All Things Luka Doncic

[Kolkmania]

Unbelievable how he started the season while he virtually had no time off after the European Championships. His ability to shoot off the dribble and screens will be crucial to his success in the NBA, let's say he's confident with his shot at the least.

Do really worry about overload, he's so young and he needs summers off to work on his body and prepare for a long NBA season. Dario Saric is really suffering from this as well, nowhere near as fresh as the rest of the league and starting the season in a major slump.

[SportsGuy8]

He's even getting a bit cocky, which is actually nice to see. He's going to need a certain amount of it when he gets to the NBA, otherwise he's going to submit too much to other extremely talented players, especially the PGs, and end up standing in the corner a whole lot.

It's going to take a special kind of attitude to get his while playing next to a star PG, and let's face it, he most likely is going to play alongside star PG, since almost every team has one nowadays.

[XTraderXL]

Next year there is no FIBA competition in so he will have the whole summer to work on his body and skills. I think this works out perfectly for him, it would be terrible if he spent 2 months with national team playing 20 games like this year. It obviously helped him a tremendously to play with Dragic but next year he really needs to rest after the season and then start working out with NBA players to get used to a different style of basketball.
As far as this weeks game in EL, I expect him to be at a high level again. He had a pretty bad game in ACB by his standards but it was kind of expected as Real played 4 games in 6 days and he played the most minutes. Now they have 5 days off so he should be fresh and it is clear that they need him to play well in Euroleague and has a bigger role there than in ACB. I pointed this out before start of the season by saying that I expect him to play better and more in EL than ACB.

[SportsGuy8]

I think this also has a lot to do with Doncic's mentality. Even last year he was quite a bit better in Euroleague play compared to ACB, even though the quality of play is substantially higher in the Euroleague. (disregarding that dreadful Final 4, obviously, but there were other reasons/issues there)

It seems that he lives for bigger, more important games. Again disregarding that Final 4.

[Juree93]

he will need to be good this week.. Khimki is scary team...

[XTraderXL]

I think this also has a lot to do with Doncic's mentality. Even last year he was quite a bit better in Euroleague play compared to ACB, even though the quality of play is substantially higher in the Euroleague. (disregarding that dreadful Final 4, obviously, but there were other reasons/issues there)

It seems that he lives for bigger, more important games. Again disregarding that Final 4.

I agree. I also think he is the kind of player that when he sees that teammates can handle the game without his help, he pulls back and lets them do their thing. His best games always come when he needs to be on top of his game and when team struggles. You can notice that many times he starts out slow in the first quarter, doesnt even shoot and only looks to get everyone involved, much like LBJ does with his teams. He only takes over when he feels like he needs to do it and it works out more times than not which is amazing at his age and also very smart since he will play 100+ games this season (already played about 30 of them if you count the 20 games with NT).

[Rn5ho]

http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/8aqi43ypxb5l69kn/turkish-airlines-euroleague-mvp-for-october-luka-doncic-real-madrid

[pacersGM]

Skeptics base their skepticism on the fact that there hasn't been a European PERIMETER star in quite a while, especially when it comes to players that lacked elite speed, quickness and leaping ability. Everyone agrees that big men can succeed even if they're somewhat lacking athletically, but as a perimeter player, they think you at least need to have something elite, like how Parker and Dragic have/had elite speed, for example.

What they fail to see is that none of these European players had anywhere near the skill level and understanding of basketball that Doncic has. He's simply great at basketball. And unlike some other players that were somewhat similarly special (several Euro stars that stayed in Europe) he's not nearly as physically "challenged" as they were. All things considered (also strength, running speed, size) he really should be an above average perimeter athlete even in the NBA. It's not like he's Teodosic physically/athletically.

I dont know who you consider a skeptic, if its someone who thinks doncic can be a solid nba player but cant climb to magic johnsons level with his given talent and abilities, then you have to rethink some stuff.

Second. There has never been a perimeter superstar from europe in the nba PERIOD. (lets put parker in there and maybe petrovic /after the world realized what they lost). There have been athletes who had potential, and virtuoso skilled guys who had other deficiencies wich didnt pan out in the nba. And doncic as much as he is a basketball romantic skilled genious, he wont be able to hang with the big boys as far to pull him self above them / read: put him self on magic johnson & co level

The thing is, nobody was nearly as complete of a player as Doncic. Most other perimeter stars in Europe were simply scorers. Drazen, Parker, Dragic ... They all excelled at scoring, but weren't anywhere near as special elsewhere.

Doncic isn't going to really need to put up much more than 20ppg to end up becoming a superstar. But please note that I'm still not saying he's going to become one, it's obviously an extremely hard and unlikely task to get to that level.

P.s.: Last season your main issue with him was that he was "only" averaging 8 ppg. I kept telling you that you need to look at both his role and per36 to get a clearer picture. Did the start of this season change your mind ... just a little bit?

No one was as complete as him but they are or were excellent at one or two things. Is doncic excellent at something that the nba is lacking or in search of, or does he do alot of things very well? Magic was excelent at passing, lebron at scoring plus almost everything else, harden at scoring, pg at defending etc. are doncics 5apg hinting he will get 10 of those in the nba? Dont really seeing that.

I said last year he needs to score more, he did this year, but were talking about 5/6 games so far. So its not even a month into rhe season, and considerings there were a few games this year where he padded his scoring in garbage time also. Not to take anything from him, but you also cant expect the 27 ppg for the season wich will end next may.

[Rn5ho]

No one was as complete as him but they are or were excellent at one or two things. Is doncic excellent at something that the nba is lacking or in search of, or does he do alot of things very well?

And they were in dire need of speed/20ppg because they had none of that before? Doncic has excellent basketball IQ, excellent shot stroke which could potentially become elite (there's a lot of potential when he works with NBA coaches on this as he has all the pre-requisites, which Dragic for example didn't have - not sure about Parker). He has excellent court vision and rebound anticipation.

He does these things at excellent level already while physically being 3-4 years away from nearing his prime. When he buckles up and gets the muscles, he will no doubt be at very least able to stand his own ground vs NBA guards.

Just look at this picture:

https://imgur.com/a/9S13T
(source: https://sportida.photoshelter.com/gallery/20051007-SLO-Basketball-Practice-session-of-KK-Slovan-before-new-season-2005-06/G0000dcJGrjBYDDE )

Think we all know who that is? he was 19 years and 5 months old there, so about 9 months older than Doncic currently. He had nowhere near a body that could potentially be in the NBA and we know what he looks like today.. Doncic will definitely get that "fixed" when he gets to NBA, he already has amazing body for that, but needs to get ripped. He will in NBA.. If Dragic could, no doubt Doncic can as well. And the rest, I already mentioned above. Ofc in your usual manner you will ignore majority and say "they were fast/quick, Luka is not" and end it there, refusing to look at the bigger picture. Nobody is/was perfect entering NBA, but people expect that from Luka, otherwise he has no chance whatsoever to be anything more than a role player. Maybe he will be just a role player, but currently it doesn't look that way.

[pacersGM]

Doncic will never in his life ne ripped. Because he doesnt have that kind of body type. Not that it matters but still. As didnt and wont none of the gasol brothers. Im saying doncic has a ceiling and even with his basketball romantic lost skills he wont reach nba superstardom. There are things missing in his physique that he wont be able to train in such volume or make such progress that it would separeate him from the rest / into superstardom. But a crafty nba starter / shure. But he cant do what porzingis does - elite scoring knack. He cant do what barkley does : : elite rebounding, he cant dominte the nba game enough to do what magic did / elite passing. But of cours he can do all those things very good / nba starter probably. Or euroleague god.

[J_T]

Think we all know who that is? he was 19 years and 5 months old there, so about 9 months older than Doncic currently. He had nowhere near a body that could potentially be in the NBA and we know what he looks like today.. Doncic will definitely get that "fixed" when he gets to NBA, he already has amazing body for that, but needs to get ripped. He will in NBA.. If Dragic could, no doubt Doncic can as well.

Absolutely. Everyone can get ripped, we just don't get ripped because we are lazy armchair experts. Ok, I will say that maybe there are 2-3% of men who really can't get ripped because of physiological problems. But other than that, there is no real secret to getting ripped. Gain muscles, lose body fat. We know how it's done, it's just that... well, you need to be motivated. And there's food.

BTW guys... never forget that you might be talking to a 11-year old kid online. If you see that a person can't write a single normal looking sentence, there is a good chance you might be better off just ignoring. It's one thing for somebody to not speak English well, but when you encounter an extreme, there MIGHT be something else behind it, a different reason. Just sayin'

[Rn5ho]

Doncic will never in his life ne ripped. Because he doesnt have that kind of body type. Not that it matters but still. As didnt and wont none of the gasol brothers. Im saying doncic has a ceiling and even with his basketball romantic lost skills he wont reach nba superstardom. There are things missing in his physique that he wont be able to train in such volume or make such progress that it would separeate him from the rest / into superstardom. But a crafty nba starter / shure. But he cant do what porzingis does - elite scoring knack. He cant do what barkley does : : elite rebounding, he cant dominte the nba game enough to do what magic did / elite passing. But of cours he can do all those things very good / nba starter probably. Or euroleague god.

You can't possibly be serious claiming that "Doncic will never in his life be* ripped.". Geez dude. Do you even understand the basic concept behind getting ripped? You lose fat and work out (in the most basic explanation possible). I'm literally the last person (probably) here who could talk about getting ripped as I'm a lazy fu*k (luckily I'm tall and thus don't really get fat), but even I at some point went on a strict diet and worked out occasionally and started to get glimpses of 6pack and muscles on my hands.. If I could pull that off, then sure (NOT shure, please.. I'm really no grammar nazi as I make tons of mistakes myself, but this one literally kicks me in the face each and every time I read your paragraphs) as hell Doncic can do it too. I really have no doubts that NBA coaches will take perfect care of that, one way or another I really don't think he's one of those unlucky guys who are impossible to get ripped.. if he were, I'm pretty sure we'd be reading about it all over the scout reports - instead you're the only "expert" claiming that.

[pacersGM]

You somehow made it a thing, but since you took it there let me ask you: is getting ripped a must to succed as a ball player?
If so, how come marc gasol isnt ripped( he lost a ton of weight, and works out strictly and disciplined on his body under nba trainers? How come he isnt ripped? You do know that people have different genetic backgrounds? Shure if in some weird way doncics priority would be getting muscle defintion, he could, but as a ball player, getting ripped has nothing to do with his on court abilities. Thats just ridiculous

Cj mccullom will never be jimmy butler ripped, karl anthony towns will never be david robinson ripped, luka doncic will never be "ripped"

Since you are somehow implying he should get ripped to make the next step. God knows why ?

[Nikson]

Doncic will never in his life ne ripped. Because he doesnt have that kind of body type. Not that it matters but still. As didnt and wont none of the gasol brothers. Im saying doncic has a ceiling and even with his basketball romantic lost skills he wont reach nba superstardom. There are things missing in his physique that he wont be able to train in such volume or make such progress that it would separeate him from the rest / into superstardom. But a crafty nba starter / shure. But he cant do what porzingis does - elite scoring knack. He cant do what barkley does : : elite rebounding, he cant dominte the nba game enough to do what magic did / elite passing. But of cours he can do all those things very good / nba starter probably. Or euroleague god.

He will reach nba superstardom! I am sure.
He will score, assist, rebound, ... everything. Plus he will make majority of teammates at least 16-20% better. Magic made teammates only 14-16% better.

[Nikson]

At first he will do all that totally ripped. Than he will do it again with more than 20% fat.
Just for fun.

[Wagonband]

I get a feeling quite a few guys here are 12y old Slovenians that are just pushing their agenda for some reason. Jesus as some of the statements and arguments. Like people don't know what basketball is even about

[Nikson]

Yet, he might not pause for a year to go and play baseball. He is not good at it.

Maybe nogomet. He is good in nogomet.

[Nikson]

I get a feeling quite a few guys here are 12y old Slovenians that are just pushing their agenda for some reason. Jesus as some of the statements and arguments. Like people don't know what basketball is even about

You have a good feeling.
Slovenians develop a certain level off sarcasm at 12.

[pacersGM]

So you must be eleven then?

[Nikson]

So you must be eleven then?

Nop.
You have to be 12 to recognize it. Slovenian or not.