Is Luka overrated?

[Impuniti]

Brunson left the Mavs because he specifically wanted to play for the Knicks, where his father is an assistant coach. Porzingis, on the other hand, only has himself to blame because he thought he was 1B to Dončić's 1A when he clearly was better suited to be a wingman or even a third wheel. Listening to him look back on his time with the Mavs on JJ Redick's podcast, I think he understands this to be the case also, which is why he's much more comfortable with his role with the Celtics.

It's definitely a bummer for the Mavs that the Dončić-Brunson-Porzingis core really only had one proper year together and got broken up after making the Conference Finals, but they didn't really run either of them out of town. Blaming Luka for it especially ridiculous, because him being ball dominant is clearly a winning strategy - you don't buy a Ferrari to drive it like a Honda Civic.

That is certainly a revisionist take. Porz was not just blaming himself, he said it didn't work from both guys. Reality is both guys left him. If he was that great to work with stars, they wouldn't have. Porz realizing he was a diva then =/= Luka isn't one as well. He clearly didn't like being part of the winning strategy where he sees Luka pound the ball for long periods as he stays in the corner.

As for it being a winning strategy, we'll see. So far in his career, he's a white Harden that started dominating at an early age.

I see you're also trying to reinvent the history.

Porzingis was traded, he never left. He actually wanted to leave because he was mad at Rick how he was using him, he didn't want to put him in the post like KP wanted because he was too weak and Rick didn't like post plays anymore, look up the interview. And then when Rick resigned, Kidd traveled to Latvia and told KP he'll start using him more like he wanted and he did, KP decided to stay. But his injuries were a constant issue and Mavs traded him.

Brunson's dad offered Mavs 3x deals, worth 55/4 and each time Mavs declined. After the trade deadline and when playoffs arrived, NYK offered 2 times more money and Brunson's dad had enough of Cuban's crap so they didn't even grant Mavs an interview. Also a very well documented story by now told by Jalen and his dad over and over again.

Porz didn't like playing with Luka, you can blame it on injuries as a coping mechanism all you want, but he never cared to play for him. Jalen is a different story sure, it could be that he was just bitter and nothing else. I'll give you that. But had he really loved playing with Luka, he would have decided to stay even if he was angry. Stars generally don't like playing long-term in that type of basketball because they don't feel involved enough.

We'll see how his relationship with Kyrie will develop this and next season.

[Jamaaliver]

Anyone can read the box scores, bulging with points and rebounds and assists. Fancy formulas like PER and VORP and EPM all confirm: Luka Doncic is, indeed, amazing.

Steve Ilardi had some doubts...about what those skills actually accomplished for the Dallas Mavericks. “What I doubted,” Ilardi says, “was the degree to which all of that otherworldly talent was actually translating to winning basketball.”

Ilardi isn’t some random fan with a spicy-hot take—he’s a data scientist who’s worked for multiple NBA teams, and ESPN. And this isn’t a story about Doncic being “overrated” or an empty-stats All-Star. This is, however, a story about trying to make sense of a specific sort of NBA conundrum: the superstar who doesn’t win—or at least, doesn’t win as consistently as we believe he should. It’s about how we, the NBA-watching public, try to make sense of all the fancy stats at our disposal. And it’s about what happens when our beloved “eye test” is defied by the data.

One veteran assistant coach, underscoring the ball-dominance issue, said you can almost sense a “sigh of relief” among Doncic’s teammates when he checks out of a game, “because it opens up a little more freedom” for others to make plays. “It’s a sense of, ‘Hey, now we get to play,’” the coach said. “It’s difficult to have any rhythm if you’re not touching the ball.” And when Doncic is off the floor, it’s a chance for those teammates to show “we don’t have to depend on him.”

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[WentzerWuver]

Mavs are 11th in the West. But Luka is supposed to be an all time great level player in his prime? How does that compute, plus he has another All Star on the team. Harden routinely dragged bad rosters to the playoffs at least, you'll never see a prime Harden led team be 11th in the West.

That's right cause my Beard plays defense by just standing in one place better than I can't help but flop n whine Luka. He even did that last night and then whine to the refs when it wasn't called. My Beard has never flopped in his entire career cause its cheating and would punch Luka face if he stand behind him like this....

https://youtube.com/shorts/d_PZMA67MCI?si=EsGQnN_78Lwy68uX

There is a thread out that Luka is now an elite defender Lol

[Special_Puppy]

He's still a top 5 player in the league, but people saying that he was already better than Dirk or that he's guaranteed to retire top 25 All-Time were too premature. He's only 25 so he might get there eventually though

[MavsDirk41]

Missed the playoffs last season with that strategy and currently are 8th...

He's not out there on his own, it's not tennis. They also made the Conference Finals with that strategy two years ago and Dončić wrecked the Suns who had been to the Finals the previous season and won 64 games.

It's pretty obvious that losing Brunson, Porzingis, and Finney-Smith made the Mavs a much worse team. Nobody wins on their own. This season they're an improved but still a very flawed team because they don't have defenders on the wings and their best defender is a rookie. Luka is the least of their problems, give him a properly constructed roster and he's good for a championship run - he's been an excellent Playoff performer. I don't think the fit with Kyrie is that bad either, the dynamic is the same with Brunson. They just lack the defenders to compensate.

The problem is that LeBron during his prime was a championship contenting team all by himself. Pairing Kyrie with Luka works offensively but they both lack defense. If Luka absolutely doesn't alter his game by sharing the ball and/or playing defense, then his teams will continue to struggle. Kawhi is probably the only player Luka could be paired with that fits more seemlessly than a scoring PG.

How many championships did lebron james win without Wade, Bosh, Irving, Love, and Davis? Pretty sure every star player has won with help from his teammates. And the James was a championship contending team all by himself lol? I find it humorous how his fans like you want to diminish every teammate the guy has ever played with it. Its quiet pathetic to be honest.