I get questions about whether I’ve improved my view of Luka, because his last series against Minnesota was masterful, above, say, Larry Bird level.
For a while, I thought he had the potential to become a quality generational player, “best in the NBA” (or second?). But neither was he. Hopefully the regime has changed.
But keep in mind that eleven days ago, ESPN was broadcasting an article ranking him as the 5th best player in the playoffs through the first two rounds. At the time, no one took offense to this accurate assessment. Sure, it’s still very, very good, but not the Luka we’ve seen lately. So we will see which Luka we will advance. The best players make major improvements to their games as they advance, but we also need to mitigate recency bias here. Pre-qualifiers he was ranked #2implying that his performance in the first two rounds was a bit disappointing.
In the playoffs more generally:
… Doncic’s production (28.3 points and 9.1 assists per game) and efficiency (49.7% field goal percentage) have declined significantly from his historic regular season numbers (33, 9 points, 9.8 assists, 57.3% effective success percentage).
Of course, this is also partly good news. Lucas reduced his usage rate went from 40.3% in the playoffs two years ago (he missed the playoffs last year) to 32.1% this year, a usage rate that was too high having been his biggest default. And the other Mavericks really stepped up to fill the void. Remember when ESPN marked the Kyrie Irving trade with a “D”?
By the way, no need to use injuries as an “excuse”: they are common among high-use players, and they count as much as “quality” as healthy performance on the field.
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