Luka Doncic is the best player in the nba

[Pg81]

Luka is an absolute mythic beast, no doubt, but there's more to being the best in the game than averages.

You mean like being top 5 in most major offensive categories and leading the Mavs to fifth place in the west on an at best mediocre roster so far with a struggling co-star? That kind of "more"?

more like doing it over an entire season while also playing all-nba defense, getting them to a top 3 seed and at least the NBA finls

because thats what you are gonna get from Kawhi and lebron

No.

[MarcusBrody]

My goodness this is an weird thread for so many people.

On one hand: Doncic defense is generally fine. Showing a numerical comparison to Harden who he was being directly compared to isn't somehow proving he's bad at defense. Plenty of MVPs have been won with Doncic level defense.

On the other: It's not embarrassing to put Doncic outside the top five as best player in the NBA. Lebron, Giannis, Harden, Steph, KD, and Kawhi are all spectacular players who currently play in the NBA. Not rating him over four of them is no real slight as we're only 20% into this season. Now, if the question is whether he's having a Top 5 season over the 15 games played so far, then yes, I agree that it would be somewhat crazy to say no.

[nedleeds]

I don't think he's the best player in the NBA, but I think if you re-drafted the league given age and health he'd go #2

1) Giannis
2) Luka
3) AD
4) KAT
5) one of the older players Harden / Kawhi, or gamble on an injury free 5-6 years with Embiid

I agree mostly with your post, but drafting hindsight I think Giannis and Luka is a lottery who should go first. This 14 games of Luka this season keep me intrigued.

The rest is quite obvious, although I would include Zion and Trae before the olders also.

I don't think Zion goes top 5 in a league wide redraft. His knee and weight are scary, he probably goes top 25. Trae could go pretty high, he's young can shoot and can run your team. He might be the first point guard off the board, Dame, Steph, Kemba are all older, injured or both. That being said I don't think people are convinced he can be average defensively yet. If you assume a re-draft with scaling salary and a cap Giannis to me makes sense because of his two way ability great record of health, then you've got to hunt shooters for him to play with.

[Sulico]

Luka is an absolute mythic beast, no doubt, but there's more to being the best in the game than averages.

You mean like being top 5 in most major offensive categories and leading the Mavs to fifth place in the west on an at best mediocre roster so far with a struggling co-star? That kind of "more"?

more like doing it over an entire season while also playing all-nba defense, getting them to a top 3 seed and at least the NBA finls

because thats what you are gonna get from Kawhi and lebron

Both Kawhi and Lebron going to the finals this year? And both going to be top 3 seed? That's a bold prediction.

[Johnny Bball]

He’s in the discussion already. That’s enough to shock me.

[dautjazz]

My goodness this is an weird thread for so many people.

On one hand: Doncic defense is generally fine. Showing a numerical comparison to Harden who he was being directly compared to isn't somehow proving he's bad at defense. Plenty of MVPs have been won with Doncic level defense.

On the other: It's not embarrassing to put Doncic outside the top five as best player in the NBA. Lebron, Giannis, Harden, Steph, KD, and Kawhi are all spectacular players who currently play in the NBA. Not rating him over four of them is no real slight as we're only 20% into this season. Now, if the question is whether he's having a Top 5 season over the 15 games played so far, then yes, I agree that it would be somewhat crazy to say no.

Except KD and Steph should be disqualified on injuries this year. Leonard has missed 5 of the Clippers 16 games, and has not played as well as Doncic in the games he's played. Regardless, if you throw in Leonard who I consider to no doubt be top 5 when it matters most, Doncic deserves to be in there with his current level of play.

[MarcusBrody]

My goodness this is an weird thread for so many people.

On one hand: Doncic defense is generally fine. Showing a numerical comparison to Harden who he was being directly compared to isn't somehow proving he's bad at defense. Plenty of MVPs have been won with Doncic level defense.

On the other: It's not embarrassing to put Doncic outside the top five as best player in the NBA. Lebron, Giannis, Harden, Steph, KD, and Kawhi are all spectacular players who currently play in the NBA. Not rating him over four of them is no real slight as we're only 20% into this season. Now, if the question is whether he's having a Top 5 season over the 15 games played so far, then yes, I agree that it would be somewhat crazy to say no.

Except KD and Steph should be disqualified on injuries this year. Leonard has missed 5 of the Clippers 16 games, and has not played as well as Doncic in the games he's played. Regardless, if you throw in Leonard who I consider to no doubt be top 5 when it matters most, Doncic deserves to be in there with his current level of play.

The OP didn't say "Luka has had the best season so far this year." It said that "Luka Doncic is the best player in the NBA." My response was about someone saying it was crazy to only consider him Top 10 as he was indisputably top 5 at worst. I listed 6 players who play in the NBA who may very well be better than Luka. They might not be, but it certainly isn't crazy to think so even if some are currently out. My only point was that saying that Luka is the 6th best basketball player in the NBA (and so the world) is some kind of crazy talk/slight on him.

[NY 567]

Doncic is getting way overrated. Best player in the NBA??? He ain’t even the best player in his draft (Trae Young).

Luka Doncic is more valuable than Trae Young, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart combined.

[Yuri36]

He’s in the discussion already. That’s enough to shock me.

+1

[Yuri36]

Doncic is getting way overrated. Best player in the NBA??? He ain’t even the best player in his draft (Trae Young).

Luka Doncic is more valuable than Trae Young, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart combined.

So Luka is already better than GOATTatum? How could it be?

[NY 567]

It's obviously early but as of right now, Doncic is easily a top 3 player in the league. He's leading the best offense in the NBA and his cast is a rusty KP who isn't shooting very well and role players, that kind of transcendent offensive impact overrides any deficiencies he might have on defense. And he's an average defender anyway, it's not like he's Trae Young or Isaiah Thomas bad, he's nowhere near that. Dallas is about a middle of the road defensive team anyway, so he couldn't be hurting them that much.

[MalonesElbows]

It's obviously early but as of right now, Doncic is easily a top 3 player in the league. He's leading the best offense in the NBA and his cast is a rusty KP who isn't shooting very well and role players, that kind of transcendent offensive impact overrides any deficiencies he might have on defense. And he's an average defender anyway, it's not like he's Trae Young or Isaiah Thomas bad, he's nowhere near that. Dallas is about a middle of the road defensive team anyway, so he couldn't be hurting them that much.

KP just isn't that good at basketball. With that albatross contract of KP, it's going to be the Luka show, and the Luka show alone for a long time.

[Kahn_2001]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

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[The-Power]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

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You do realize that he's compared to his peers, right? League environment is the same for everybody, so your statement doesn't make sense.

[CBS7]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

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League average pace is just around what it was in the mid 80s. FTA per game are lower. TS% and scoring are up a bit because of how many 3s are being shot (10 times higher than it was in the mid 80s!)

PER is always normalized based on league averages year after year. So things like pace/efficiency/defense being wildly different between eras doesn't affect PER when comparing it across them.

[Kahn_2001]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

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You do realize that he's compared to his peers, right? League environment is the same for everybody, so your statement doesn't make sense.

Yah I do know that, most players have inflated stats Luka isn't an exception.

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[The-Power]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

You do realize that he's compared to his peers, right? League environment is the same for everybody, so your statement doesn't make sense.

Yah I do know that, most players have inflated stats Luka isn't an exception.

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So what does your comment add to a discussion about where he ranks among his peers? Or did you just see an opportunity to voice your frustration with the current NBA no matter how relevant that is to the actual topic?

[CBS7]

Severely overrated, league is a joke with all these inflated stats.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

You do realize that he's compared to his peers, right? League environment is the same for everybody, so your statement doesn't make sense.

Yah I do know that, most players have inflated stats Luka isn't an exception.

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Even considering that players' stats today are "inflated" (always depends what era you compare it to, although I agree to an extent its easier to rack up stats these days), Doncic so far this season has the highest PER ranking for a single season... ever. The era has nothing to do with it. Now, he probably won't keep it up all season, PER isn't a perfect stat, doesn't take into account defense, etc, but it is still insane.

[Kahn_2001]

You do realize that he's compared to his peers, right? League environment is the same for everybody, so your statement doesn't make sense.

Yah I do know that, most players have inflated stats Luka isn't an exception.

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So what does your comment add to a discussion about where he ranks among his peers? Or did you just see an opportunity to voice your frustration with the current NBA no matter how relevant that is to the actual topic?

I'm saying he's really not as good as his stats and definitely not the best player in the league.

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[tundraknight]

He is a basketball prodigy that’s for sure.

He’s basically a less athletic Lebron but with a superior jump shot.