Has Luka Doncic Lived up to the Hype Since Joining the Lakers?
Going on his seventh season within the NBA at 26 years old, we all can agree that Luka Doncic is an amazing player. Since his rookie season, Doncic has been selected for five All-NBA First Team selections, and led the league last season in points per game while finishing second in assists per game, only behind Tyrese Haliburton. “Luka Magic” is undeniable, and he is as entertaining to watch as he is skilled. In my opinion, Doncic has yet to meet his full potential, and has several years in store before he meets what is typically considered an athlete’s peak performance. After a bombshell trade from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers, Doncic has had to face an inevitable adjustment period on his new team, in terms of playing with a new roster alongside LeBron James, while coming back from a hamstring injury, his longest injury to date. After a month and a half of Doncic joining the Lakers, how has his performance been thus far?
Although many were skeptical at first, Luka Doncic has proved to be a great fit alongside LeBron James. Initially, it was unclear who the offense was attempting to run through, and there was a great deal of deference between James and Doncic, two prolific NBA superstars. However, after adjustments were made so that the offense would be running through Doncic as the primary ball handler, with James playing more off-ball, their chemistry has improved greatly. From a pure statistics standpoint, compared to his performance last season, Doncic has slightly declined, going from 33.9 points, 9.8 assists, and 9.2 rebounds per game with the Mavericks to 26.1 points, 7.6 assists, and 8.6 rebounds per game with the Lakers. Although numbers don’t tell the whole story, and he is still putting up an excellent statline, when watching Doncic play, it is clear he has lost some of the explosiveness he carried earlier in his career, even compared to last season. With the Lakers so far, he is less successfully able to score by driving into the paint, and settles for taking more contested shots from the three-point line; although you still have confidence that he can make these shots, they will inevitably have a lower percentage of completion, and are supportive of Doncic’s declining physical condition. Doncic’s style of play does not rely largely on speed and athleticism, but these traits are still necessary to an extent for a point guard to thrive in the NBA. Although his stepback is pure, Doncic’s playing history corroborates that he is capable of finding higher percentage shots in certain moments with some added athleticism from his current state. Especially evident in the current absence of starters LeBron James, Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura for the Lakers, Doncic’s ability to dominate a game with little help is further limited by his lack of physical conditioning.
Although Luka Doncic is still finding his footing coming back from a long injury onto a completely new team, and clearly the Mavericks organization’s gripes and justifications of trading him over his physical fitness were way overblown, he would greatly benefit by prioritizing his conditioning over the offseason. Even last season, when he finished third in MVP voting, improving his physical fitness would have turned him into an even greater monster on the court. He is also clearly capable of doing so; one should only look at the speed and explosiveness he embodied in his rookie season to see that. If Luka Doncic can recover this level of fitness, which should not be too difficult given he is only 26 years old, and combine that with his current level of skill, he can truly become the scariest offensive threat to face within the NBA. As importantly, his development, alongside a healthy roster with another solid center alongside Jaxson Hayes, could propel the Los Angeles Lakers to another championship season.
