Lets admit the obvious: SGA is a better player than Luka

[robbie84]

Luka has never had a team as good as SGA's Thunder team. That's not SGA's fault.

[Petergrifindor]

If Luka was reffed like SGA, he would be better than Jordan

[bbms]

He can certainly draw fouls better than Luka, that’s for sure!

the opposite. sga drives like double the average of doncic's drives per game and the difference in fta is marginal

[Andri]

In fact, I would say Presti is the MVP (most valuable piece) for OKC. He is the best in the business, and the one that makes OKC better than the competition.

[bbms]

on luka's defense: last season i was actually impressed with his defensive effort. i thought kidd would try to hide him on defense but he was actually playing real defense, just unremarkable

[Johnny Firpo]

I removed the poll due to it clearly being a popularity contest. SGA hate is at an all-time high will not produce accurate polling.

Lmao, what a weak response. You shouldn't even create a thread, if you are not open to a discussion.

[Archx]

This SGA season is better than any season Luka had yes, Luka has been better for much longer, but seems like SGA is peaking higher, but only time will tell, but your premise is false and the opposite of reality.
Twice in his career Luka has been on elite defenses, the 1st time was with personnel that had no business being elite, teams don't need to hide Luka on defense, he showed he can be part of great defense and contribute to it.

I can't believe that out of all people, you're undervaluing his 23/24 season You know the health problems Mavs had up to New Year and what Luka had to do to keep them above the water. Then by pure luck Mavs made some good moves with Gaff and PJ and suddenly they had 2nd best defense, 2nd best record behind Boston. Injury vs LAC, pain injections, etc.. and still they managed to drag themselves to the finals. He literally had one of the best seasons of all time, even ESPN couldn't hide that. A lot of NBA fans even think he was robbed of MVP, yet he came in only 3rd.

Shai wasn't doing anything like that anytime in his career. He was missing games and even had horrible looking advance stats until OKC manged to surround him with great depth and great defenders. He never even had the "luxury" of being forced to carry his team in the same way. If your 3rd best options are either THJ or Dinwiddie, i bet Shai would still be on injury list with OKC rather tanking.

[syrus3]

This was definitely not the belief on here last year and I don’t think it’s truly the belief on here this year.

Harden Jr. and the Whistle Blowers won’t be viewed highly a year from now.

[zimpy27]

I think SGA is better than Luka. SGA was better in the regular season last season too.

SGA about to have an MVP too. Got to bump him above Luka.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Yes because most folks aren’t factoring defense at all which really tips the balance

[Mavrelous]

This SGA season is better than any season Luka had yes, Luka has been better for much longer, but seems like SGA is peaking higher, but only time will tell, but your premise is false and the opposite of reality.
Twice in his career Luka has been on elite defenses, the 1st time was with personnel that had no business being elite, teams don't need to hide Luka on defense, he showed he can be part of great defense and contribute to it.

I can't believe that out of all people, you're undervaluing his 23/24 season You know the health problems Mavs had up to New Year and what Luka had to do to keep them above the water. Then by pure luck Mavs made some good moves with Gaff and PJ and suddenly they had 2nd best defense, 2nd best record behind Boston. Injury vs LAC, pain injections, etc.. and still they managed to drag themselves to the finals. He literally had one of the best seasons of all time, even ESPN couldn't hide that. A lot of NBA fans even think he was robbed of MVP, yet he came in only 3rd.

Shai wasn't doing anything like that anytime in his career. He was missing games and even had horrible looking advance stats until OKC manged to surround him with great depth and great defenders. He never even had the "luxury" of being forced to carry his team in the same way. If your 3rd best options are either THJ or Dinwiddie, i bet Shai would still be on injury list with OKC rather tanking.

I'm not devaluing it, he was the best player in the league last year, but SGA is better this year.

[_NoMas]

Factoring in defence and the incoming MVP and FMVP for SGA… I still have Luka and don’t think it’s that close.

[chrisab123]

luka is an overnight franchise changer

he's a love at first sight talent. it seems like he's been around longer but both were drafted in 2018

luka is just f****g SMARTER and always will be

I agree he’s a franchise changer. He comes to the Lakers and already they’re adding another staff member to make sure Luka…the team, sorry, will have proper nutrition. Luka is Harden in his prime without the strip club addiction. Neither dude plays D, they score a lot of buckets, both were often out of shape. Just have Luka start growing a beard and we’re gucci.

[syrus3]

FTA being such a great defender is on the myth levels of Kobe being a great one. Dort, Wallace and Caruso spend so much time fouling people that suddenly FTA is elite on that end.

[BruttoNostra]

He can certainly draw fouls better than Luka, that’s for sure!

the opposite. sga drives like double the average of doncic's drives per game and the difference in fta is marginal

Per 2024-2025 data - https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&dir=D&sort=DRIVES :
RS:
SGA - 20.6
Luka - 16.1

Playoffs:
SGA - 19.5
Luka - 17.6

Not really "double" and Luka was 17th in Post Ups in the playoffs (1.8 vs 0.9 for SGA, 1.7 vs 1.1 in RS), which should result in no less fouls than a drive*.

*of course unless you are Jokic who has twice as many post ups as the next guy in the playoffs (10.4 Jokic vs 5.8 Giannis and 5.4 Sengun) and a comfortable lead in the RS (8.8 Jokic vs 5.3 Zubac), yet you can hack him all day and give a benefit of doubt to the defender.

[ThunderBolt]

Luka can play at a higher level. SGA is more consistent.... In a single match, I'd go with Luka. A generational talent, brilliant. He can play at the highest level in the world. In a good match, he can beat anyone. On a bad day, he'll make you lose. His performance ranges from a 5 to a 10. SGA is a powerhouse. Even on a bad day, he helps the team. Ranges from a 7 to a 9.5.

I’ve used the comparison in a 3 games series I could see Luka scoring 25, 35, 60 whereas Shai scores 40, 40, 40. Same number of total points but Luka’s performances will garner more attention. I still think Luka has a higher level of offense that Shai doesn’t reach but defense is also a thing too.

[Optms]

RealGM told me Luka is not top 5 anymore so obvious.

[Godymas]

I think people have a tendency to overrate Luka a little bit because of how quickly he became really good and how early his success has been.

People mistakenly view Luka as a LeBron or Jordan type player, he's not actually on that level. He's much closer to a KD or even James Harden trajectory than he is a LeBron or Jordan tier.

SGA reminds me more of like Kawhi or even Curry in some ways, just came out of nowhere and started wrecking the league. Now he's in his prime and the peak is obviously bigger than Luka so far, despite Luka's early success.

Imo if the Thunder win this year, we are going to see an OKC dynasty, it's easier to do it multiple times after you break the first wall imo, and the Thunder are built to be a dynasty when you look at the assets and ages of their team.

[Coach Carter]

Easily the dumbest take I've read all year

I don't agree with the take posted here, but this is incredibly rich coming from a man who said "sga is not a superstar".

so yeah, I've already seen a dumber take.

Nuh this one is a dumb take but I'll look out for your future comments to see if you can top it.

[ball_takes23]

OKC’s playoff offense has been very reliant on transition opportunities and has looked incredibly mediocre in the half court, if Minnesota doesn’t turn the ball over 20 times yesterday they would have struggled to reach 90 points. SGA is still not half of the offensive engine that Luka is. Imagine Luka with IHart and Chet as lob threats and Jdub/Wiggins/Caruso/Wallace on the wings and the best defense in the league backing him up, that team is not getting taken to 7 games by Denver or anybody else for that matter.