Revived wrote:I think it’s funny that now people are saying that the reason the Suns kept cooking Luka in the second half is because of a thigh injury that he suffered in game 2. He apparently had his left thigh wrapped up during their practice yesterday.
It’s odd though because that injury didn’t seem to bother him when he dropped 24 pts in the first half. I didn’t hear anyone mention this “injury” then either, weird right? But suddenly he starts looking bad in the second half and now that’s because of an injury he suffered in the previous game. That makes sense.
Luka is a great player. He’s a generational player, he’s already broken most playoff records by like Kobe/Bird/LeBron/etc. Even some of Jordan’s. He’s a top 6 player now that’s arguably knocking on being into top 3. I think an argument could be made he’s better than current Durant.
All that being said, he doesn’t need people making freaking excuses for his failures and his weaknesses. Give the defense and shot making ability of the team he’s playing against some credit instead of worrying about what’s wrong with him. He’s not a good defender and he’s borderline atrocious defender. And on offense he doesn’t know how to play off-ball so he just stands while Brunson or someone else is dribbling. These are some of the very rare things that a player of his caliber needs to improve on. But those are things he’s not good at, they need to stop making excuses for him as to why he’s poor in those areas.
Booker is a great example for Luka to follow for both things. Book was an atrocious defender his first couple years in the league and now he’s become one of the best defenders for that SG position in the league. And Booker isn’t some athletic marvel or crazy wingspan guy like Bridges either, it’s just effort, focus, fundamentals and iq. And off-ball Booker used to just stand in the corner while Bledsoe or whoever would be dribbling. Now he’s amazing off ball because he’s constantly moving and even sacrificing his body to set amazing screens for other guys to open up. That’s something that Luka can easily do and he can even do it better than Booker if he puts his mind to it since he has a bigger body than Booker.
It’s just funny that all of a sudden now everyone is wondering what injury Luka had that made him look so bad on defense as if CP3 and Booker aren’t great iso scorers on mismatches and as if Luka was some even average defender to begin with. Like c’mon.
I don't think Luka will ever be a good defender. He's too slow for that. Booker compared to him is much more athletic. Even on offense he's really slow. He just knows how to play at his own pace and make it work. Maybe if he drops weight he can become a decent defender?