Luka Doncic Discussion: Lean Mean Slovenian Machine

Like it or not weight and fitness is in the hands of the player.
Particularly when you're Luka and you should have access to every conceivable benefit (i.e. personal chef, 24 hour ability to exercise, personal trainers) that is not available to even well off folks.

If you're trying to be all time great the competition is going to be tough and he still hasn't won a title with the competition getting tougher every year. Ant hasn't hit his prime, Wemby is a baby etc.

So I have no idea why Lakers fans wouldn't be on his case. Shaq lucked out as he D Rob, Ewing, and especially Hakeem aged out and he had no real competition at the center spot. That ain't the case with Luka. With great power, comes great responsibilites.

 

pretty much all this. it wasn't nico harrison that was first concerned here. in fact, i'm pretty sure it's a big part of why vlade passed on drafting him. hell, the suns' coach at the time had slovenian ties and they avoided him, too!

the mavs panicked when luka finally missed time and his conditioning seemed to both affect and be affected by it.

i--and others--have said it's not worth obsessing over. but pretending like it can't be/hasn't been an issue doesn't make sense to me. two things can be true at once: he's outstanding and worthy of being the franchise cornerstone AND he and we would be better off if he was in a little better condition.

 

i think the issue is we do. we remember how his refusal to stay in shape probably cut years off his prime and contributed to the end of our dynasty here.

luka's personality is better than shaq's (he doesn't blame everyone else for his own issues, nor is he envious of his teammates), though, so it's not exactly the same.

 

I guess I missed the "issues" which I'll admit the only thing I saw from Luka while with the Mavs is his ability to beat the sh** out of other teams and the fans love him. No one knows how kids mature or don't mature. Phil Jackson said Kobe was uncoachable and wanted him out of the building and yet won with him after and Kobe spent 20 years with the franchise while Shaq (the most dominant ever) wound up getting shipped out and slumming it on a couple different franchises.

Again, my point isn't Luka is above criticism just that it makes zero sense for us to harp on it NOW. Dude has been everything we hoped and more since being traded yet half the post about the dude is about being fat. Like I said I may not be wise enough to get it.

 

i'm thrilled with luka and was defending him against critics here before we even traded for him.

feel like most of the fat stuff is just sirron et al. being jokesters. and some of that is poking fun at the idea that his body shape is somehow more important than his production. remember, the forum has been schticking this since magic made his comments about the physical condition of lakers players.

 

You are right he def hasnt shown he is like Shaq which is kinda my the point of my bafflement. I want the kid healthy and to be around like fricken Bron at a high level. Just seems crazy this conversation is even a conversation right now.

 

I frankly thing the whole fat thing is a bit of a strange conversation as well. Same thing is always mentioned about Jokic. People have different body shapes, Luka clearly holds more fat than a super lean specimen such as Vando.

Do we assume Vando takes care of his body and looks after himself better than Luka? Because he is built like a Greek statue - yet he is injured far more than Luka and can’t play more than 20 mins a game without injury while Luka will average 40 in the playoffs.

Also, from reports, I think Luka was frustrated with the Mavs, they fired their medical staff and the new staff made him play through his calf issues. So he took an extended break to heal it, and this seems to be a big part of the issue between the organisation and Luka. The new regime felt like he wasn’t controllable and started employing his own medical team and dictating his recovery. This seemed to be the last straw for them and they decided to ship him out.

It’s just a really strange outcome across the board, they wanted to stamp their vision onto the organisation and in the middle of doing that, they could rid of their generational superstar who wasn’t falling in line in their vision. He falls into our lap, and what do we do? Bring on his team, include his guys in decision making, LeBron cedes control to him of the ball and we try to go out and sign a center for him immediately.

Their historical mess up has gifted us a generational superstar in the vein of Magic, Bird, Jordan, Kobe and LeBron.

 

I would say noone being overly worried fits the bill almost perfectly. But people did notice and there was slight concern regarding it, no question about that.



I would like him to get in better shape, especially since he's playing for an elite royal club like the lakers. If he doesn't oh well, It only benefits Luka if he uses all the advantadges/ammenities at his figure tips. Regardless I think he's going to perform, but none of my notions stem from what Nico said. He's just been getting fatter each year, can't blame him, I'd eat and drink good if I got NBA money.

 

I can respect the take Looney.

We def want our future big dollar player player to follow in the footsteps of our last few greats. Can't imagine him being in the locker room with Bron (playing high level for 20 Fn years) and not up his fitness game.

 

We may never know what really prompted the Luka trade. All we know is the public explanation. However something happened there, that caused the Mavs to be hell bent on getting rid of him. If we had said no like Milwaukee and Minnesota, Luka was still getting traded somewhere else.

I'll take it..Ultra rich people do things for weird reasons sometimes...our gain.

It might just be as simple, as him saying the wrong thing to ownership. This decision was definitely over Nico's pay grade.

 

It’s a time and place for everything (offseason) and now isn’t it. The guy is averaging 34/9/5 in the playoffs for us and has been stellar.

 

I think the absurdity of worrying about his condition when he plays like he does is the reason it keeps getting brought up.

it’s nonsensical and begs to be mocked. Nico will NEVER live that moment down. No matter what he does, the rest of his career, he will be known as the man who traded Luka.

and then tried to cover up his mistake with defense and fat talk. I’m forced to mock the situation even if I don’t want to.

 

The Carushow sharing the backcourt with bad Luka in the playoffs ? Yikes

 

in the rob thread, slick reminded me that milwaukee turned down luka for giannis. you have to think milwaukee is kicking themselves, right? like, they're dead dead, and giannis is going to be moved soon without returning a franchise player (likely just a bunch of future picks).

that will be another situation to watch in all this. they chose loyalty to their star--will it be returned? several players above were in their feelings about not getting in their feelings, but it's not like most of the players show any love for their organizations, either. every once in a while someone takes a small paycut for the benefit of the on-court product, just like every once in a while an organization overpays a vet as a show of respect. but these are rare events in both directions.

going back to luka--i totally get why he was upset, but tbh, they at least put him in a good situation. though i guess they did try to put him on a sinking ship in milwaukee first...

 

I think the Giannis situation is interesting. Is he the type of guy that will choose organization over attempting to win. Clearly they are trying by getting Lillard and Kuzma, but will it be enough?

 

feel like he's made small statements that indicate he's not unwilling to leave...

no.

 

Thank you. We should legit just be celebrating the beast he is for us and putting up statues for Nico around LA

 

Do you think Luka would have stayed with the Bucks long term ?