The Dallas Mavericks have recently gone down 0-3 against the Golden State Warriors, despite the best efforts of superstar Luka Doncic. Throughout the playoffs, Luka Doncic has put up incredible stats, averaging 32.1 PPG, 9.5 RPG, and 6.2 APG.
There has been some talk about Luka Doncic being a great individual player, but one that doesn’t necessarily help his teammates perform better on the court. Max Kellerman has recently expressed that sort of sentiment about Luka Doncic, saying that he isn’t helping his teammates thrive like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Analyst JJ Redick disagreed with Max Kellerman’s assessment of Luka Doncic, pointing out that Luka Doncic creates good shots for his teammates while playing with mostly rotational players rather than “Hall of Famers” like Larry Bird or Magic Johnson:
Luka doesn’t make people better? Magic & Bird, they played with Hall of Famers, man. Luka is playing on a team with rotation players, 2nd round picks, undrafted guys like Dorrian Finney-Smith. His shot quality created for his teammates – #1 in the last 2 seasons. They’re shooting 33% on wide open threes. It’s not his fault they can’t make shots.
Luka Doncic is a fantastic player who is often taking on a higher usage rate due to necessity, rather than selfishness. He doesn’t have a true co-star on his roster yet, and it is quite likely that he’d be willing to give up some offensive touches if that meant getting further in the playoffs. Hopefully, the Dallas Mavericks will be able to find a co-star for Luka Doncic sooner rather than later.
As of right now, the goal for the Dallas Mavericks should simply be to avoid elimination. They are obviously in no position to think about winning the series outright right now, so the goal should be to win one game at a time. We’ll see if they are able to win Game 4 and extend their playoff run. Even if the Dallas Mavericks do lose the series, it is fair to point out that they have only started to be a contender recently, and things are definitely trending upwards for them.
