn insane considering he doesnt actually get all the way to the rim that often

Best FG% off drives so far this year (min 10 drives per game):
Luka Doncic - 68.6% (!)
Gordon Hayward - 63.4%
Russ Westbrook - 63.0%
Dame Lillard - 60.2%
Pascal Siakam - 58.2%
Brandon Ingram - 57.9%
James Harden - 57.8%
Derrick Rose - 57.1%
Jaylen Brown - 56.7%

— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) November 13, 2019

gotta think thats gonna cool off but still

I’d love to see like the points per possession on drives, he’s deadly in the paint, gets fouled a ton in there, and finds guys all the time

Through games on Nov. 12, which #NBA sophomores have done the most (or least) with their minutes during the 2019-20 season? pic.twitter.com/KfLkEyiMnT

— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) November 13, 2019

i am seeing some outliers

this is getting pretty ridiculous. career high 42-11-12 tonight

This kid was the MVP of the all-European championship tournament at age 18, or maybe 19, so you'd expect it would take him a good year of seasoning in the NBA before he was ready to show is true mettle. Last year was just him getting acquainted.

just luka things

I think I said it before itt but has there been another player since Lebron who was the unquestioned best guy in his age group from 17-21?

idk how helpful that framework really is, I mean his production at age 20 is completely without precedent. he’s basically mike trout.

to your question tho guys like...kyrie, AD, maybe? I mean isn’t there always a guy who’s the best