There were some concerns before Luka Doncic was drafted in 2018 that the Slovenian might struggle with the pace of the game in the NBA. Doncic wasn’t a great athlete by NBA standards, but any and all concerns regarding him were dispelled fairly early on in his rookie season.
Luka averaged 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 6.0 assists on his way to winning Rookie of the Year, and he hasn’t looked back since. He has made the All-NBA First Team in each of the last 3 seasons and is one of the frontrunners for MVP this season.
Kevin Durant Admits He Didn’t Like Luka Doncic’s Game As A Rookie
Kevin Durant recently stated that being able to guard Luka will make him a better player, but KD wasn’t always a big fan of the former Real Madrid man. He admitted that he didn’t like Luka’s game when he initially saw him play in his rookie season.
“He plays so slow… it’s hard because he goes from slow to fast so easily and he just so smooth with it. I love his game. At first, I didn’t, when he first came into the league because I’m like all he does is stepback threes and they be short as hell. He’s shooting like 27%-30% from the three-point line early on. I’m like this is the guy? But playing against someone I think they beat us by 40 when I was with Golden State and he was controlling every possession and I was like, ‘Yeah he nice.’ His game just start expanding.”
The game KD is talking about is probably Luka’s last game against them in his rookie season, where he had 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists as the Mavs won 126-91. Performances like those have become the norm for Luka these days as he has firmly established himself as one of the best players in the league.
Chris Broussard even believes that Luka will go on to have a better career than Durant, while Hall-of-Famer Tim Hardaway said that Luka at 23 is better than LeBron at the same age. We are talking about two of the all-time greats here in KD and LeBron and for Luka to get such high praise shows just how good he has been.
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