Players rarely have a more stellar start to their careers than Luka Doncic has had in the NBA. He came in and became the Rookie of the Year during his first season and followed it up by leaping to an All-NBA First Team level in just his sophomore season. Since he has been one of the NBA’s best players despite having just turned 23 and he’s arguably the best young player in the league right now.
He’s been playing incredibly well in 2022, something he punctuated with excellent clutch plays against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in a win on Tuesday night. This is ironic because when Luka’s early success in his NBA career is discussed, the comparisons are invariably drawn to LeBron James and what he was able to accomplish in the league as a fresh 20-something.
However, stats shared by Talkin NBA on Twitter show that Luka’s stats have been more impressive in a lot of facets than even LeBron’s were as a youngster.
Luka Doncic vs. LeBron James#NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/WNxKXpZlqL
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧' 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) March 2, 2022
In their first 245 games in the league, LeBron averaged 0.4 points more than Luka but Doncic has better numbers in every other department. The Slovenian has managed nearly 2 rebounds per game more than young LBJ, and nearly 1.5 assists as well. He’s won more games too, Luka has 134 career wins at this point compared to the 126 that LeBron had.
The truly staggering stat is double-doubles, Luka has 121 of those in 245 games while LeBron James managed just 61, slightly over half as many. This doesn’t mean that Luka Doncic will have a better career than LeBron or that he will even come close to that level. But it is an insane start and if Luka Magic can now convert it into playoff success, he will be building the foundation for a case as one of the greatest to ever play the game.
