Luka Doncic is now considered one of the best players in the NBA after the magical 2019/20 season he had with the Dallas Mavericks. The Slovenian player is still very young despite having a lot of experience. He was considered a big promise in European basketball and when he landed in the NBA, some teams had high expectations for him.
However, there were other organizations that weren’t convinced that Doncic could take the next step and become better than he already was in 2018. Tim MacMahon of ESPN recently revealed that the point guard was even considered “maxed out” by several teams. Doncic had played at a pro-level even before turning 18 and not everybody believed he could actually make any significant improvement in his game.
Doncic was never considered the consensus best player in a draft that saw Deandre Ayton go No. 1 to the Phoenix Suns and Marvin Bagley III go No. 2 to the Sacramento Kings. Some questioned whether Doncic had “maxed out,” as Duffy put it, wondering if a player who was so polished could improve.
Moreover, even after he made it to the league, Doncic was met with doubts about his talents and how well he could be in the league. Even his head coach had doubts about his position on the court. Doncic quickly shut those doubts and became the future of his franchise as soon as he stepped foot on the floor.
PLENTY OF PEOPLE around the NBA doubted whether Doncic, who had grown to a shade taller than 6-foot-7 and more than 230 pounds, could play point guard in the NBA. One talent evaluator for a team picking a little later in that lottery compared him to Hedo Turkoglu, a skilled forward with playmaking ability — a good player but far from a superstar.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle admits that even he considered Doncic’s NBA position to be “unclear” when he studied his European film. He knew Doncic had the savvy and vision to be a primary ball-handler, but he wasn’t sure a player that size could play point guard against the world’s premier athletes.
Now he’s a great player, one of the best in the NBA and a potential GOAT in the eyes of many. The former Real Madrid player has everything to be successful in the league and keep showing he’s the real deal. Nobody knows where his ceiling is and the Mavericks can’t be happier about it.
