Luka Doncic

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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#421 » by reanimator » Tue Jan 31, 2017 8:22 pm

UcanUwill wrote:Thing is, Gallo and Pau dominated even with their teen bodies. So there was far more untapped potential there.


Yup, untapped physical development for skinny but skilled kids is always the difference once they actually do add mass and catch up to their man-child peers.

peZt wrote:If you think about it, the players who absolutely dominated youth competitions early on all grew up to be solid NBA players at best or no NBA players at all. Players like Kanter, Valanciunas, Saric, Motiejunas, Mirotic, Rubio, Dejan Musli, Kosta Koufos etc.

On the other hand the best european players right now are all late bloomers who only started to shine at the u18 level at the earliest if at all like Giannis, Porzingis, Jokic, Schröder or Gobert.


Great point.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#422 » by XTraderXL » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:17 pm

reanimator wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:Thing is, Gallo and Pau dominated even with their teen bodies. So there was far more untapped potential there.


Yup, untapped physical development for skinny but skilled kids is always the difference once they actually do add mass and catch up to their man-child peers.

peZt wrote:If you think about it, the players who absolutely dominated youth competitions early on all grew up to be solid NBA players at best or no NBA players at all. Players like Kanter, Valanciunas, Saric, Motiejunas, Mirotic, Rubio, Dejan Musli, Kosta Koufos etc.

On the other hand the best european players right now are all late bloomers who only started to shine at the u18 level at the earliest if at all like Giannis, Porzingis, Jokic, Schröder or Gobert.


Great point.



Well, the players listed in the first group are all bigs (except for overrated Rubio who was never able to shoot at all), Doncic is a guard. Secondly, the guy is doing something that has never been done before in Europe at his age and he is far from a finished product at 18. You can not say that for any of the players on the list. He needs to improve on a lot of stuff and he is improving at all of those things very fast. Especially his ball handling and playmaking is much better now than at the start of the season. He is slowly coming into his own and I think next year he will pass Llull as the best player of Real. He is already more effective and I would argue at least as valuable overall for his team.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#423 » by Mirotic12 » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:24 pm

peja_the_legend wrote:What sets him apart from 99% of other teenagers of his age is his body.He has the body of a 30 year old pro.That aint normal.That's why any comparison to other teens of the past is fruitless imo.PPl say "wow when was the last time a 17 year old guy had this productivity in Euroleague"..well of course other teenagers wont do same things cause most of them still grow in their bodies.That doesnt mean they won't develop and catch up with him later..Galinari was skin and bones until he was 22 or sth..Doncic is a very rare exception and i dont think his ceiling is as high as his fanboys think.A Galinari/Hedo hybrid,which is fine.He'll propably be a solid starter.But the hype is unreal allready.An expert on twitter wrote that he's the best prospect since Lebron(!!)..Jeesus.


Hedo doesn't need to be mentioned again in comparison with Doncic. I don't care what anyone says, Doncic is much better and more talented then Hedo - he's better now than Hedo was as a finished player. Doncic is much better and it's not even close quite frankly.

As far as the Gallinari comparisons, people keep saying that also, and I really don't see it. One guy is 6-10, 6-11 and is very athletic and great at running the floor. He's more of an open court player, and clearly like a big 3 or stretch 4 (Gallinari).

The other guy is 6-7, 6-8 (and no, he's not growing another 2-3 inches, he's almost 18 and his body is already filling out)
- he's more of a half court player, a guy for screen roll, and he's not as athletic. He's also like a wing / point forward. I really don't see the similarity to Gallinari.

I agree with you on his body though. He's not nearly 18 year old body-wise. He's more like a 25-30 year old body-wise, with an obvious early maturation physically. So yeah, he's not going to have the same possible "upside" or possible player trajectory curve as a normal player his age. He's much like Rubio in that sense, that he just simply physically developed quicker than the other players his age.

Sports Geek wrote:That and the fact that he can shoot pretty much as good as any other player in the Euroleague. And pass. And he is able to realize which tempo his team has to play. And he is able to find advantages for himself and his teammates. Again, it is not about his body (that is impressive btw), it is about his mind. All the experts, TV commentators, ex-players and even teammates and rivals are saying the same thing, that he is awesome already and learns much faster than they thought he would. Last season they were demanding him to be a more solid shooter and to be able to shoot off the dribble. Bang. Now he is one of the top shooters in the Euroleague and has won games creating his own shots.

But as I said several times, I hope all of them are wrong and we can keep him in Madrid for years. Even if he doesn't improve more, he is already pretty much leading the team.


Let's not get carried away again with the hyperbole and over the top statements. No, he can't shoot as well as any player in EuroLeague. He sees nowhere near (not even remotely) close to the defensive pressure that the elite shooters in EuroLeague get.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#424 » by Mirotic12 » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:53 pm

XTraderXL wrote:Well, the players listed in the first group are all bigs (except for overrated Rubio who was never able to shoot at all), Doncic is a guard. Secondly, the guy is doing something that has never been done before in Europe at his age and he is far from a finished product at 18. You can not say that for any of the players on the list. He needs to improve on a lot of stuff and he is improving at all of those things very fast. Especially his ball handling and playmaking is much better now than at the start of the season. He is slowly coming into his own and I think next year he will pass Llull as the best player of Real. He is already more effective and I would argue at least as valuable overall for his team.


I'm not at all sure that's actually accurate. I am sure there have been guys playing at 17-18 (remember he will be 18 several months before this season ends), that were playing in EuroLeague, or the old FIBA EuroLeague, that could have numbers like 8.5 points and 3.6 assists a game....come on, you really think in over 60 years no one did that?

I seriously doubt that is true. No 17-18 year old kid has ever been at the top of EuroLeague, but Doncic isn't either. He's a good player, but certainly not among the best. There surely have been guys his age before, with similar minutes and production. It's not like he's tearing the league apart or an MVP or something. He's ultimately a good role player in one of the best teams - not more than that. I really doubt that's never been done before at his age in the long history of the league.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#425 » by JPF » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:59 pm

Well, Dončič is far from a "superb body" only. His performances at the ages of 14, 15, 16 clearly showed that. Obviously always against 2-3 years older good prospects, that could physicaly dominate him, yet he made it up with his instincts for the ball.

I think not many people really realise how good he is running the pick and roll. Some attribute that to his size, but he showed some remarkable passing instincts at lower levels year or two ago, he plays a bit laid back since and to be honest is mostly commiting TO's out of his flashy passes, however when he'll fully adapt to the level and gets some additional experience he'll surprise a lot of people with his court vision.

He'll declare on the first draft possible, attend some workouts and see how it'll go from there. Teams that would have the higher draft picks will imo be decisive on weather he stays or pulls out of the draft. Bill Duffy might pursue the highest pick possible, however Dončič is surrounded with ex-NBAers that'll advise him to take the teams into consideration.


Such performances aren't unprecendented. Sani Bečirovič or Miloš Vujanič are a good indicaton on how nothing is certain as far as projecting bball career at the age of 18 goes.
Whoever only sees 8ppg and 4 rpg in Dončič, should probably settle for some other sport though.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#426 » by Mirotic12 » Tue Jan 31, 2017 10:09 pm

UcanUwill wrote:Thing is, Gallo and Pau dominated even with their teen bodies. So there was far more untapped potential there.


I don't recall teenage Pau and Gallinari dominating anything. Look at them in EuroLeague as teenagers...

Gallinari didn't do a thing until age 19, and at that time, he was playing in the 21st placed team, out of 24 in the standings...which means he might not have even seen the floor on a top level team. Even then, 14.9 points and 4.2 rebounds sure isn't dominating, not close to it. Even on the best team in the league, that's not dominating in any way, and certainly not in a terrible team.

Pau Gasol....he didn't play in the main EuroLeague until age 19.


Gallinari in EuroLeague at age 17: ( on a 5-9 sub .500 team)

http://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=KRD&seasoncode=E2005

played 1 game, played 2 minutes total, and his only stat was a missed 3 pointer.

He didn't play in EuroLeague at age 18.

His team was just playing in Italian League that season

Gallinari in EuroLeague at age 19: (on a 3-11 sub .500 team)

http://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=KRD&seasoncode=E2007

14.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.4 blocks

42.2 FG%
31.8 3 PT FG%
78.1 FT%

That's certainly not dominant at all, especially in a team with a 3-11 record.

Pau Gasol in EuroLeague at age 19:

http://www.fibaeurope.com/compID_,Uz02qBnJiADOq5VntEf53.season_2000.roundID_2571.teamID_1030.playerID_28569.html

4.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.1 steals, 0.2 blocks

54.5 FG%
33.3 3 PT FG%
60.9 FT%

Certainly nothing remotely in the discussion, not by a long way, for being dominant.

It's not correct to say those two were dominating European basketball as teenagers. Because they were not.

JPF wrote:Such performances aren't unprecendented. Sani Bečirovič or Miloš Vujanič are a good indicaton on how nothing is certain as far as projecting bball career at the age of 18 goes.


Yeah, it's simply wrong and untrue to say he's doing something never done at his age in Europe. That's obviously not true. What he's doing is very impressive, but it's clearly not true to say or imply that no player at or around his age ever did similar things in Europe.

Just from the last 15-18 years, like you said, Becirovic, Vujanic, also the same story with Nikos Zisis. I can think of at least those 3 that were already developed guards at age 18, just in recent years in Europe. Even someone like Manu Markoishvili was pretty developed as a teenage guard.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#427 » by UcanUwill » Tue Jan 31, 2017 10:46 pm

I know they didn't dominate when they were 17, geesh. People really get carried away with his age, sure its awesome seeing 17 year old play in Euroleague, but that doesn't guarantee hes going to just progress at the same rate as all these other 17 year olds did. Hes an early bloomer.

Pau and Danilo started dominating before leaving for NBA. NBA rookie Pau still looked like he was growing into his body, altho he was already a very good player, and thats what I am talking about. Potential was through the roof with these guys, because you really saw the areas where they will obviously and naturally improve with time. Doncic on the other hand looks already physically matured.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#428 » by JohnWillow » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:48 pm

Get of Doncic nuts guys, he ain't that good, his lack of quickness and lateral speed will be big problem in the NBA especially against explosive opponents.

And saying Doncic right now is better than prime Hedo Turkoglu is nuts. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Celtics fan. :crazy:
We also face the Kings twice in the near future. I think it's time Yabu pays back some of that free money he's been given his entire career and bounces Fox for a nice 2 week ankle sprain.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#429 » by Sports Geek » Wed Feb 1, 2017 12:25 am

For the ones that say this is not unprecedented... Doncic records:

- All time youngest MVP of the week in the ACB league

- All time youngest MVP of the week in the Euroleague (twice)

- Record in scoring for an U17 player in the ACB league

- Record in PIR for an U17 player in the ACB league

- Youngest player ever in recording a double double in the ACB league

- First player in going over 20 points and 10 assists in the ACB league since 2006 (including even veteran players)

Maybe I forgot any other, I don't know. And the most important thing: he broke all those records playing limited minutes.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#430 » by reanimator » Wed Feb 1, 2017 12:40 am

UcanUwill wrote:I know they didn't dominate when they were 17, geesh. People really get carried away with his age, sure its awesome seeing 17 year old play in Euroleague, but that doesn't guarantee hes going to just progress at the same rate as all these other 17 year olds did.


Not sure why this is hard to understand....Some players progress more in 1 year than so-called "phenoms" and leapfrog them. Some phenoms simply stall in development. I think Doncic has an incredibly high floor but he closer to being maxed out in certain categories than many of his peers.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#431 » by SportsGuy8 » Wed Feb 1, 2017 4:30 am

If you guys go through this thread you're going to see that even the vast majority of Luka's "homers" realize that he's unique in that his body is way ahead of his age and that there's not that much room for improvement because of it.

However, it's also possible that his body still isn't anywhere near what it's going to be in, say, 5 years. His father really was a bit of a "tank" and Luka seems to have an even better frame. It's possible that in a couple of years he's going to pack an additional 20 pounds or so and transition fully to bullyball. We'll have to wait and see, though, maybe he's going to prefer to keep the style of play he has now ...

P.s.: In a very recent interview he was asked in what areas he needs to improve and he openly acknowledged the fact that his lateral movement/quickness needs work and that he's working on it with his conditioning trainer. So he's basically already started working on the one thing where he needs to improve the most. We'll see how it turns out, but just the very fact that he's already aware of it and working on it sounds extremely promising.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#432 » by Unbreakable99 » Wed Feb 1, 2017 4:40 am

Mirotic12 wrote:
peja_the_legend wrote:What sets him apart from 99% of other teenagers of his age is his body.He has the body of a 30 year old pro.That aint normal.That's why any comparison to other teens of the past is fruitless imo.PPl say "wow when was the last time a 17 year old guy had this productivity in Euroleague"..well of course other teenagers wont do same things cause most of them still grow in their bodies.That doesnt mean they won't develop and catch up with him later..Galinari was skin and bones until he was 22 or sth..Doncic is a very rare exception and i dont think his ceiling is as high as his fanboys think.A Galinari/Hedo hybrid,which is fine.He'll propably be a solid starter.But the hype is unreal allready.An expert on twitter wrote that he's the best prospect since Lebron(!!)..Jeesus.


Hedo doesn't need to be mentioned again in comparison with Doncic. I don't care what anyone says, Doncic is much better and more talented then Hedo - he's better now than Hedo was as a finished player. Doncic is much better and it's not even close quite frankly.

As far as the Gallinari comparisons, people keep saying that also, and I really don't see it. One guy is 6-10, 6-11 and is very athletic and great at running the floor. He's more of an open court player, and clearly like a big 3 or stretch 4 (Gallinari).

The other guy is 6-7, 6-8 (and no, he's not growing another 2-3 inches, he's almost 18 and his body is already filling out)
- he's more of a half court player, a guy for screen roll, and he's not as athletic. He's also like a wing / point forward. I really don't see the similarity to Gallinari.

I agree with you on his body though. He's not nearly 18 year old body-wise. He's more like a 25-30 year old body-wise, with an obvious early maturation physically. So yeah, he's not going to have the same possible "upside" or possible player trajectory curve as a normal player his age. He's much like Rubio in that sense, that he just simply physically developed quicker than the other players his age.

Sports Geek wrote:That and the fact that he can shoot pretty much as good as any other player in the Euroleague. And pass. And he is able to realize which tempo his team has to play. And he is able to find advantages for himself and his teammates. Again, it is not about his body (that is impressive btw), it is about his mind. All the experts, TV commentators, ex-players and even teammates and rivals are saying the same thing, that he is awesome already and learns much faster than they thought he would. Last season they were demanding him to be a more solid shooter and to be able to shoot off the dribble. Bang. Now he is one of the top shooters in the Euroleague and has won games creating his own shots.

But as I said several times, I hope all of them are wrong and we can keep him in Madrid for years. Even if he doesn't improve more, he is already pretty much leading the team.


Let's not get carried away again with the hyperbole and over the top statements. No, he can't shoot as well as any player in EuroLeague. He sees nowhere near (not even remotely) close to the defensive pressure that the elite shooters in EuroLeague get.


Can you compare Mirotic Saric Porzingis Hezonja and Doncic at the same age of 18? Can you please rank them?
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#433 » by Sports Geek » Wed Feb 1, 2017 9:09 am

Jonathan Givony from DraftExpress talks about Doncic as a serious contender for number 1 pick:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-draft-stock-watch-euro-sensation-making-waves-193103069.html
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#434 » by UcanUwill » Wed Feb 1, 2017 11:28 am

SportsGuy8 wrote:If you guys go through this thread you're going to see that even the vast majority of Luka's "homers" realize that he's unique in that his body is way ahead of his age and that there's not that much room for improvement because of it.

However, it's also possible that his body still isn't anywhere near what it's going to be in, say, 5 years. His father really was a bit of a "tank" and Luka seems to have an even better frame. It's possible that in a couple of years he's going to pack an additional 20 pounds or so and transition fully to bullyball. We'll have to wait and see, though, maybe he's going to prefer to keep the style of play he has now ...

P.s.: In a very recent interview he was asked in what areas he needs to improve and he openly acknowledged the fact that his lateral movement/quickness needs work and that he's working on it with his conditioning trainer. So he's basically already started working on the one thing where he needs to improve the most. We'll see how it turns out, but just the very fact that he's already aware of it and working on it sounds extremely promising.


Lateral movement is very hard to improve. Jonas Valanciunas worked on it for years, and he still moves like a turtle. Also, adding 20 pounds can weaken some of the players strengths. I want to see him develop his upper body a bit, but I don't want to him to add tons of weight.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#435 » by SportsGuy8 » Wed Feb 1, 2017 11:38 am

UcanUwill wrote:
SportsGuy8 wrote:If you guys go through this thread you're going to see that even the vast majority of Luka's "homers" realize that he's unique in that his body is way ahead of his age and that there's not that much room for improvement because of it.

However, it's also possible that his body still isn't anywhere near what it's going to be in, say, 5 years. His father really was a bit of a "tank" and Luka seems to have an even better frame. It's possible that in a couple of years he's going to pack an additional 20 pounds or so and transition fully to bullyball. We'll have to wait and see, though, maybe he's going to prefer to keep the style of play he has now ...

P.s.: In a very recent interview he was asked in what areas he needs to improve and he openly acknowledged the fact that his lateral movement/quickness needs work and that he's working on it with his conditioning trainer. So he's basically already started working on the one thing where he needs to improve the most. We'll see how it turns out, but just the very fact that he's already aware of it and working on it sounds extremely promising.


Lateral movement is very hard to improve. Jonas Valanciunas worked on it for years, and he still moves like a turtle. Also, adding 20 pounds can weaken some of the players strengths. I want to see him develop his upper body a bit, but I don't want to him to add tons of weight.

It is mostly genetics, however, I do think Doncic can actually substantially improve it, it has to be easier than for a guy like Valanciunas.

There are many downsides to adding 20 pounds, that's why I added that I dunno if he's going to want to change the style of play. We'll have to wait and see.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#436 » by JPF » Wed Feb 1, 2017 3:28 pm

Sports Geek wrote:For the ones that say this is not unprecedented... Doncic records:

- All time youngest MVP of the week in the ACB league

- All time youngest MVP of the week in the Euroleague (twice)

- Record in scoring for an U17 player in the ACB league

- Record in PIR for an U17 player in the ACB league

- Youngest player ever in recording a double double in the ACB league

- First player in going over 20 points and 10 assists in the ACB league since 2006 (including even veteran players)

Maybe I forgot any other, I don't know. And the most important thing: he broke all those records playing limited minutes.

Very well aware of that and I'm not saying that's not a big deal, all I'm saying that a transition to senior bball like this isn't always a skill thing only. F.e. if Sarič found a better fit than Efes he would look better than he did, Bečirović at the age of 18 might have been capable of performing almost as well, Rudy wasn't bad at 18 years old either and there could be some more cases as far as perimeter players go, eventhough those are indeed extremely rare.


The fact is that Dončič, although physicaly well developed for his age, does not posses as much of a physical edge as some would suggest (whoever remembers matchups with Aranitović from a year or two ago would agree. And there were numerous cases like this, as I'm sure Real fans are aware of). It's an easy conclusion due to the fact he actually plays at the euroleague level at the age of 17. However much of that can be attributed to Laso hideing Dončič at PG. His height and decent ballhandling skills enable him to do that, with his feel for the game on top of that, he is actually able to create a notable surpluss there.
However if he had to start the season at the SF, with the difference in strenght that ussualy means, he probably wouldn't burst out to the extent he did. It's a whole different set of neccesities for a SF, he can play occasinal minutes there as of now, thanks to the confidence he gained, however put him on the constant physical pressure some of the true SF are able to perform (the fact that in euro bball SG vs. SF can be even more blurry than in NBA certanly works in his favour) and his performance will definatly drop over the longer period and his physique would be exposed. No matter how well he is able to defend some post ups, that's still a situational thing for him. Don't underestimate the effect when opponent conciously attack there.
Laso is a very inteligent coach, deliberately took the risk and has managed to find a way that suits both Luka and his team perfectly. It's a bit of a coincidence and not many players get to see some of those seemingly small circumstances, that make a difference in their transition to senior bball. Luka definately needed talent to use those, but it could easily be a worse outcome with some other team+coach, transition to senior bball never depends solely on the talent and I think Luka "found" a good fit.

Euro guards and especialy PG's, are ussualy in a very vulnerable position untill something like 22 years of age, since physicaly it's a big difference they have to cope with, generaly being put on a lower level teams due to it (and that plays a slight role on why europe mostly exports big guys to nba, NCAA is a much more guard-welcome enviroment as far as development goes), with many failing to succed with the transition into senior bball. Dončič has an advantage there with his height and wingspan, that makes it tougher for some of the PG's to put some serious pressure on him, the way they could easily exploit an average 18 years old 6'1 PG. (For NBA fans: with euro rules and shorter 3 point line, the difference in "court spread" are noticable, that's why young PG's don't have the same room to operate and upper body physical issues are exposed faster.)

Which bring me to his latteral quickness. At the age of 13, 14, even if playing against notably older players, that was always the main questionmark for him. However somewhere since 16 y.o. he improved to the extent I'm not worried about that anymore, if there was a guarantee he would have a superb first step that would be an overkill, as for defense, he has the poise, wingspan and speed to keep up with his man.
While PG is a natural fit for him at this moment, unless some specific team lineups happen, his NBA position will be SF most of the time. His quickness being exposed while playing as a 6'8 17 years old PG? Bound to happen unless you're thinking superman. Either way, you've got plenty of great NBA SF's that don't need some incredible quickness to create.


That being said, Luka is progressing so fast jaws keep dropping over and over again. There were numerous people saying "stop that hype" at the ages of 13, 14, 15, 16 and most of them are now openly on the bandwagon. Even I find it hard to believe Luka would be able to progress with this very same pace though, but anyway if he stays healthy, he should be an elite SF within few years.

I've got absolutely no idea on how to compare him with Porzingis or MIrotić though :)
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#437 » by No-Man » Wed Feb 1, 2017 4:16 pm

would you guys be less worried about Doncic's quickness or ability to create space if he could play the 4? not going to rampage about his size again but he is around 6'9 in shoes and 220lbs, and I have no doubt that he will likely grown an inch more, I think we can feel safe to say that he can be a playmaking combo-forward at 6'10 240 in his prime.
At that size, and against certain guys, his sheer quickness with his ball skills, or his explosiveness, esp when you add his ability to shoot it, touch, anticipation and overall IQ, arent going to matter as much.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#438 » by UcanUwill » Wed Feb 1, 2017 5:39 pm

Fischella wrote:would you guys be less worried about Doncic's quickness or ability to create space if he could play the 4? not going to rampage about his size again but he is around 6'9 in shoes and 220lbs, and I have no doubt that he will likely grown an inch more, I think we can feel safe to say that he can be a playmaking combo-forward at 6'10 240 in his prime.
At that size, and against certain guys, his sheer quickness with his ball skills, or his explosiveness, esp when you add his ability to shoot it, touch, anticipation and overall IQ, arent going to matter as much.


I would be really disappointed if he ends up as a 4 honestly. Unless you are someone like Blake Griffin or Nikola Jokic, your perimeter skills will get rusted at 4 position IMO. We saw this many times, in Saric and in Diaw and in many more. I really hope Doncic ends up as a kick as guard or a wing, not just a glue guy 4 man. Thats where his talents will shine the most in my opinion.

And I don't want to revive this discussion, but I really doubt he is 6'9 in shoes. He looks 6'8 at the most, good size for a wing with playmaker skills. He obviously grew in 2 years, when I look back at his 2015 highlights, he is obviously a good 3 inches shorter, so he might still growing.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#439 » by No-Man » Wed Feb 1, 2017 5:41 pm

UcanUwill wrote:
Fischella wrote:would you guys be less worried about Doncic's quickness or ability to create space if he could play the 4? not going to rampage about his size again but he is around 6'9 in shoes and 220lbs, and I have no doubt that he will likely grown an inch more, I think we can feel safe to say that he can be a playmaking combo-forward at 6'10 240 in his prime.
At that size, and against certain guys, his sheer quickness with his ball skills, or his explosiveness, esp when you add his ability to shoot it, touch, anticipation and overall IQ, arent going to matter as much.


I would be really disappointed if he ends up as a 4 honestly. Unless you are someone like Blake Griffin or Nikola Jokic, your perimeter skills will get rusted at 4 position IMO. We saw this many times, in Saric and in Diaw and in many more. I really hope Doncic ends up as a kick as guard or a wing, not just a glue guy 4 man. Thats where his talents will shine the most in my opinion.

And I don't want to revive this discussion, but I really doubt he is 6'9 in shoes. He looks 6'8 at the most, good size for a wing with playmaker skills. He obviously grew in 2 years, when I look back at his 2015 highlights, he is obviously a good 3 inches shorter, so he might still growing.

Well from sources, he is 2.03m w/o shoes, so that's about 6'9 in shoes, I am not positive he will be every bit of that, but around 6'8-6'9 and he has an elite frame, I think he can play some 4 for sure.
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Re: Luka Doncic 

Post#440 » by UcanUwill » Wed Feb 1, 2017 5:51 pm

Fischella wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
Fischella wrote:would you guys be less worried about Doncic's quickness or ability to create space if he could play the 4? not going to rampage about his size again but he is around 6'9 in shoes and 220lbs, and I have no doubt that he will likely grown an inch more, I think we can feel safe to say that he can be a playmaking combo-forward at 6'10 240 in his prime.
At that size, and against certain guys, his sheer quickness with his ball skills, or his explosiveness, esp when you add his ability to shoot it, touch, anticipation and overall IQ, arent going to matter as much.


I would be really disappointed if he ends up as a 4 honestly. Unless you are someone like Blake Griffin or Nikola Jokic, your perimeter skills will get rusted at 4 position IMO. We saw this many times, in Saric and in Diaw and in many more. I really hope Doncic ends up as a kick as guard or a wing, not just a glue guy 4 man. Thats where his talents will shine the most in my opinion.

And I don't want to revive this discussion, but I really doubt he is 6'9 in shoes. He looks 6'8 at the most, good size for a wing with playmaker skills. He obviously grew in 2 years, when I look back at his 2015 highlights, he is obviously a good 3 inches shorter, so he might still growing.

Well from sources, he is 2.03m w/o shoes, so that's about 6'9 in shoes, I am not positive he will be every bit of that, but around 6'8-6'9 and he has an elite frame, I think he can play some 4 for sure.


Nowadays anyone who is 6'7 or taller can play the 4 really.

Kinda OT, Its funny, I remember like 15 years ago, Euro hops haters would always crap on Euroleague, saying how its too much reliant on the 3 ball, and how its bigman are too short, too weak and too perimeter oriented. Just to see that a decade later NBA would go into that same direction without looking back. Euroball was ahead of its time really, America has caught up. Thats why USA mens team looks so invulnerable nowadays, they figured out that spacing and ball movement thing that other nations had years ago.

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