With the #3 pick (!) in the 2018 draft, the Mavs get Luka Doncic

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

Luka now with the second lowest +/- in the entire league. Only Terrence Ross is worse

Which shows how bad his running mates are. He hasn't played to Luka levels but obviously not the 2nd worst player in the league. +/- is a moronic stat overall. Proves that the collective 5 he is playing with to start games and finish games has gotten their drawers blown off. Would be helpful if teammates converted assist attempts in addition to Luka actually fasting for 5 days and dropping 15 lbs to get into playing shape. My worry is that he will never take fitness seriously and actually get into NBA athlete shape. His caboose (technical term) will only get larger with age if he isn't careful.

[Lestat_1795]

Yeah he took the wrong page out of Shaq‘s playbook.

[BPo001]

During the Mavericks’ practice Monday afternoon, Luka Doncic appeared to be as close to game ready as he’d been since spraining his left knee and ankle Nov. 15. Until he shouted in pain. Doncic, who’d been practicing in a 5-on-5 scrimmage during the portion of the workout open to reporters, came off the Terasaki Budokan court abruptly and sat on the bleachers, grabbing at his left knee. – via Callie Caplan @ Dallas Morning News
Top Rumors, Injuries, Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

This rumor is part of a storyline: 151 more rumors
Director of player health and performance Casey Smith and close friend and teammate Boban Marjanovic were two of the people who walked over to check on him. Soon after, a trainer wrapped a bag of ice around Doncic’s knee with an ace bandage. – via Callie Caplan @ Dallas Morning News

[BPo001]

During the Mavericks’ practice Monday afternoon, Luka Doncic appeared to be as close to game ready as he’d been since spraining his left knee and ankle Nov. 15. Until he shouted in pain. Doncic, who’d been practicing in a 5-on-5 scrimmage during the portion of the workout open to reporters, came off the Terasaki Budokan court abruptly and sat on the bleachers, grabbing at his left knee. – via Callie Caplan @ Dallas Morning News
Top Rumors, Injuries, Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

This rumor is part of a storyline: 151 more rumors
Director of player health and performance Casey Smith and close friend and teammate Boban Marjanovic were two of the people who walked over to check on him. Soon after, a trainer wrapped a bag of ice around Doncic’s knee with an ace bandage. – via Callie Caplan @ Dallas Morning News

[EricaLubarsky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tojc0cl680

[EricaLubarsky]

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/ma...coring-output/

Don't see it mentioned, but Luka is player of the week for the west.

Averaging 37-10-10 in February on 49% and 43% from three

[EricaLubarsky]

BBall Index
@The_BBall_Index
Luka Doncic's performance in our Playmaking metric over his career:

2018-19: 98.26th percentile (15th ranked that year)
2019-20: 99.33 (5th)
2020-21: 99.59 (3rd)
2021-22: 99.87 (1st in NBA this season)

[EricaLubarsky]

BBall Index
@The_BBall_Index
Luka Doncic's performance in our Playmaking metric over his career:

2018-19: 98.26th percentile (15th ranked that year)
2019-20: 99.33 (5th)
2020-21: 99.59 (3rd)
2021-22: 99.87 (1st in NBA this season)

[dirt_dobber]

(By Brad Townsend - Dallas Morning News)
Mavericks’ Luka Doncic named Western Conference Player of the Month
It’s the second time in 23-year-old Doncic’s young career that he has been named player of the month.

Not that anyone needed more evidence of Mavericks star Luka Doncic’s recent surge, but Thursday afternoon produced major validation: Doncic was named NBA Western Conference Player of the Month for February.

It’s the second time in 23-year-old Doncic’s young career that he has been named player of the month. The other time was for November of 2019.

In 10 February games, during which the Mavericks went 7-3, Doncic averaged an otherworldly 34.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 45.7% field goal shooting and 41.2% 3-point shooting. He scored 30 or more points seven times -- including games of 51, 49, 45 and 40 points.

Still, Doncic was far from certain of player of the month anointing. Young Memphis star Ja Morant, who was selected over Doncic as a starter in last month’s NBA All-Star Game, averaged 33.9 points, 5.9 assists, 5.6 rebounds and culminated the month with a 52-point outburst as Memphis finished 8-2 in February.

Now, Doncic has another reason to briefly celebrate atop his recent (Feb. 28) birthday. He said a few days ago that he isn’t sure whether this has been the most dominant stretch of his four-season career: “That’s for you guys (reporters),” he said.

During one five-game stretch, from Feb. 8 to Feb. 17, he broke his own franchise record for most points in a five-game stretch. His old mark was 186. His new one is 199.

Doncic joins franchise great Dirk Nowitzki as the only Mavericks to earn multiple player of the month awards. Nowitzki six of them, but the last of those was for April of 2009. The Mavericks franchise and its fans waited a decade before another player of the month winner came along.

Now, Doncic is at two and almost assuredly counting.

[dirt_dobber]

DP

[BPo001]

According to SneakerNews, the Jordan Luka 1s will drop as early as this summer and will include several different colorways.

The release dates for the different variations of the sneaker will be available from June 30 to Dec. 27, according to Kicks Finder.

The Mavericks-colored blue/white/glacier colorway will be released first on June 30, while the University Red/Metallic Gold version comes out on Aug. 3.

The other colorways include a racer blue/ghost green/racer pink (Oct. 11) and a white/fire pink/dynamic turquoise shoe( Dec. 27).

No photos of the shoes have been released and it's unknown how much a pair of Luka Magic's kicks will cost.

[BPo001]

Dbl post

[MFFL]

Luka has been playing some solid D this season

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/bes...ng-point-guard

[Scoobay]

Originally Posted by MFFL

Luka has been playing some solid D this season

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/bes...ng-point-guard

nice stat!

what is defensive rating calculated based off of?
is this considered a reliable metric?

[MFFL]

I have no idea. My son sent me the link.

It's probably bogus but its nice that Luka is playing D. I always thought that with his big body and savant intelligence that he should be at least average on D

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by Scoobay

nice stat!

what is defensive rating calculated based off of?
is this considered a reliable metric?

Per basketball-reference.com


Defensive Rating estimates how many points the player allowed per 100 possessions he individually faced while on the court.

The core of the Defensive Rating calculation is the concept of the individual Defensive Stop. Stops take into account the instances of a player ending an opposing possession that are tracked in the boxscore (blocks, steals, and defensive rebounds), in addition to an estimate for the number of forced turnovers and forced misses by the player which aren't captured by steals and blocks.

The formula for Stops is:

Stops = Stops1 + Stops2
where:

Stops1 = STL + BLK * FMwt * (1 - 1.07 * DOR%) + DRB * (1 - FMwt)
FMwt = (DFG% * (1 - DOR%)) / (DFG% * (1 - DOR%) + (1 - DFG%) * DOR%)
DOR% = Opponent_ORB / (Opponent_ORB + Team_DRB)
DFG% = Opponent_FGM / Opponent_FGA
Stops2 = (((Opponent_FGA - Opponent_FGM - Team_BLK) / Team_MP) * FMwt * (1 - 1.07 * DOR%) + ((Opponent_TOV - Team_STL) / Team_MP)) * MP + (PF / Team_PF) * 0.4 * Opponent_FTA * (1 - (Opponent_FTM / Opponent_FTA))^2
Also necessary is the calculation of Stop%, which is the rate at which a player forces a defensive stop as a percentage of individual possessions faced (essentially the inverse of Floor%, but for defenders):

Stop% = (Stops * Opponent_MP) / (Team_Possessions * MP)
With those numbers in hand, individual Defensive Rating can be computed:

DRtg = Team_Defensive_Rating + 0.2 * (100 * D_Pts_per_ScPoss * (1 - Stop%) - Team_Defensive_Rating)
where:

Team_Defensive_Rating = 100 * (Opponent_PTS / Team_Possessions)
D_Pts_per_ScPoss = Opponent_PTS / (Opponent_FGM + (1 - (1 - (Opponent_FTM / Opponent_FTA))^2) * Opponent_FTA*0.4)

As far as I know, it's a solid stat. Like any other stat, it's not at all definitive by itself, but as part of a bigger picture, it's reliable. So while I don't think we can take this to mean that Luka is now the best defensive PG in the league, we can take it to mean that his defense has improved by a lot. No doubt this is due to a combination of his improved conditioning, and an an overall increased focus on defense coming from the coaching.

I don't think he'll ever be an elite defender, but you can see it with your eyes that he's more than serviceable on that end. He's extremely big and strong for a point guard, and his basketball IQ is through the roof.

[Scoobay]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

Per basketball-reference.com


As far as I know, it's a solid stat. Like any other stat, it's not at all definitive by itself, but as part of a bigger picture, it's reliable. So while I don't think we can take this to mean that Luka is now the best defensive PG in the league, we can take it to mean that his defense has improved by a lot. No doubt this is due to a combination of his improved conditioning, and an an overall increased focus on defense coming from the coaching.

I don't think he'll ever be an elite defender, but you can see it with your eyes that he's more than serviceable on that end. He's extremely big and strong for a point guard, and his basketball IQ is through the roof.

Thanks for the info…
I wonder with this data if there’s a breakdown of who he was guarding… how often it was a pg, sg, sg, pf, or even C. Or perhaps just pg, wing, or big…
Agree that the eye test shows good footwork and anticipation in cutting off drives, he’s very solid/thick too so if he beats you to the spot you’re not going to clear him out with a bump…

I think we’ve seen him take pride in his defense too. When he makes a play there he’s just as excited and competitive as when he’s breaking ankles on offense. Could see that the other day when he was begging for a replay/challenge on that ball off the fingertips. He still seems to loaf a bit in close outs preferring to stay in position for rebounds but overall he’s clearly better on that side of the ball

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally Posted by MFFL

Luka has been playing some solid D this season

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/bes...ng-point-guard

Where is Trae Young on that list? Hmmmmmm?

[Scoobay]

Interesting that JB is top 10 as well…

[saclare]

Originally Posted by Scoobay

Interesting that JB is top 10 as well…

Dinwiddie is on the other side of the spectrum. Didn't think Fox would be as bad at defense with his exceptional speed.

[MFFL]

Originally Posted by saclare

Dinwiddie is on the other side of the spectrum.

I think his defense is passable. The stats from Washington must have been horrible

[Scoobay]

Interesting that JB is top 10 as well…

[DevinHarriswillstart]

I mean, most things advanced stats why are highly subjective, but eye test says he is a good defender now. He stays on his man well, helps decently, blocks some shots, reads passing lanes well. Games are long and it's hard to follow every play, but I can't remember him just getting embarrassed on D recently.

And yeah, even Spencer hasn't fallen flat on his face. Size and length are valuable attributes when it comes to D.

[saclare]

Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

I mean, most things advanced stats why are highly subjective, but eye test says he is a good defender now. He stays on his man well, helps decently, blocks some shots, reads passing lanes well. Games are long and it's hard to follow every play, but I can't remember him just getting embarrassed on D recently.

And yeah, even Spencer hasn't fallen flat on his face. Size and length are valuable attributes when it comes to D.

Oh I was just observing, same stat that can be used to praise Luka and Brunson could be used to dog Dinwiddie.

Totally agree he looks fine on that end.

[DevinHarriswillstart]

.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Someone pointed this out on youtube so I thought I'd point it out here.

Luka against other MVP candidates this year-

Nikola Jokić 2-1
Joel Embiid 1-0
Giannis Antetokounmpo 0-0
Ja Morant 2-0
DeMar DeRozan 1-1
Jayson Tatum 2-0
Stephen Curry - 3-1
Lebron - 1-0
Donovan - 1-1

[Thespiralgoeson]

** double post

[MFFL]

Lebron minutes per game first 4 seasons
39.5
42.4
42.5
40.9

Luka minutes per game first 4 seasons 32.2
33.6
34.3
35.6

Remember that the next time national commentators compare stats

[Thespiralgoeson]

I was thinking about this during tonight's Mavs-Cavs game, which Luka ended with 35 pts 13 ast 9 reb.

Is there any player in the league you'd trade Luka for? Anyone at all? Because for me the answer is no. There is only a tiny handful of players that you could even argue are better than Luka right now. Giannis, Lebron, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Curry... Even those are arguable, and they're all much older than Luka. Luka's only 23 and has a very strong case for best player in the league.

Nobody his age or younger I think comes even close. No young prospect that I can see has a higher ceiling than Luka. Morant and Tatum are studs, but I don't think anyone would argue they're as good as Luka. We don't know what Zion's ceiling is, but we know he's very injury prone.

As an individual player, Luka's in the place that guys like Duncan and Kobe were at the same age- poised to dominate the league for years and years to come. The only difference between him and them is he hasn't Hall of Fame teammates to help him win titles early in his career.

[Thespiralgoeson]

I was thinking about this during tonight's Mavs-Cavs game, which Luka ended with 35 pts 13 ast 9 reb.

Is there any player in the league you'd trade Luka for? Anyone at all? Because for me the answer is no. There is only a tiny handful of players that you could even argue are better than Luka right now. Giannis, Lebron, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Curry... Even those are arguable, and they're all much older than Luka. Luka's only 23 and has a very strong case for best player in the league.

Nobody his age or younger I think comes even close. No young prospect that I can see has a higher ceiling than Luka. Morant and Tatum are studs, but I don't think anyone would argue they're as good as Luka. We don't know what Zion's ceiling is, but we know he's very injury prone.

As an individual player, Luka's in the place that guys like Duncan and Kobe were at the same age- poised to dominate the league for years and years to come. The only difference between him and them is he hasn't Hall of Fame teammates to help him win titles early in his career.

[BPo001]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

I was thinking about this during tonight's Mavs-Cavs game, which Luka ended with 35 pts 13 ast 9 reb.

Is there any player in the league you'd trade Luka for? Anyone at all? Because for me the answer is no. There is only a tiny handful of players that you could even argue are better than Luka right now. Giannis, Lebron, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Curry... Even those are arguable, and they're all much older than Luka. Luka's only 23 and has a very strong case for best player in the league.

Nobody his age or younger I think comes even close. No young prospect that I can see has a higher ceiling than Luka. Morant and Tatum are studs, but I don't think anyone would argue they're as good as Luka. We don't know what Zion's ceiling is, but we know he's very injury prone.

As an individual player, Luka's in the place that guys like Duncan and Kobe were at the same age- poised to dominate the league for years and years to come. The only difference between him and them is he hasn't Hall of Fame teammates to help him win titles early in his career.

I think Giannis is the only person I’d consider, but even then I’d rather have Luka.

[SMC0007]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

I was thinking about this during tonight's Mavs-Cavs game, which Luka ended with 35 pts 13 ast 9 reb.

Is there any player in the league you'd trade Luka for? Anyone at all? Because for me the answer is no. There is only a tiny handful of players that you could even argue are better than Luka right now. Giannis, Lebron, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Curry... Even those are arguable, and they're all much older than Luka. Luka's only 23 and has a very strong case for best player in the league.

Nobody his age or younger I think comes even close. No young prospect that I can see has a higher ceiling than Luka. Morant and Tatum are studs, but I don't think anyone would argue they're as good as Luka. We don't know what Zion's ceiling is, but we know he's very injury prone.

As an individual player, Luka's in the place that guys like Duncan and Kobe were at the same age- poised to dominate the league for years and years to come. The only difference between him and them is he hasn't Hall of Fame teammates to help him win titles early in his career.

No fn way. Luka is the MVP, regardless what the media mouths think. He is the first player you pick to build a team. Giannis and Joker arent bad 2nd and 3rd picks, but Luka does too much and is so young.

Im telling you rn, if he did plyometric training and worked out with more intensity and had a clean diet, he would be...well he is already unstoppable but he would have more explosive athleticism and stamina to finish games or stay in longer in certain situatuons.

[Scoobay]

A NEW GENERATION - NBA Players let you know how INSANELY GOOD Luka Dončić is!

compilation of coaches and NBA greats talking about Luka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVT6OxZYi5k

[Scoobay]

A NEW GENERATION - NBA Players let you know how INSANELY GOOD Luka Dončić is!

compilation of coaches and NBA greats talking about Luka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVT6OxZYi5k

[dirt_dobber]

Since 1950, there have only been 7 seasons in NBA history
where a player has averaged:
28+ PPG
9+ RPG
8+ APG
Luka Dončić already has 2 of those seasons in 4 years.

[dirt_dobber]

Since 1950, there have only been 7 seasons in NBA history
where a player has averaged:
28+ PPG
9+ RPG
8+ APG
Luka Dončić already has 2 of those seasons in 4 years.

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Luka's technical is rescinded! Didn't see that coming.

[SMC0007]

Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

Luka's technical is rescinded! Didn't see that coming.

I didn't either. They have lots of work to do with refs

[EricaLubarsky]

Brad Townsend
@townbrad
·
6m
NBA says it has rescinded Luka Doncic’s technical foul from last night, so he will not be suspended from Sunday’s regular-season finale against San Antonio.

Still F$&% Brothers

[EricaLubarsky]

Brad Townsend
@townbrad
·
6m
NBA says it has rescinded Luka Doncic’s technical foul from last night, so he will not be suspended from Sunday’s regular-season finale against San Antonio.

Still F$&% Brothers