Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Machine

They have to fire him this offseason. Mavs have to do SOMETHING to give the fans a little bit of faith, justice, whatever the hell you want to call it.

 

I can’t believe this trade happened… it’s still shocking to me

 

Lakers' Luka Doncic wipes away tears, then whips Mavs in return

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44610795/lakers-luka-doncic-wipes-away-tears-whips-mavs-return

 

I’m sorry, but some Dallas fans are so whiny and annoying. I’m sick of hearing about how Luka isn’t happy as a Laker and Dallas is his home even people suggesting he’s return to Dallas when he’s a free agent that’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. Yeah Dallas was Luka’s home, but not anymore. That’s now LA.

The Mavs completely betrayed Luka and made one of the dumbest trades in NBA history. No way in hell would Luka ever return to Dallas and he’s talked about time and time again how much he loves being a Laker. He even talked about after the game how it’s time to move on. I think it’s pretty clear as much as he loved being back in Dallas he doesn’t want to keep dwelling on this and wants to move forward. I’ve seen people say stupid stuff like Luka has not been happy at all his entire time as a Laker until last night, which is just not true. The guy loves playing with LeBron, Reaves, and this Lakers team he has had plenty of joyful moments on the court with this squad.

 

he looks rusty, but he also looks like a guy not surrounded by any shooters/scoring threats. much like he was here at times. that's not the ideal build for him.

yeah, if lively was 100% and kyrie (and maybe exum) were playing, that's a very tough team. washington and marshall at forward and klay/max at sg. i understand the vision. still not as good as the team they had with luka, but quite good.

 

I think it's part the chant is pissing him off, part him saying Nico, how could you!?

 

yeah, it's hard to read cuban on this deal. i mean, it's clear he would have stopped it if he still had a say, but i think he's also just really disappointed to see the franchise that he basically resurrected just returned to the trash bin moments after he stepped out of the decision-making.

say what you want about cuban, but he is heavily emotionally invested in the mavs, and this is brutal.

 

Im still not sure what happened to his jumper. It's even more glaring with the Lakers now defending him.

At his best even without the best spacing (Bubble Lakers) he was near Bron in the ability to take over games with that mid range game. It's just so inconsistent now

Lakers were giving him that shot and he bricked two of them

 

Our fronting and swarming has become so freaking elite. We weren't allowing AD to get any touches and he couldn't get in a rhythm. Non-shooting bigs will have a hard time scoring against our defense.

 

it's in his head now, imo. plus i think the full league buy in on midrange shots being bad in principle hasn't helped. when your shot volume is really low, it's hard to get a rhythm, and nobody wants to commit to that shot range.

maybe if they really do play two bigs, he'll take more of those and get comfortable again. but he's clearly not now. he took one early in the clock when the game was still close and i cringed for him.

 

They did the same thing to Jokic. I don't think what the Lakers are doing should be called small ball with their preferred lineup.

DFS, Rui, Lebron, and Luka are basically PFs and with Ruis improvement on staying in front of people that is a switching lineup no one else has in the NBA.

 

Yeah looking back at I think with some bigs the focus on 3 and being a stretch 3 actually destroyed their efficiency as they're 3 point volume never made up for the lack of jumpers overall.

I saw the same thing with Ibaka. Everyone forget but one reason OKC traded Harden was Ibaka had flashes of the being the typical big like Bosh for a big 3. He had an automatic 20 footer and once 3 pointer became emphasized he lost that

See the same with AD there were games with NO and Lakers before he put on the weight that he looked like a stretched out TMac just unstoppable when he faced up from that FT line in

 

the guards are also not small.

our defensive vulnerability is guys who are fast and can shoot*, which is why gs mopped us last time. we're missing that caruso type. goodwin tries but isn't quite at that level. without AD playing goalie, we can't play the perimeter very well anymore, imo. that and rebounding can be an issue against certain matchups. luka does a great job on the defensive boards, but he's also not AD. there were several times in the game last night when i thought we had an offensive board and AD just swallowed it up in a crowd. we don't have that now.

it's ok; there are ways to adjust. but the lack of footspeed among luka, lebron, and AR is just something we have to deal with on defense. and tbh, rui, gabe, and DFS aren't exactly quick laterally, either. lol hayes may move side to side better than any of them.

i think derrick jones jr. was a good fit with dallas last year for this very reason, btw. he just brought some speed to the team, so that at least two guys (him and lively in their case) could scramble around on defense. vando does that for us, but can't do anything on offense.

 

Yep Cleveland GS and the Bulls lol definite bad matchup

 

When the Dallas Mavericks left for the longest road trip of their season in late January, the team’s franchise player wasn’t with them.

Luka Dončić had suffered a calf strain in a game on Christmas Day and still wasn’t right more than a month later. The sliding Mavericks wanted Dončić to continue his rehabilitation around the team during their five-game, 10-day trip, but Dončić preferred to stay home and work with his medical experts.

Front-office officials tried to communicate with Dončić about a plan to get him back on the court, but discussions between the two sides were spotty. Dončić believed he had suffered the calf strain by trying to come back from a previous injury too soon. His group decided it didn’t make sense for him to be with the team. Not only would plane rides invite a possible setback, but he would also be able to maximize his workouts in Dallas rather than going from city to city during the trip

The decision frustrated team executives, according to league sources. And it wasn’t the first time the superstar and the organization had clashed.

Such disagreements hadn’t mattered throughout the first five years of Dončić’s career. The superstar had the loyalty of the Mark Cuban


Thanks Nico again

 

Mr Hollywood

 

And the reason this is so important? Because Nico fired the training staff (Casey Smith - one of the best trainers in the league that had been with Dallas for over 20 years). Nico felt that Luka wasn't taking conditioning seriously so they fired the team staff that he was close with. So, he hired his own training staff. Again, very dysfunctional front office.

Thanks again Nico.

 

That scheme JJ is running is definitely making a difference. They are swarming the ball. Just scared still of the small guard teams that shoot. ie Golden State.