Luka Dončić Discussion - Year 3

[JD45]

Time to lock this thread and start the Year 3 version.

[Dirk]

Any info on wonderboy and his workout?

Yes.
Need an update from the social media watchers to see what he has been up to and how his beer belly looks like.

[Archx]

Any info on wonderboy and his workout?

Yes.
Need an update from the social media watchers to see what he has been up to and how his beer belly looks like.

There was a nation wide lockdown not too long ago. And he was mostly on vacation for the past few weeks. If he is doing some work he's doing it from home, otherwise i don't think that he was training like before bubble. We're slowly opening up again so we'll see how it goes in the next few days. I do hope he is working out privately and away from public though.

[leolozon]

He said he wanted to work on his shooting and let's hope it pays dividends.

His FT% went up last year, which is maybe a good sign that he can eventually be a .800 + shooter (from .713 to .758). The end of the year was really ugly though, so is he really getting that much better? Or is it just that he didn't play many games in March?

67% in January
80% in February
64% in March
56% in the bubble
66% in the playoffs

His 3P% is concerning (from .327 to .316). I was hoping that he could become a 38% 3 point shooter. Now, I would be happy with 35-36%.

If he gets to 36% from 3 and 80%+ from FT, it could well be enough for him to be in contention for best offensive player of all-time considering how great he is at everything else.

[HMFFL]

Any info on wonderboy and his workout?

Yes.
Need an update from the social media watchers to see what he has been up to and how his beer belly looks like.

Vacation and spending time with his lovely lady.
He hasn't been active on Instagram. I mainly explore the app just to watch (or stalk) players.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[dirkforpres]

Watch on YouTube

New car, Jennifer Aniston, and Drake song this year

[JD45]

Watch on YouTube

New car, Jennifer Aniston, and Drake song this year

That's pretty strange. Jennifer Aniston is older than Luka's Mom. They must have really old re-runs in Slovenia.

[aggerrard]

Thoughts on these first 3 games? Clear to me he is a bit slower than last season and have a harder time getting past the opponent - which means he often has to settle for mid-range or floaters instead of layups. Pretty surprised by his mid-range so far tbh, but then struggles more finishing at the rim. His 3-pointer is horrendous and just seems broken, if anything worse than last season. Great FT shooting to start the season though. 86%, 25-29 - that's excellent.

I expect Luka to be more efficient mid-january and start to improve his game from last season. Burn some fat, get into the rythm with the team and also KP coming back.

[leolozon]

He said he practiced 3pt shooting a lot, but I wonder if he practiced them as if he was in a game situation. He's often short, which could indicate being tired.

I don't know what to think. There has been no improvement in his 3pt shooting since he was what? 17? Since ever? He actually was good in 2014-2016 (small sample size). He should be a better shooter than he is. It's really concerning at this point. What is he doing?

That's the last door he has to unlock. (That and conditioning.)

[wolfram]

I think it has a lot to do with his conditioning, form and types of shots. He gets very little easy shots. Secondly, his form with slow release and no lift is not the best way to be shooting contested shots. Third, if you're gassed and with tired legs, you aren't gonna make many. It is obvious he is a bit slower than before because he gained weight. It works really good in the post and with the drives but is a disadvantage on the perimeter - you can see sometimes he has a hard time crossing defenders or stepping back to create separation.
All in all he has a solid start to his season. I'm a bit disappointed with his shape but in general I see more positives than negatives. I predict his numbers will fall but Mavs as a team will be better. Luka is also very talented and if anyone can figure it out it's him. As long as he works really hard on his body.

[Archx]

He said he practiced 3pt shooting a lot, but I wonder if he practiced them as if he was in a game situation. He's often short, which could indicate being tired.

I don't know what to think. There has been no improvement in his 3pt shooting since he was what? 17? Since ever? He actually was good in 2014-2016 (small sample size). He should be a better shooter than he is. It's really concerning at this point. What is he doing?

That's the last door he has to unlock. (That and conditioning.)

I guess he mostly worked on his FT's. His FT shot release is a bit different, more fluid and so far it worked. We've seen that he can be a great long range shooter but on the other hand, so far, it's not working. It's either conditioning or confidence or actually both.

But what worries me is the fact that i haven't seen him miss so many shots around the rim like ever. And that is usually lack of confidence and proper lift in your legs because you can't balance yourself out the way you want.

So in my opinion, he'll get better along the way as his body gets better. Apart from his FT shooting mechanics, everything else stayed the same, so it's basically just body control.

[boogiezen]

Good news: Luka improves his defense and free throw shooting.

Bad news: Obviously his shooting.

Long season. Hopefully he will improve every game.

[arkuo]

Remember those euro steps he used to do? yeah, he can't do those anymore. He needs to become quicker again. He cant beat his man off the dribble now.

[Oscar9992]

Luka improved on defense but still awful from the 3pt line.

[guille_4]

You all make good points.

To add to what has already been said, a positive in the first 3 games is that he's taking better care of the ball.

So far he's averaging 2.0 turnovers in 32 minutes (3.1 TOs per 100 posessions), which is much better than last year (6.1 TOs per 100p) and the year before (5.2 TOs per 100p). I think his turnovers will increase with sample size, but I hope this is an area in which he shows improvement.

If he can shoot >80% from the line and >33.3% from 3 PT, whilst playing better defense and having fewer TOs, I'd take that as a solid improvement for the season.

[arkuo]

Luka's additional weight or being overweight is not the problem. It's more of a lack of skill to play around that.

James Harden came into the season 15 pounds overweight and still manages to score 35 a night on those step back threes and still runs around people. Crossed over a couple of them too. Luka on the other hand has managed to completely forget how to drive to the rim. And now that he cant beat his man off the dribble, he settles for more tear drop shots instead. Watch the past 4 games and you will notice the trend.

[Dirk]

It is hard to believe how bad he has looked. Physically, shooting and mentally. Just no progression whatsoever. Hopefully it is just a bleep.

I read some people comparing him to Jokic who also started really slow last year and then finished strong. In any case, there is no excuse to come into the season with people questioning your weight and stuff like that.

This was a cool pass

It's telling that in the previous seasons, I'd see half a dozen cool plays per game and this season there's barely anything memorable.

[BlueSan]

I'll give you a couple of hints:

1) Powell on both plays causes double-ing the defence in front of Dončič disabling the ability to drive to the rim and causing the collapse. That is a result of an opposing team:
a) knowing Powell is not a threat from 3pt area, meaning they can leave him be
b) What is worse although not seen on these two clips well. Defenders have started going under screens because they do not fear Luka's 3PT threat as well.

2) Watching the remaining 3 guys on Dallas the above is exactly what they are waiting for. Luka to penetrate defence to collapse and Luka to kick it out. resulting in the stoic static offence.

Not enough movement on offence + Powell's role as a screener, not enough effective because of none existent shooting ability

[Bob8]

Luka's additional weight or being overweight is not the problem. It's more of a lack of skill to play around that.

James Harden came into the season 15 pounds overweight and still manages to score 35 a night on those step back threes and still runs around people. Crossed over a couple of them too. Luka on the other hand has managed to completely forget how to drive to the rim. And now that he cant beat his man off the dribble, he settles for more tear drop shots instead. Watch the past 4 games and you will notice the trend.

Yes it's the trend but it's totally correlated with his additional weight and to make things worse he cannot make a 3. If that continues and with worsening confidence that is the best guess, people will defend his 3 less, making his drives even more difficult.

[Dirk]

It's at least a step in the right direction, but I hope he doesn't keep repeating the same mistakes as last year.

When will Luka learn to just instinctively catch and shoot?