Is Luka turning into an elite defender?

[Handlez]

Luka has turned up a notch defensively in the playoffs. I'm not sure he'll ever make an all defensive team in the regular season because he paces himself, but this video breaks down Luka's brilliance defensively when he's actually trying to defend.

First we had playoff Murray.

Now we have playoff defense Luka.

https://youtu.be/MUnZ3cLJyxQ?si=e6LZpimqAdlO5qhQ

[tdotrep2]

hell no. but he's been solid when called upon

[Onlytimewilltel]

[SweaterBae]

No

[EmpireFalls]

An elite defender? What are we doing here. But that’s just par for the course for the yelling coach videos.

Luka like any All-NBA caliber offensive player clearly has the athleticism and footwork to at least be a serviceable defender. It’s the same discussion with Harden from 10 years ago. It’s all about effort and focus on that end.

Luka has gone from not being visibly attackable to being at least able to stay in front and move his feet, stay focused, and compete. He has raised himself up from “clear target” to “not as much of an target”

Elite though is a different tier completely. Elite is someone who wrecks the offense’s gameplan. Elite wing defenders do much more than this on a night to night basis. But to be honest, the real elite wing defenders don’t even have guys going at them like this bc the coach knows not to try it.

Luka will never be a DPOY candidate. But passable is all he needs to be on that end, and this is a good sign.

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

Going from non existent to mostly a decent enough effort is considered elite now, or turning into elite?

What’s the word for Gobert/AD/Wemby/Jrue etc then?

[LarsV8]

lol?

[MavsDirk41]

Lol!! Im a Mavs diehard fan and Luka is awesome but his defense will never be elite

[bledredwine]

We don't know what good defense looks like anymore. How sad.

[iLLmatic860]

he's Scottie Pippen with the Offense

[Wolfgang630]

Going from non existent to mostly a decent enough effort is considered elite now, or turning into elite?

What’s the word for Gobert/AD/Wemby/Jrue etc then?

Out of this world defenders

[NyKnicks1714]

How not to title a thread 101.

If you had titled the thread "Luka's defense in the playoffs so far has been great" and posted the same exact content otherwise, you wouldn't get these responses. No one's going to read past an outlandish thread title.

[Special_Puppy]

People really spitting crazy takes after 6 games

[KnixtapeH20]

Yall really think of an idea and make a. post about it regardless how ridiculous it is

[Gatorade Sax]

He’s increased his defensive intensity/focus since the playoffs have started. As he should.

He will be our favourite pudgy turnstile as soon as the regular season starts (barring the odd game here and there)..which is fine. As long as his team is sitting ok in the standings come April.

[srhcan]

Going from non existent to mostly a decent enough effort is considered elite now, or turning into elite?

What’s the word for Gobert/AD/Wemby/Jrue etc then?

Platinum Elite?

[Chuck Everett]

[KyRo23]

People watch 3 playoff games and their frontal cortex deteriorates into nothing. It's like some want to be the first to have a thought about something and have to tell everyone about it without actually contemplating it. I don't even know anymore I may be being too harsh

[Johnny Firpo]

He is obviously not elite, however, that's not what the discourse should be about. It should be about how he was never terrible to begin with, despite what the haters would want you to believe. Luka had terrible defensive possessions, but he was never actually a terrible defender. It's similar to Jokic, when they get beaten, you are thinking, wow, these guys cannot stay in front on anybody, but that's due to the fact that when they get weaken, it's sometimes isn't even close due to their foot speed. They are still very smart, in the right place most of the time, and they have excellent hands (both have tons of deflections and steals). And yeah, this is also partly about their skin color and being European.

[BruttoNostra]

Luka bandwagon driver here.
In the RS his defence is garbage 99% of the time, and its the only way for him to survive the season (except for when Dallas plays 4vs5 on D because Luka is whining to the referies).
In playoffs he always was decent, but this season it's even slightly above decent, even with some man-on-man highlights.
He still is the worst defender in the starting 5 (along with Kyrie) - but it isn't a knock on him, but a praise on Dallas composing a great defensive lineup.