Charles Barkley is not a fan of the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving pairing that the Dallas Mavericks hope can lead them to a championship.
Prior to the Mavericks’ win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Barkley explained on Inside the NBA why he doesn’t think this duo will be a successful one.
“It’s not gonna work, I never thought it was going to work. They don’t bring enough diversity to the table. They don’t play defense, they don’t rebound the ball. When you talk about sacrifice, I got traded to Phoenix and I knew I was going to rebound. Luka gets rebounds but not like that, it ain’t the same. His rebounds are just rebounds, they’re not gaming-deciding rebounds. all rebounds are not created equal. They’re both great one-on-one basketball players and that’s the problem.”
“Luka and Kyrie don’t play defense. They don’t rebound the ball … They’re both great one-on-one basketball players, and that’s the problem.”
– Charles Barkley
— Hoops on 𝕏 (@Digits3Hoops) March 3, 2023
Doncic and Irving’s offensive brilliance just willed the Mavericks to a strong win over the Philadelphia 76ers, with the pair combining for 82 points. However, Chuck’s rebounding and defense concerns ended up being true. The pair combined for just 8 rebounds in the win as the Mavericks gave up 126 points.
The larger point on Luka Doncic‘s rebounds not being game-editing is not fully true, as Doncic is one of the leading rebounders for guards with 8.7 per game this season. He also had arguably the most clutch offensive rebound of the season against the New York Knicks in his 60-21-10 performance in December 2022.
Will The Mavericks Offense Be Enough?
Dallas is going to hope that they can continue outscoring teams as they did today. Their defense is one of the worst in the NBA and could be easily picked apart in the playoffs when teams get 7 games to scheme against them. The personnel is bad but Jason Kidd needs to put them in a better position to succeed instead of blaming their immaturity.
A pure offense has never led to a team winning a title and Dallas shouldn’t expect to win one either. They should focus on ways to ensure they can avoid losing Kyrie Irving for nothing in the summer. The roster cannot afford another big blow as it did with Jalen Brunson leaving in the summer of 2022.
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