Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack.Kerr
Think that All Star vote by the NBA players (131-58) for Lillard was a message to Luka?
The problem is that Luka is a fundamentally selfish, self-first player, with the ball in his hands, playing in a shit-system, who is ALLOWED to play selfishly.
Different system, harder coaching could fix that, but could Luka's ego handle it? Can you imagine Luka getting chewed out by Pop like Pop used to chew out Parker? Or Duncan? Or Ginobili? Luka would shit his XXXXL diaper, curl up in the fetal position, and then shit his diaper AGAIN.
One can hope that it's about maturity/experience but the self-first play looks pretty ingrained in Luka. Noticed it first in his rookie year, in a game against Cleveland, when Dirk was just a few points away from some all-time milestone--we're talking DIRK, in his final year, playing for All-Time.
And late in the game, Dirk is standing out beyond the arc, OPEN, and Luka keeps driving and hoisting, hoisting and driving, playing for that ROY trophy.
This is like Adrian Dantley waving Kareem (Sky-hook KAREEM) out of the low post so he can go one-on-one, but worse. Way worse. (At least Dantley was an All-Star vet, and Kareem had years to go in his career.) Or maybe more like 280-lb rookie Charles Barkley not giving the ball up on a 3-1 break to Dr. J.
Yeah, I can't imagine any top-tier FA watching Luka play and wanting to play with him. Or wanting to join a franchise whose management and fans think their baby all-star can do no wrong, so he never gets told 'no', and never gets held accountable-- not by coaches, not by fans.
Nobody likes to be told that their baby is ugly. But Mavericks, you've got an ugly baby.
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This is objectively a shitty take. We have a transformative superstar who seems to be well liked by his teammates outside of the one guy transitioning from being "the" dude to "a" dude.
Luka is the reason the Mavs generate the most open looks of any team in the league.
Luka is the reason we're talking about being the six seed instead of talking about tanking for Cade Cunningham.
Luka pretty much singlehandedly reinvigorated a franchise that three years ago was looking at two guys who we now know are fringe NBA players (Dennis Smith Jr. and Marvin Bagley) as foundational pieces.
Luka is young, complains a lot, gets too many techs... agreed. Calling him a selfish me-first player is beyond a stretch and proof your personal disdain of him is coloring your outlook.