Luka Doncic has always been the first option for scoring on any team he has been on in the NBA. But over the years, his partners at the helm have changed.
He recently appeared on Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady’s show, ‘Cousins,’ and was asked about which teammate over the years he has shared the best chemistry with. Doncic claimed it was the Mavericks’ 33-year-old guard, Kyrie Irving.
“I’ll probably say Kyrie,” responded Doncic. “It took some took us some time. He came in the middle of the season. You know, that year we weren’t good. Like, we didn’t have the chemistry we had next year.”
“That’s always talk about preseason like that, preseason helped us a lot, and that team that we had, you know, we went to the finals, it was not just Kai and me, everybody had [great chemistry]. Everybody knew their role, and everybody had great chemistry.”
Irving was traded to the Mavericks from the Nets on the trade deadline day of the 2022-23 season. Dallas failed to reach the postseason that year and drafted Dereck Lively II in the summer.
Subsequently, after a single summer spent together, Irving and Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2024 for the first time in their history since 2011. The Slovenian guard highlighted the importance of a good preseason to building team chemistry.
Now that Doncic has been traded from the Mavericks, the Lakers’ fans would hope he has built the same chemistry with LeBron James in the preseason, after a kind of ‘deja vu’ experience with a first-round exit in the playoffs last year.
His answer might change after this season, as the general sentiment in the Lakers’ locker room remains that they are built for a deep playoff run and not the top seed in the West. Showing a sense of confidence despite being plagued by a lack of consistency from players in the regular season.
Meanwhile, Irving hasn’t played basketball since March 2025. One month after Doncic was traded, Irving tore the ACL in his left knee and has been sidelined since, on the verge of a potential comeback now.
When McGrady followed up with Doncic on whether he had seen anyone as skilled with the ball as Irving before playing with him in his career, the Lakers superstar confidently refused.
Even though Doncic is currently having an MVP-caliber season, averaging 33.4 points, 8.7 assists, and 7.9 rebounds while shooting 47.5% from the field, the metrics for generating the best chemistry would also be which duo yielded the best results.
Doncic has been close friends with certainly all of his teammates and previous second options, like Jalen Brunson and Kristaps Porzingis. But objectively, the results also determine how good the chemistry was.
While James or Reaves are not as skilled as Irving when it comes to ball-handling, if Doncic manages to win it all with the Lakers, his answer to the original question may certainly change.
