It didn’t take long before Luka Doncic proved to the rest of the world that passing on him in the NBA Draft was a huge mistake. He looks like a generational talent and a player that could be at the top of the MVP conversation night in and night out.
Luka is already a superstar. He’s got the talent, the platform, the charisma, and the intangibles that make people from all over the world simply fall in love with his game.
But more than that, Doncic has the potential to amaze you every single time he sets foot on a basketball hardwood, and that, according to Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, puts him in the same category as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James:
“At any time, you can see something you’ve never seen before. I played with Bird. For three years straight, I watched, and that was the feeling when you watched him every single night. Magic Johnson was the same kind of player. Really, LeBron James is the same kind of player, too. These guys can do anything on a basketball court,” Carlisle told Tim McMahon of ESPN.
The coach went on to elaborate that those who slept on him because of his apparent lack of strength, speed, and athleticism never realized that he’s actually all those things in his own way:
“There’s just a perception that players that are big and strong just aren’t going to be able to do it, because how could they possibly be quick enough. But one of the things that you find out about Luka when you see him day-to-day is that he’s not only strong, but he’s quick and powerful and fast — and deceptively so in all those areas,” Carlisle added.
Rick Carlisle also explained that sliding him to the point guard position – when they had another young, promising player like Dennis Smith Jr on that spot – was an easy decision given the way he was naturally making reads and pulling the strings of the offense:
“He was playing the point and he was seeing everything, he was making amazing passes look so simple,” Carlisle said. “He was impacting every part of the game. He was getting a lot of rebounds. He was finding people on time, on target. It was clear that he could play point guard, let’s put it that way,” he concluded.
The best part is that Doncic is only going to get better. He’s turning into one of the best players in the league right before our eyes, and the best is still yet to come for him.
