Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas is a Los Angeles Lakers fan, but he wouldn’t be all too keen on playing for the team today. When discussing Lakers superstar Luka Doncic’s slow, ball-dominant playstyle on Gil’s Arena, Arenas stated he’d much rather be the fourth option for a team like the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.
“Y’all don’t know nothing about probably 2K, and they got this, the comp and the pros,” Arenas said. “It’s basically you got one guy, big man. They set a pick-and-roll, and then everybody else sits in the corner. You shoot it only if you’re open. If not, give it back to the point guard. He can do pick-and-roll again.
“So the point guard himself usually has about 50 points, 14, 16 assists,” Arenas continued. “Everybody else is like five-for-five, three-for-five. Like no, this is not [right]. Give up the rock, all right? I’m not a corner dude. I’ve never been a corner dude. And if I’m going to be a corner dude, I better be a corner dude to a dude that can do it faster. Some of these guys need to understand this.
“Let’s say I’m the fourth option,” Arenas added. “I would rather be the fourth option with the 2017–2018 Golden State Warriors. I would rather play with Steph [Curry] and [Kevin Durant] and Klay [Thompson] than play second option to some of these guys because of how slow they play.”
Arenas would much rather be on a team where he might be further down in the pecking order, but the ball is moving around, and they’re playing at a faster pace. None of the stars on that Warriors team had a usage rate over 30%. Doncic, meanwhile, has a 36.5% usage rate this season. Arenas wouldn’t like to play with someone who is running down that shot clock and then attempting a wild step-back three-pointer.
Another former NBA star, Kenyon Martin, believes Doncic needs to change his style of play. Martin knows the Slovenian has made it to the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks, but isn’t sure this is a recipe for success.
“I just don’t think the way he plays is going to get it done,” Martin said.
There was a lot of talk about how Doncic needs to change before he led the Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals. They would lose to the Boston Celtics in five games in the Finals, but getting there meant that chatter did die down a bit. It’s not come back up again, and the only way to silence the doubters would be by going on another deep run.
It doesn’t seem likely that these Lakers will go too far, though. While one can point to Doncic, who is averaging 32.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, needing to change, this is a flawed roster. The Lakers are too weak defensively, and if they do get knocked out of the playoffs early, Doncic is going to have a whole lot of criticism come his way.
