Is Luka overrated?

[Shock Defeat]

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.

[Lenneth]

Well, a prime Harden and a former MVP dragged Houston to the 8th seed in the 15-16 season. So, Harden fans should understand what happens when any star is with a bad roster. And, I would rather have Luka than Harden in PO.

[ghillphx]

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.

Stats are overrated. Simple facts. Are they useful? Yes. Are they overrated? Yes. Luka is another James Harden type. Huge weakness in his game in defense.

[SashimiLover]

Despite his seemingly impressive stats, Luka isn't the kind of two way player that a lot of other MVP-caliber players are. And I don't think he playmaking is on par with prime CP3 or Nash as a guard. This may kind of put his team in a conundrum with him being the No.1 option.

Neither the Sixer (with AI) nor the Bulls (D-Rose) went far in their peak years. As their winnning formula might kind of overlap with that of of the current Mavs.

[sunsbg]

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.

Stats are overrated. Simple facts. Are they useful? Yes. Are they overrated? Yes. Luka is another James Harden type. Huge weakness in his game in defense.

Saying this from the start, but Luka fanboys don't like the Harden comparison and would dig out some advanced stat to make an argument he's not a bad defender. Anyway, great player while dominating the ball, but pretty weak when it comes to off ball play and defense.

[Phreak50]

He isn't happy because he no longer has the ball in his hands to get every stat on every play.

Funny he was happier while losing on his own team with his inflated stats.

Hog ball is for stats and not winning.

If you can't play defense, you never let your teammates get into rhythm and you ruin your mental focus by complaining all game, you will never be a great player.

[Statlanta]

Kyrie is an All-Star like Mo Williams and Jamaal Magloire is an All-Star. Benefitting from popularity in the weaker Eastern Conference. The Mavs traded their defense for a player worse than Jalen Brunson. Doncic not playing the past few games despite being a young player speaks bad for his condition as an athlete.

[neo515]

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.

Stats are overrated. Simple facts. Are they useful? Yes. Are they overrated? Yes. Luka is another James Harden type. Huge weakness in his game in defense.

Saying this from the start, but Luka fanboys don't like the Harden comparison and would dig out some advanced stat to make an argument he's not a bad defender. Anyway, great player while dominating the ball, but pretty weak when it comes to off ball play and defense.

He gave last year's 64-win Suns team the most embarrassing beatdown in NBA playoff history, so he's obviously doing something right. And the fact that he's already made it as far in the playoffs as Harden, Nash, and CP3 despite playing with a roster half as talented as any of those guys had bodes well for his future prospects. You haters are like vultures, just circling around and chomping at the bit for an opportunity to spew some hate.

[Mauro Pedrosa]

No. He’s an amazing, clutch talent with ball hogging and conditioning problems. If he fixes those two the sky is the limit

[Sofia]

This will be a fun thread

[threethehardway]

Lol, if you put Luka on the Grizzlies they would be championship favorites.

That team sucks.

[Mavrelous]

Luka is having a down year, and it coincided with the team letting his Robin go and the whole roster collectively underperforming, under a coach who has no offense plans and his defensive tricks didn't work, Mavs fans who watched the team knew that Brunson leaving would have severe ramifications on RS performance, but no one expected the defensive fall to be this hard TBH, team went from 6th in defense to the bottom.

[iggymcfrack]

Kyrie hasn't had a positive impact on winning since 2017 and he's an absolutely terrible fit next to Luka. Two defensive liabilities that don't move off the ball in the same backcourt. How was that ever gonna work? Luka made the conference finals last year with Brunson. If he still had that team around him, the Mavs would still be fringe contenders. Instead they traded 2 of their best players for a dose of poison. The only lucky thing is that Kyrie's a free agent and they might be able to replace him with someone good in their cap space this summer. If they could replace Kyrie with someone like Draymond Green or Khris Middleton, the Mavericks could vault right back into title contention.

[sunsbg]

Stats are overrated. Simple facts. Are they useful? Yes. Are they overrated? Yes. Luka is another James Harden type. Huge weakness in his game in defense.

Saying this from the start, but Luka fanboys don't like the Harden comparison and would dig out some advanced stat to make an argument he's not a bad defender. Anyway, great player while dominating the ball, but pretty weak when it comes to off ball play and defense.

He gave last year's 64-win Suns team the most embarrassing beatdown in NBA playoff history, so he's obviously doing something right. And the fact that he's already made it as far in the playoffs as Harden, Nash, and CP3 despite playing with a roster half as talented as any of those guys had bodes well for his future prospects. You haters are like vultures, just circling around and chomping at the bit for an opportunity to spew some hate.

Typical Luka fanboy's response. Calling the facts hate. Also Luka got lucky Mavs beat a tanking Jazz team playing games without him and beat Suns after CP3 broke down, but I don't remember him making the finals.

[Hoop Heavy]

He isn't happy because he no longer has the ball in his hands to get every stat on every play.

Funny he was happier while losing on his own team with his inflated stats.

Hog ball is for stats and not winning.

If you can't play defense, you never let your teammates get into rhythm and you ruin your mental focus by complaining all game, you will never be a great player.

Your one point is highly relevant.

There is some balance point that only a handful of guys have crossed over successfully - you know MJ, Kobe, Kawhi ... there are iso-scorers who are so prolific, or clutch, or efficient .... that when their "ball hogging" makes their team less efficient by never developing "rhythmn and flow" (too much falling asleep standing in the corner) ... it just doesn't matter ... that their team still wins the chip.



Is Luka that efficient yet?


No maybe not ... still he seems to have the opportunity to become that soon. Either that or he'll have to evolve his game. He so big and strong ... with good touch and passing smarts ... I would not be asking him to evolve yet though.

[Goon]

He isn't happy because he no longer has the ball in his hands to get every stat on every play.

Funny he was happier while losing on his own team with his inflated stats.

Hog ball is for stats and not winning.

If you can't play defense, you never let your teammates get into rhythm and you ruin your mental focus by complaining all game, you will never be a great player.

What a stupid comment and its getting upvotes too, haters uniting lol, not surprising.

[Wagonband]

He isn't happy because he no longer has the ball in his hands to get every stat on every play.

Funny he was happier while losing on his own team with his inflated stats.

Hog ball is for stats and not winning.

If you can't play defense, you never let your teammates get into rhythm and you ruin your mental focus by complaining all game, you will never be a great player.

What a stupid comment and its getting upvotes too, haters uniting lol, not surprising.

Indeed. "He was happier while losing on his own team with his inflated stats" is factually wrong, since they were a winning team before the trade, and for the last 3 years where they lost twice after giving hell to the Clippers with prime Kawhi and prime PG, and last year made it to the Western Finals.

But yeah, he was happier on a "losing" team.

[jc23]

If the NBA had a draft of all its players Luka would go in the top 3. We have enough years of seeing him cook to know he is as good as advertised, hell he even shows up in the playoffs unlike some other superstars.

[Hugi Mancura]

He is not really overrated. He is what he is, but does Dallas GM know what he is? Doncic is like Harden on his prime, really much have ball in his hands all the time. So you really need to be careful who are the other players. Don't really believe players like Irving (player who needs to have ball in his hands) or Wood (offensive minded, not a good defender) work well with Doncic. What you need is a secondary star who is good off the ball player, sixth man who can create his own shots and lot of 3&D guys (who are difficult to find). He is kind of player who doesn't work on every situation.

[XTraderXL]

No. He’s an amazing, clutch talent with ball hogging and conditioning problems. If he fixes those two the sky is the limit

Clutch? Have you been watching the games?? He has been anything but clutch...