Luka Doncic

[Apollo64]

Do you think Popovich would choose one of those super athletes playing with high school kids or Doncic right now? Please be honest. I am pretty sure he would choose Luka. And he is the most successful active coach.

Buford/Pop would not hesitate to take Markelle Fultz/Lonzo Ball/Josh Jackson/Dennis Smith Jr and maybe Isaac/Tatum over Doncic. Same probably could be said for Michael Porter Jr, Mo Bamba and DeAndre Ayton.

Doncic would be Pop's wet dream, he is exactly what Spurs basketball is all about. He is also 2+ years younger than a lot of the above players which is something that needs be to mentioned and also looks *way* more ready to play NBA basketball.

I'm still waiting to see his shiftiness and pull-up btw.

Why would he take inefficient pull-up jumpers when he doesn't have to? He's playing to win, not to showcase himself.

I see basketball for a lot of years and it is simple i never see nothing equal in Europe with just 17 years. He is probably one of the top 5 players in Europe, I don't know where his limit is.

Pretty much this.

[reanimator]

Doncic would be Pop's wet dream, he is exactly what Spurs basketball is all about. He is also 2+ years younger than a lot of the above players which is something that needs be to mentioned and also looks *way* more ready to play NBA basketball.

Why would he take inefficient pull-up jumpers when he doesn't have to? He's playing to win, not to showcase himself.

1. Age does not matter when said players have more physical development to maximize than Doncic
2. Fultz, Ball, Josh Jackson are also "exactly what Spurs basketball is all about"....he isn't the only prospect with great feel or versatility
3. Doncic will have to showcase a pull-up at the NBA level. He isn't getting to the rim consistently with slow feet and no shift like he is at the Euro level.

[Sports Geek]

Doncic would be Pop's wet dream, he is exactly what Spurs basketball is all about. He is also 2+ years younger than a lot of the above players which is something that needs be to mentioned and also looks *way* more ready to play NBA basketball.

Why would he take inefficient pull-up jumpers when he doesn't have to? He's playing to win, not to showcase himself.

1. Age does not matter when said players have more physical development to maximize than Doncic
2. Fultz, Ball, Josh Jackson are also "exactly what Spurs basketball is all about"....he isn't the only prospect with great feel or versatility
3. Doncic will have to showcase a pull-up at the NBA level. He isn't getting to the rim consistently with slow feet and no shift like he is at the Euro level.

Do you know why we don't understand each other? Americans would mostly choose Howard over Pau, in fact they did, they thought he was the better player. Europeans wouldn't. In the end the one who succeeded was Pau, while Howard is undeniably a beast but unable to win a single title because of his lack of coordination, IQ and composure. Different ways to see this game. I understand that and respect it. I just think you don't understand that none of these Euro fans ever watched something like this. I am 37 and I have been playing basketball and of course watching it since the age of 3. I don't remember an underage dominating veteran stars. Not just competing, dominating. And these stars. Euroleague is not like ancient European competitions. The gap between Europe and the NBA is closer each day. Plus there are 3 Fultz or Balls per year getting out the NCAA. Never ever a player even close to Doncic level, arose at such a young age. That's why we are so excited. We are not crazy or chauvinist, he is just doing something all of us thought it was impossible. Yeah, impossible. No way a teenager could play meaningful minutes in Real Madrid. No way he could be the best player in the team and dominate other stars. No way he could have a couple MVP awards.

[reanimator]

Do you know why we don't understand each other? Americans would mostly choose Howard over Pau, in fact they did, they thought he was the better player. Europeans wouldn't. In the end the one who succeeded was Pau, while Howard is undeniably a beast but unable to win a single title because of his lack of coordination, IQ and composure.

The one with a prime Kobe Bryant succeeded.

The gap between Europe and the NBA is closer each day.

Europe is closer to the cream of Power 5 D1 basketball than it is the NBA. The only difference is Euros are stronger.

Plus there are 3 Fultz or Balls per year getting out the NCAA. Never ever a player even close to Doncic level, arose at such a young age.

I don't even know how to respond to this absurdity.

[CptCrunch]

Dean has a new article on Doncic...

https://deanondraft.com/2017/02/03/is-luka-doncic-the-best-prospect-ever/

I guess I need to pay attention to this kid. His teammates are all NBA rotation to end of bench level players.

[Sports Geek]

The one with a prime Kobe Bryant succeeded.

The same Kobe Bryant that failed year after year until Pau got to the Lakers. BTW Howard was there with a prime Kobe too. The problem was him and D'Antoni ruining the show and taking Pau out of the paint, and make him wait on a corner to shoot 3s.

Europe is closer to the cream of Power 5 D1 basketball than it is the NBA. The only difference is Euros are stronger.

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate. Every year AT LEAST ONE European team beats an NBA once while both are on the preseason. This has been like this since 2010. It was fun to watch Westbrook crying in the press conference after Real Madrid's game. As fun as it was watching the USA not staying to honor Spain while they received the gold medal in the World Championships embarrasing your whole country, just because they were crying babies and lost in the semifinals. And it was fun to listen to Carmelo Anthony saying how he threw his bronze medal into a lake in a documentary.

Man, I have seen a Kyle Singler being the MVP in the Final Four and becoming a poor role player in Real Madrid. The level of competition in the NCAA is a joke. Even in the Final 4.

Do you realize your Dream Teams were losing year after year until Coach K. became the man on the wheel? Even with him, they lost being just third in Japan. Do you realize in the 2004 Olympics your Dream Team lost 3 games to finish third? Yeah, with Duncan, LeBron, Iverson, Wade, Stoudemire, Marion, Carmelo, Marbury,...

How can you be so blind and chauvinist? Even when your superstars were beaten year after year in a close past and struggled a lot to beat Spain in the closest past, you still think top NCAA teams are close to top Euroleague teams.

You remind me of another American that was teaching lessons about basketball in another forum then asked: "why are the Gasol brothers not playing for the USA?" Because they are Spaniards, idiot. There are more countries out there, not just the USA. True fact, I swear.

I don't even know how to respond to this absurdity.

I tried to be polite and reconduct this conversation on a classy way. I failed. I am not going to try it anymore. You are a proven idiot. As idiotic as any of those comments you made. I didn't want to believe people could be this blind and deny reality.

Go and watch the Superbowl. And don't forget to watch commercials too, they are as competitive as Euroleague.

PS: Lonzo Ball is just another Carter-Williams.

[Sports Geek]

Dean has a new article on Doncic...

https://deanondraft.com/2017/02/03/is-luka-doncic-the-best-prospect-ever/

I guess I need to pay attention to this kid. His teammates are all NBA rotation to end of bench level players.

Thanks for sharing. Some users will say it is hype from Europe, or because the writer fell in love with Doncic's look tough.

Seriously, thanks for sharing. Very interesting article.

[reanimator]

Kobe Bryant was in his prime with Dwight Howard

Referencing a preseason game

Lonzo Ball is MCW

Some blogger claiming Doncic is a better prospect than Lebron

[SportsGuy8]

Europe is closer to the cream of Power 5 D1 basketball than it is the NBA. The only difference is Euros are stronger.

This isn't even remotely close to the truth. It's incredibly hard for me to even watch NCAA because of the sheer amount of mistakes everyone makes. Even many of the top teams look like an unorganized mess lacking any real strategy and discipline. Top Euroleague teams would run circles around them, even the bottom ones would, actually, especially now that they got rid of the bad teams.

Even simply going by the talent it's not close, as Euroleague teams are filled with former NCAA stars, foreigner slots are basically small NCAA-All-Star teams, just that those same players are now in their prime, older and stronger.

It's not like NCAA teams are filled with lottery talent, there's usually only 1 per team, sometimes another 1 or 2. Kentucky's 2012 team is regarded as one of the best and most stacked in history, but even they only had 1 super talent, 2 another good ones (MKG & Terrence Jones), then a bunch of SCRUBS, no depth at all.

The talent being so spread out through so many NCAA teams is, besides age and lack of any advanced strategy and teamwork, the main reason why they cannot come close to top Euroleague teams. Euroleague teams are, on the other hand, capable of at least getting close to NBA teams and occasionally even beating them.

P.s.: And we're having a NCAA vs. Euroleague debate yet again ...

[Marcus]

The one with a prime Kobe Bryant succeeded.

The same Kobe Bryant that failed year after year until Pau got to the Lakers. BTW Howard was there with a prime Kobe too. The problem was him and D'Antoni ruining the show and taking Pau out of the paint, and make him wait on a corner to shoot 3s.

Europe is closer to the cream of Power 5 D1 basketball than it is the NBA. The only difference is Euros are stronger.

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate. Every year AT LEAST ONE European team beats an NBA one while both are on the preseason. This has been like this since 2010. It was fun to watch Westbrook crying in the press conference after Real Madrid's game. As fun as it was watching the USA not staying to honor Spain while they received the gold medal in the World Championships embarrasing your whole country, just because they were crying babies and lost in the semifinals. And it was fun to listen to Carmelo Anthony saying how he threw his bronze medal into a lake in a documentary.

Man, I have seen a Kyle Singler being the MVP in the Final Four and becoming a poor role player in Real Madrid. The level of competition in the NCAA is a joke. Even in the Final 4.

Do you realize your Dream Teams were losing year after year until Coach K. became the man on the wheel? Even with him, they lost being just third in Japan. Do you realize in the 2004 Olympics your Dream Team lost 3 games to finish third? Yeah, with Duncan, LeBron, Iverson, Wade, Stoudemire, Marion, Carmelo, Marbury,...

How can you be so blind and chauvinist? Even when your superstars were beaten year after year in a close past and struggled a lot to beat Spain in the closest past, you still think top NCAA teams are close to top Euroleague teams.

You remind me of another American that was teaching lessons about basketball in another forum then asked: "why are the Gasol brothers not playing for the USA?" Because they are Spaniards, idiot. There are more countries out there, not just the USA. True fact, I swear.

I don't even know how to respond to this absurdity.

I tried to be polite and reconduct this conversation on a classy way. I failed. I am not going to try it anymore. You are a proven idiot. As idiotic as any of those comments you made. I didn't want to believe people could be this blind and deny reality.

Go and watch the Superbowl. And don't forget to watch commercials too, they are as competitive as Euroleague.

PS: Lonzo Ball is just another Carter-Williams.

Disagree all you want. But the idiot comment isn't necessary.

[SportsGuy8]

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate.

To be completely fair, didn't OKC rest Westbrook in the 2nd half? Thunder was up substantially at half-time, then Westbrook hit the bench and Real started turning things around ... Others did play, though, so they still managed that turnaround vs. actual NBA starting caliber players. But there aren't many teams out there who are as dependent on 1 single player as OKC is this year ...

I'm just a giant nit-picker.

[reanimator]

I'm just going to exit this thread lol. Can't wait til the "Doncic is the next Magic Johnson" articles....oh wait someone already made a Bird comp. Its only going to get worse so yall have fun and I'll revisit next year.

[Dat2U]

I hate to stereotype but he seems like a bigger Ricky Rubio with a better outside shot. That might be a solid player but I was not impressed with his physical tools. I was impressed with his skill set & court vision but I do not see him being an elite scorer at the NBA level due to physical limitations and limited ability to create shots for himself off the bounce.

[SportsGuy8]

The thing is, he doesn't need to become an elite scorer in order to be an elite PLAYER, because right now he's showing that he can basically be great at everything, including rebounding. Even if for some reason his scoring doesn't translate to the NBA, he's still going to have all the other things. And unlike Rubio, he's at the very least still going to have his shooting, meaning teams won't be able to leave him alone, which is huge, as we can unfortunately see with Rubio.

Btw., a bigger Ricky Rubio with a (much) better outside shot is a HOF type of player, basically a better Jason Kidd. Rubio is elite at everything except for scoring and shooting. Forget scoring, if only he had a 40% 3pt shot (and a small amount of post-up game to create even better passing opportunities in half-court sets) that's already a HOF type of player.

[SlowPaced]

I hate to stereotype but he seems like a bigger Ricky Rubio with a better outside shot. That might be a solid player but I was not impressed with his physical tools. I was impressed with his skill set & court vision but I do not see him being an elite scorer at the NBA level due to physical limitations and limited ability to create shots for himself off the bounce.

You have to be very, very low on Rubio to say Doncic seems like a bigger Rubio with a better outside shot and follow that up with "that might be a solid player". That'd be a GREAT player, a perennial All-Star type. You don't need to be an elite scorer to be great.

Besides, Doncic is clearly better at fighting through contact compared to Rubio. I mean the dude is 17 and can get his at Euroleague level.

I see him as a Gordon Hayward with more emphasis on distribution than scoring right now.

[Sports Geek]

The one with a prime Kobe Bryant succeeded.

The same Kobe Bryant that failed year after year until Pau got to the Lakers. BTW Howard was there with a prime Kobe too. The problem was him and D'Antoni ruining the show and taking Pau out of the paint, and make him wait on a corner to shoot 3s.

Europe is closer to the cream of Power 5 D1 basketball than it is the NBA. The only difference is Euros are stronger.

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate. Every year AT LEAST ONE European team beats an NBA one while both are on the preseason. This has been like this since 2010. It was fun to watch Westbrook crying in the press conference after Real Madrid's game. As fun as it was watching the USA not staying to honor Spain while they received the gold medal in the World Championships embarrasing your whole country, just because they were crying babies and lost in the semifinals. And it was fun to listen to Carmelo Anthony saying how he threw his bronze medal into a lake in a documentary.

Man, I have seen a Kyle Singler being the MVP in the Final Four and becoming a poor role player in Real Madrid. The level of competition in the NCAA is a joke. Even in the Final 4.

Do you realize your Dream Teams were losing year after year until Coach K. became the man on the wheel? Even with him, they lost being just third in Japan. Do you realize in the 2004 Olympics your Dream Team lost 3 games to finish third? Yeah, with Duncan, LeBron, Iverson, Wade, Stoudemire, Marion, Carmelo, Marbury,...

How can you be so blind and chauvinist? Even when your superstars were beaten year after year in a close past and struggled a lot to beat Spain in the closest past, you still think top NCAA teams are close to top Euroleague teams.

You remind me of another American that was teaching lessons about basketball in another forum then asked: "why are the Gasol brothers not playing for the USA?" Because they are Spaniards, idiot. There are more countries out there, not just the USA. True fact, I swear.

I don't even know how to respond to this absurdity.

I tried to be polite and reconduct this conversation on a classy way. I failed. I am not going to try it anymore. You are a proven idiot. As idiotic as any of those comments you made. I didn't want to believe people could be this blind and deny reality.

Go and watch the Superbowl. And don't forget to watch commercials too, they are as competitive as Euroleague.

PS: Lonzo Ball is just another Carter-Williams.

Disagree all you want. But the idiot comment isn't necessary.

Not the absurdity one either. It is disrespectful. He had my respect and lost it when he said that.

[Sports Geek]

Kobe Bryant was in his prime with Dwight Howard

Referencing a preseason game

Lonzo Ball is MCW

Some blogger claiming Doncic is a better prospect than Lebron

My trol alarm have just exploded

I'm just going to exit this thread lol. Can't wait til the "Doncic is the next Magic Johnson" articles....oh wait someone already made a Bird comp. Its only going to get worse so yall have fun and I'll revisit next year.

Thanks for the visit, have a nice day.

[UcanUwill]

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate.

To be completely fair, didn't OKC rest Westbrook in the 2nd half? Thunder was up substantially at half-time, then Westbrook hit the bench and Real started turning things around ... Others did play, though, so they still managed that turnaround vs. actual NBA starting caliber players. But there aren't many teams out there who are as dependent on 1 single player as OKC is this year ...

I'm just a giant nit-picker.

Neither NBA nor Euro teams take that exhibition games that seriously. I watch those games, and NBA teams usually play their third stringers by the time 4th. quarter starts. Euroleague teams tries a little bit more, but its not like they are trying for cahmpionship there.
Euroleague teams are much better than division one teams, its not even close. Look at Real Madrid's roster, every single player would be or was, in case of many Amrericans on the team, a college star.

[Sports Geek]

Real Madrid 142 - Oklahoma City Thunders 137. Checkmate.

To be completely fair, didn't OKC rest Westbrook in the 2nd half? Thunder was up substantially at half-time, then Westbrook hit the bench and Real started turning things around ... Others did play, though, so they still managed that turnaround vs. actual NBA starting caliber players. But there aren't many teams out there who are as dependent on 1 single player as OKC is this year ...

I'm just a giant nit-picker.

No, you are not a nit-picker, you are completely right. I had serious doubts about OKC making it to the play-offs, but Westbrook is working the miracle. And yeah, OKC rested Westbrook in the second half, but Oladipo played an awesome game. And they could have rested the whole roster and play with the OKC Blues if they had played against an NCAA top team.

Let me point something out... They played under NBA rules. That means things like allowing the NBA first step and above all, it doesn't allow Real Madrid to play their team defense. Defensive 3 seconds rule changes a lot of things and automatisms.

But as I said, you are right. I am not saying that the Euroleague is better than the NBA. That makes no sense. I like European style more, but that's a whole different thing. But man, I can't even imagine Michigan State's Fab Five competing with any NBA team or even Euroleague one. That's chauvinism and understimating everything that comes from outside of the NBA.

I am not saying that Doncic is going to be a big superstar either. I have seen enough basketball to understand how different NBA and FIBA basketball are, how much a good/bad coach can help you or destroy a promising career, that an injury in the wrong moment can end up a player development,... I have been pretty cautious in my comments, then some users came to tell us how crazy we are and how sick this hype is, basing their opinion in just some hightlight videos, the same way I do with that Lonzo Ball guy. Sorry, I can't stand that playground play, so I am unable to watch full NCAA games. I try it with the Final 4 every year and I make it, but the level is too low for me to go further and watch regular season or high school games.

[saphan]

Latest info about his height.
In todays article in Marca http://www.marca.com/baloncesto/acb/2017/02/05/5896e5df46163fba398b4573.html, they say he is 204 cm (thats 6'7'' right?)