Is Luka turning into an elite defender?

[queridiculo]

No, he is not.

It is nice to see though that he's realizing that only showing up on one side of the court isn't going to help his championship aspirations.

[Sofia]

Luka gets put on an island and targeted by the Clippers for the whole 4th quarter in the Game 4 win - “not fair, Luka is injured”

Luka stays in front of cripple Kawhi in Game 2 for a few possessions where he slid about 8 feet left to right and back to the left to meet Kawhi with a help defender - “Luka is now an amazing defender”

[dirkules_41]

He's been decent defensively all year and not gotten any credit for it. He's been good defensively in the first round now. I think generally that's the arena he's in: decent to good. He's not elite but also the whole talk about being a bad defender that people tried to stick on him was utter bs. Either way. Elite offense and decent to good defender is a dream scenario already for the Mavs.

[AdagioPace]

Luka gets put on an island and targeted by the Clippers for the whole 4th quarter in the Game 4 win - “not fair, Luka is injured”

Luka stays in front of cripple Kawhi in Game 2 for a few possessions where he slid about 8 feet left to right and back to the left to meet Kawhi with a help defender - “Luka is now an amazing defender”

this is the story of realgm: you're either the GOAT or washed up.

[Astaluego]

I am Luka's biggest fan but no, he is not elite...much less consistent on that side of the court...but he is very useful when he wants to, since he has some valuable defensive skills...he is a very good rebounder, he is excellent in steals and very strong...so he can defend successfully in the post, however on the perimeter...he is easily ignitable

[eyeatoma]

Lol

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

[TravisScott55]

Lmao what?

[Airmiess]

This is definitely one of those things were somebody floats a narrative out there and hope it gains traction. Nobody was ever contemplating this ever.

[FarBeyondDriven]

no. please stop. You people are embarrassing yourself. He's legit one of the worst defenders in the league.

[brackdan70]

Thanks for the chuckle.

[Laimbeer]

Luka like any All-NBA caliber offensive player clearly has the athleticism and footwork to at least be a serviceable defender.

Watch on YouTube

[CobraCommander]

He could be - but he just isn’t yet

He needs to commit to fitness and control his emotions -

He loses me everytime he takes time to have a conversation with the ref while the other team is going 5v 4

That’s not caring about your teammates etc - poor leadership etc

[Wingy]

Not a bad discussion (Luka's defense), but dang. Quite the sensationalized title as if you are a media outlet. They got you too.

[Godymas]

no, but he does have the physical tools to be above average on that end of the ball if he just puts in the effort

[KnixtapeH20]

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

[gottamakeit]

Defense can be broken into the following components Focus/Effort/Intelligence/Size/Athleticism

Look at those cone drills. Luka is slow a.f. His agility is slow. Footwork is bad. He's not able or unwilling to ever get low into the optimal defensive form. I think this is where Luka's rep as a defender largely get formed (whether fair or unfair, I'll let you decide). I think this caps his defensive ability off at above-average. Your never going to be able to overcome this particular deficiency to become an elite defender.

Luka's size & strength is excellent. He knows how to leverage his strengths to play defense. The awful coaching video gets into that.

His focus and commitment have been decent this year, especially so in the playoffs. He has lapses now and then but even great defenders have those. In the regular season, he has so many more lapses, driving me to pull my hair out (i'm bald).

The amount of energy he's willing to put into that end varies depending on the stakes. And he's been willing to work himself to exhaustion in the playoffs. Fair to roast him here when he doesn't put the effort.

He is intelligent. He plays within the team defense concepts and will communicate with others to get them setup in the right positions. But his team will often have others defenders cheating off their own responsibilities to back him up. The team will throw the occasional double to force the ball out of Luka's guy/responsibility. That comprises your team's defense as it puts them into rotations.

[gottamakeit]

A discussion of Luka is always going to be derailed by haters and clown takes. This thread has been 50/50

[dirkdiggler4177]

No, he is not great at it, but good enough. My problem with the hate he and Harden in his prime got was that fans thought they should work harder on defense, but that is just impossible during an 82-game season the way they are playing. They are IMO. two of the best playmakers of all time, and when you look at the stats you might say the best (scoring for themself plus assists, making plays)
The other problem with this is that they really get taken advantage of on the defensive end. They are guarding the weakest player, but he is not going to shoot, so it does not really matter.

By the way, the Clippers tried to seek out Luka with Harden, the problem was the Mavericks did the same. So Harden struggled to both play defense and be this great offensive player he was last game.

[HotRocks34]

He has improved significantly

[Speadge]

no. please stop. You people are embarrassing yourself. He's legit one of the worst defenders in the league.

He's not elite defender, but you just embarrassed yourself. Because that's arguably the worst post I've read today.
How about watching a few games since you clearly haven't watched the Mavs this year?