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

[Ice Man]

Kinda weird timing, given that the guy went 10-27 last night. Luka can only dream of being on a team where he can go 10-27 and yet his team wins in a runaway.

[Ambrose]

Luka is 26yo, we have to stop giving him benefit of a doubt. Yeah, he can turn the page next season, but SGA is this year doing things in real world we have constantly argued that Luka is theoretically capable of. It's super close and I can imagine Luka being superior at the end of the day out of this comparison, but for now it's easily SGA.

Like what?

[dantas]

Professionalism always beats talent on a certain level.

SGA has a lot of natural talent, but Luka has more. Luka has more vision, a natural instinct for rebounding and other things that come easily to him.

But Luka is always overweight. Sam Amick of The Athletic wrote that Mavericks had concerns about Doncic's professionalism, citing weight issues and ‘social habits’ such as beer and hookah consumption.

Then another very talented player, but less so than Luka, could overtake him in his career.

[guldakot]

You straight swap Luka with SGA team for team and OKC sweeps the playoffs and the Lakers get swept by the wolves instead of taking a game.

SGA is an amazing individual talent, he's not an offensive engine, hes a guy who can get buckets.
Proof enough is him having a garbage game yesterday and his team still getting a blowout in the playoffs.
Its the same as comparing a player like Lebron (system) to Durant.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

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

I'm not even sure that's true. Luka is pretty skilled at drawing fouls himself.

It’s part of his bag, ya. But he doesn’t do it egregiously and it’s not the main catalyst for his game, it’s in rhythm with his team’s offense, like other all time greats. When people think of Luka, they don’t think “Oh yeah, that free throw merchant?”. He also gets a much worse whistle, in part due to his complaining, but he also doesn’t flop as much as other stars.

All these players are fast and strong.

If you don't exaggerate a foul, it won't be a called, hence why all stars embellish because it's a skill and it benefits them.

And like a lot of people say, a lot of standard fouls, by the rules, do not get called during the course of a game.

Can't hate SGA and not hate any other star player. I'm 100% sure they have done the same.

[Mr. Perfect]

Canadian here, and I think Luka is a significantly better player.

Shai is a try-hard. Luka is a generational talent, his mind and skills for the game is just on a different level. When his head and body is right with some decent fitting pieces around him, there's very few players I've seen in the history of the league that can elevate his team like Luka.

Shai is an efficient volume scorer on a stacked stacked defensive team, which makes his individual defense look better than it is. He had a great series vs the Mavs last year, he even outplayed a hobbled Luka in many aspects. But after watching SGA's play this year in the playoffs, I know he's a front runner, he's not as good as his regular season this year would suggest. The Thunder are winning in spite of him, he played with pretty low BBIQ against the Nuggets, when the games really counted. If Lu Dortz didn't turn into Game 6 Klay in the 4th quarter of game 5, they'd be in Cancun right now.

The Thunder have a ridiculously easy path this year to a championship, their toughest battle was the hobbled and undermanned Nuggets. They don't even have to worry about the Celtics in the finals. That pisses me off as a Luka fan, because the Mavs were the better post-season team last year and had to go through a much tougher path before dealing with the juggernaut Celtics in the finals. So now if Shai and OKC win it all this year, I'm going to have to hear casuals and Luka haters always try to big up Shai over Luka.

[Archx]

You straight swap Luka with SGA team for team and OKC sweeps the playoffs and the Lakers get swept by the wolves instead of taking a game.

SGA is an amazing individual talent, he's not an offensive engine, hes a guy who can get buckets.
Proof enough is him having a garbage game yesterday and his team still getting a blowout in the playoffs.
Its the same as comparing a player like Lebron (system) to Durant.

If SGA had stomach flu like Luka had in game 3, OKC still wins. This is basically what this 1st game showed us. Lakers had no center, 2 legit starters with AR more or less being a no show and no bench. Still a lot of those games were close. Imagine being on a team where you can play like **** and still comfortably win.

[CharityStripe34]

I'm in the minority that thinks the NBA is more interesting when you have major stars with hilarious flaws. It'd be even cooler if Luka drank a beer at halftime during a game.

[Primedeion]

Kinda weird timing, given that the guy went 10-27 last night. Luka can only dream of being on a team where he can go 10-27 and yet his team wins in a runaway.

Hilarious post. Dude was an inefficient chucker throughout the 24 Postseason and his team still made the Finals.

[Dadouv47]

Luka is more fun to watch and more "skilled" but I would rather have Shai on my team.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Who cares? They're both awesome.

[Joao Saraiva]

I believe overall Luka is the best offensive player. Maybe we just witnessed a bit of a down year from him, that's my guess. However Idk what will follow in their careers, but I'd say so far Luka was the best of the two.

About the OP... Luka is not impossible to hide on defense. He is big, and that alone will be enough for him to not be exploited.

Actually the one LA couldn't hide against Minnesota was Reeves.

Let's wait a couple more years to see where Luka is at. This was a coming of an injury season and with a bananas team change in the middle, probably is not the best way to evaluate what he's worth.

[Stan]

I do not believe SGA in Luka's place leads the Mavs to the WCF & Finals like Luka did.

[LFGK]

better at what? because I promise you it isn't the game is basketball

[stuporman]

It's so funny the poll was removed because it wasn't going the way they wanted...

STOP THE STEAL!!!

[SK21209]

It’s a fair debate. I’d rather have Luka, but I fully understand preferring SGA. Hopefully we can improve the roster enough to get a serious playoff series against OKC in the next few years.

[Yuri36]

If Luka was taking his conditioning as seriously as SGA, he would be better than Jordan

Fixed it for you

[Yuri36]

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.

No they aren't and a big part of it is also how clutch and killer he's been in very high pressured situations from his rookie year (the incredible buzzer beater against the Blazers, the one against a stacked Clippers team in the Bubble and being injured).

In fact, he's already showed a clutchness and a not afraid attitude to take the last shot that even a guy like LeBron hasn't showed that much and most certainly not by Luka's current age.

[Effigy]

Let's admit the obvious, SGA has a better team than Luka. And even with that being the case, Luka beat him to the Finals.

[sfernald]

It’s part of his bag, ya. But he doesn’t do it egregiously and it’s not the main catalyst for his game, it’s in rhythm with his team’s offense, like other all time greats. When people think of Luka, they don’t think “Oh yeah, that free throw merchant?”

Anyone who thinks SGA doesn't have a deep "bag" and that drawings fouls is "the main catalyst of his game" should not be taken seriously on anything NBA basketball related.

For the record- Luka and SGA have comparable free throw rates despite SGA driving a lot more, and also comparable FGM per game, which refutes this implication that all his points come from the free throw line. I'm not convinced.

Am I taking crazy pills? Did you see some of his shot selection tonight trying to draw fouls with no whistles? Or him tripping over himself to get a whistle? He’s done that multiple times in the DEN series as well. What other star does that? Yeah he’s crafty and gets to his spots midrange, that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a serial foul baiter.

He learned that from Jokic who did that the entire previous series lol.