Luka Dončić Discussion - Year 2

[XTraderXL]

Read on Twitter

This is literally the ONLY source mentioning Luka starts as PF. All other articles originate from there. I doubt Luka plays PF, he might defend PF, depending on the opponent. From all the reports from the training camp, it seems like Luka is having ball a lot.

It seems to me that RC figures out that Doncic can't guard any backcourt position. He's to hide him. Not a good news moving forward. Quite the contrary to the report that Doncic is the best player on the Mavs. I think that is really why the Mavs ranking slip to bottom 3 in the West. ESPN also significantly lowers DJ's ranking amount players. If this piece of news means significant downgrade of Dirk and DJ while Doncic is overrated. I can understand now why there's always a bold prediction from Dallas newspaper the Mavs is not going to make the playoff. I understand why the Mavs always says the fans will regret not buying tickets. And I understand why there's report that somebody wants to buy the Mavs. The Mavs is not even watchable very soon, it seems. I am ready to stop watching the Mavs at some point coming season. Hopefully, Smith can give something for fans to watch with.

By the way, who's this Wesley in the lineup? Next year pick?

Is this a troll post? Can't tell. I hope so, cause if you can't get excited after the last two draft picks, given what the Mavs have had regarding young talent for pretty much over a decade, then you shouldn't wait, just stop watching right now.

I think everyone is excited to see how this will look like. I believe everyone here is hoping for Luka and the Mavs to have a good season but you have to admit there are quite a few red flags. I for one am disappointed in Lukas physical progress, I said months ago that I will project his rookie season after the summer, when I see how his body looks like. And anyone who is at least a bit objective can tell that he doesnt look very good. For me his physical fitness will be the difference between a good and average/below average rookie campaign. Maybe I am wrong but we will just have to wait and see.

[XTraderXL]

Is anyone subscribed to 247sports.com?
Looks like an interesting article about Lukas conditioning programme:
https://247sports.com/nba/mavericks/Article/Dallas-Mavs-open-camp-Day-1-For-DeAndre-Jordan-Luka-Doncic-2-types-of-conditioning-122400517/

[J_T]

Is anyone subscribed to 247sports.com?
Looks like an interesting article about Lukas conditioning programme:
https://247sports.com/nba/mavericks/Article/Dallas-Mavs-open-camp-Day-1-For-DeAndre-Jordan-Luka-Doncic-2-types-of-conditioning-122400517/

Or we could just all try to finish the first sentence and see who gets closest to the real one.

For Luka Doncic, the "conditioning'' that needs to be done as the Dallas Mavericks launch into training camp this weekend is about him,...

[Pinkyring]

This article is garbage... seems like the quote from Dirk to come off the bench and Banres old quote that he prefers the SF position, got merged into a story that Luka will play PF.

No actual quotes out of Dallas that Luka will actually play the PF position, nothing but low effort guess work.

Read on Twitter

This is literally the ONLY source mentioning Luka starts as PF. All other articles originate from there. I doubt Luka plays PF, he might defend PF, depending on the opponent. From all the reports from the training camp, it seems like Luka is having ball a lot.

This doesn't come from McMahon it comes from Carlisle, he said at the media day that luka would start at 4, so its not something someone just made up.

[Bob8]

Doncic was playing PF in D. many times in Real too. So nothing new there.

[J_T]

This article is garbage... seems like the quote from Dirk to come off the bench and Banres old quote that he prefers the SF position, got merged into a story that Luka will play PF.

No actual quotes out of Dallas that Luka will actually play the PF position, nothing but low effort guess work.

Read on Twitter

This is literally the ONLY source mentioning Luka starts as PF. All other articles originate from there. I doubt Luka plays PF, he might defend PF, depending on the opponent. From all the reports from the training camp, it seems like Luka is having ball a lot.

This doesn't come from McMahon it comes from Carlisle, he said at the media day that luka would start at 4, so its not something someone just made up.

I know and I added that later:

Carlisle did in fact say Doncic would play PF:

"In terms of positions, we talked a lot before the end of the year that Barnes needed to move back to the three. So if you look at it that way, Doncic is going to be the four-man."

It seems that he really wants to move Barnes to 3.

All the articles did quote that ESPN tweet though, so I wanted to see what exactly was his source.

I still don't think Doncic will play a standard PF role in offense. He is not doing this in training camp so I don't see Carlisle putting him there when the season starts.

[Lord Cuban]

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[XTraderXL]

Read on Twitter

What everyone is basically saying is that he is slow and lacks athleticism but is smart and big for the position. We have known all this for a long time. What else is new?
And he will not be playing against a Devin Harris most of the time so...

[batigol18]

Read on Twitter

What everyone is basically saying is that he is slow and lacks athleticism but is smart and big for the position. We have known all this for a long time. What else is new?
And he will not be playing against a Devin Harris most of the time so...

What everybody saying is that he is in much better phisical shape than everybody thought based on what they read about him and before they saw him in person...

But for sure he has a lot of space for improvement...

[Dundalis]

It seems to me that RC figures out that Doncic can't guard any backcourt position. He's to hide him. Not a good news moving forward. Quite the contrary to the report that Doncic is the best player on the Mavs. I think that is really why the Mavs ranking slip to bottom 3 in the West. ESPN also significantly lowers DJ's ranking amount players. If this piece of news means significant downgrade of Dirk and DJ while Doncic is overrated. I can understand now why there's always a bold prediction from Dallas newspaper the Mavs is not going to make the playoff. I understand why the Mavs always says the fans will regret not buying tickets. And I understand why there's report that somebody wants to buy the Mavs. The Mavs is not even watchable very soon, it seems. I am ready to stop watching the Mavs at some point coming season. Hopefully, Smith can give something for fans to watch with.

By the way, who's this Wesley in the lineup? Next year pick?

Is this a troll post? Can't tell. I hope so, cause if you can't get excited after the last two draft picks, given what the Mavs have had regarding young talent for pretty much over a decade, then you shouldn't wait, just stop watching right now.

I think everyone is excited to see how this will look like. I believe everyone here is hoping for Luka and the Mavs to have a good season but you have to admit there are quite a few red flags. I for one am disappointed in Lukas physical progress, I said months ago that I will project his rookie season after the summer, when I see how his body looks like. And anyone who is at least a bit objective can tell that he doesnt look very good. For me his physical fitness will be the difference between a good and average/below average rookie campaign. Maybe I am wrong but we will just have to wait and see.

I don't know what your point is. If you want a situation with two young players without any red flags whatsoever, you'll be waiting a long time.

Determining a players physical fitness based purely on a players body shape is odd. Maybe you can determine a players athleticism more accurately based off that, but we are all aware of his athletic capabilities. A player's body shape will change throughout the year. He's training with the Mavs fitness staff just like everyone else. I really couldn't care less whether he's in perfect physical shape in his rookie year. A lot of players aren't. I just care whether he can play basketball.

[XTraderXL]

Is this a troll post? Can't tell. I hope so, cause if you can't get excited after the last two draft picks, given what the Mavs have had regarding young talent for pretty much over a decade, then you shouldn't wait, just stop watching right now.

I think everyone is excited to see how this will look like. I believe everyone here is hoping for Luka and the Mavs to have a good season but you have to admit there are quite a few red flags. I for one am disappointed in Lukas physical progress, I said months ago that I will project his rookie season after the summer, when I see how his body looks like. And anyone who is at least a bit objective can tell that he doesnt look very good. For me his physical fitness will be the difference between a good and average/below average rookie campaign. Maybe I am wrong but we will just have to wait and see.

I don't know what your point is. If you want a situation with two young players without any red flags whatsoever, you'll be waiting a long time.

Determining a players physical fitness based purely on a players body shape is odd. Maybe you can determine a players athleticism more accurately based off that, but we are all aware of his athletic capabilities. A player's body shape will change throughout the year. He's training with the Mavs fitness staff just like everyone else. I really couldn't care less whether he's in perfect physical shape in his rookie year. A lot of players aren't. I just care whether he can play basketball.

So his shape doesnt determine how well he is able to play basketball to a large extent?

I am not saying that his body has to look perfect but as it looks now, he doesnt seem to be in good shape. He can play basketball for sure, nobody is denying that. The question is if he is going to be able to play 25-30 min at a high level. Last season he was barely able to finish games where he played over 22-23 min. And you can determine physical fitness easily just by looking at a person. He clearly has too much fat on his body which means his cardio cant be on a high level. He looked very similar at the end of last season and we all know how he looked on the court. Now take a look at videos or photos from a year ago and you will see how much skinnier he was and you could even see a muscle pop out from time to time The last photos I sew of him looked like he never lifted a weight in his life.

And by red flags I meant things that will be very hard to improve to the level which is expected, even over a long period of time. Of course there will be mistakes and bad decisions in rookie season but thats not my worry. My worry is that his body just wont allow him to reach the level we expect/want over the period of his career. I was just expecting him to be further along phisically at this point.

[J_T]

https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2018/9/26/17897054/no-one-can-agree-on-how-tall-dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-is-right-now

I suggest a subforum on the main board for all Luka Doncic's height discussions. We have some "experts" around here as well, they could be mods.

[UcanUwill]

Read on Twitter

This is literally the ONLY source mentioning Luka starts as PF. All other articles originate from there. I doubt Luka plays PF, he might defend PF, depending on the opponent. From all the reports from the training camp, it seems like Luka is having ball a lot.

This doesn't come from McMahon it comes from Carlisle, he said at the media day that luka would start at 4, so its not something someone just made up.

I know and I added that later:

Carlisle did in fact say Doncic would play PF:

"In terms of positions, we talked a lot before the end of the year that Barnes needed to move back to the three. So if you look at it that way, Doncic is going to be the four-man."

It seems that he really wants to move Barnes to 3.

All the articles did quote that ESPN tweet though, so I wanted to see what exactly was his source.

I still don't think Doncic will play a standard PF role in offense. He is not doing this in training camp so I don't see Carlisle putting him there when the season starts.

I am not liking this honestly. I hope he only plays 4 on defense, and is a playmaker guard on offense. I have seen quite a few Euroleague stars who crashed and burned in the NBA, because they were put in terrible situations. Now the difference is that Doncic is just a teenanger far from his peak, but I dont want him relegated to Dario Saric role or something like that.

[Mirotic12]

I am not liking this honestly. I hope he only plays 4 on defense, and is a playmaker guard on offense. I have seen quite a few Euroleague stars who crashed and burned in the NBA, because they were put in terrible situations. Now the difference is that Doncic is just a teenanger far from his peak, but I dont want him relegated to Dario Saric role or something like that.

Rick Adelman / Drazen Petrovic ---> Adelman decided all Petrovic could do was stand in the corner....and according to several books, because of that he was a week from leaving the NBA before he was traded to the Nets...

Jeff Van Gundy / Vassilis Spanoulis ---> Van Gundy decided the same, that Spanoulis should simply stand in the corner on offense...Spanoulis voided the last 2 years of his deal and quit the NBA over it...

Even to a lesser extent, playing Jan Vesely and Nando de Colo out of their natural position / role by NBA coaches seemed to doom them. Vesely is best used around the basket, and Wizards tried to make him a face up stretch 3/4 and even said he should be able to shoot 3s...De Colo is a 2/3, and both Raptors and Spurs tried to make him a point guard for some bizarre reason...

Even in the cases of guys like Jasikevicius and Navarro, where they got playing time as like 6th man types - they were not used properly. I remember the Pacers tried to make Jasikevicius guard the point and then play more as a shooter on offense...when he was a 2 on defense, and running screen roll on offense in Europe. And in case of Navarro, Grizzlies tried to make him a point guard, when he had spent his whole life playing two guard before that...

I really don't understand why NBA insists on this kind of nonsense so much, with immediately changing a position and/or type of player a guy from Europe is, right when they come to the NBA, and then wondering if there is a "struggle to transition". It makes no sense. I still can't figure out why in the world NBA teams thought De Colo was a point guard..

[J_T]

The reason why Mavs are trying this is not entirely Luka Doncic related. They need to play Barnes, the max player, and the leading scorer. But he can't play PF well and Carlisle acknowledged the desire to move him to his natural position at 3. So what is left to Doncic then is either SG or PF. If he plays SG, who will guard the best wing? Carlisle thinks Wes is the guy who is best suited for that and it's hard to disagree when looking at other options (DSJ, Barnes, Doncic). Maybe that changes in the future.

Anyway, Barnes is injured now and might miss even start of the regular season. This means Doncic will probably start as a SF...

[batigol18]

Doncic said in interview for one slovenian media few days ago, that his role on court will be similar as it was in Europe. So in offense he’ll share playmaking role, in defense he will guard bigger and slower opponents...

[UcanUwill]

Cant wait to see Doncic today, he will play right? Wish they didnt play chinese team, but whatever? Does anyone know will NBA teams play any Euro teams this offseason? I see they play against Chinese and Australian team, if they dont play any Euro teams, thats wack.

[arkuo]

Cant wait to see Doncic today, he will play right? Wish they didnt play chinese team, but whatever? Does anyone know will NBA teams play any Euro teams this offseason? I see they play against Chinese and Australian team, if they dont play any Euro teams, thats wack.

With Barnes out to injury it seems that Doncic will most likely play SF. Ding (a crowd favorite for the Chinese game) might play SG off the bench. Maybe DFS and Powell at PF for now.

[J_T]

Are they playing 40 or 48 minutes against Chinese?

I predict first game for Doncic will be 22 minutes of playing time and he will score minus two points (dunk on the wrong side).

[Archx]

Are they playing 40 or 48 minutes against Chinese?

I predict first game for Doncic will be 22 minutes of playing time and he will score minus two points (dunk on the wrong side).

I'm 100% sure its NBA rules since that's basically always the case, no matter the team. But i don't understand why they would play such a bad team unless it's purely for marketing purposes. Luka could play from 20-30 mins depends if the score gap is really big then he'll play less.