Doncic is a better prospect than Nik and I'm not comparing the two..just for anyone who might think I am. I'm still a little puzzled that Stauskas was a bust, but one conclusion I've come to is that I massively overlooked his lack of athleticism when it came to the NBA. Stauskas has a slow first-step and it lead to his inability to take defenders off the dribble. He'd occasionally settle for the step back jumper which we saw this a lot at Michigan. In the NBA, there are only a handful of players who have successfully incorporated the step back jumper into their game. Stauskas also struggled to change direction which severely hampered his ability just getting to the 2nd level of defenders. He never had a kick after his initial move. For Nik, the only successful drives he had to the basket were off-ball. Without developing elite-tier handles, his on-ball scoring never came to fruition. The rest of the game? not sure.
Yeah pretty much this. Lack of quickness, burst, change of direction, vertical, and lateral speed. The biggest thing for me is that I think he'll need to find an effective way to beat defenders off the dribble and also create more separation. He's a strong 19yearold and he relied on his strength to bully opponents while attacking the rim. In the NBA, trying to power people on the drive will usually result in turnovers. Through PnR, we'll see him get past his defender when they try to fight through it, but then he'll struggle to change gears vs. the secondary defenders and it allows the big man catch up. Sometimes instead of taking it up strong, he'll fall backwards or sideways and try to finesse it in. What are some ways he can compensate for his lack of athleticism? He's fallen in love with the step back jumper, but I don't think it's necessarily the best % shot. We're seeing small glimpses of a post up fade-away which could help makeup for his deficiencies. Increasing his ball handling skills would be the best thing for him. Right now, I think his ball handling is a level better than Bogdan's, but he needs to add more advanced dribbles. Maybe he can navigate through defenses with just his IQ alone? Maybe attack at the right angles?
I just think there are a lot of questions to be answered with his athleticism, specifically as a scorer. I've seen a lot of people brush away his lack of athleticism by saying he can do A, B, C, and D. However, it doesn't directly answer the question. So I appreciate your response a lot. Hopefully the NBA can reshape his body. Cut 15-20lbs, build up strength again. Doncic just has a different hill to climb with his lack of athleticism, but every prospect has a hill. If you take away Trae Young, Doncic is my very close #2. I know he'll at least be an NBA starter as long as his head is in the right place(nothing really to suggest otherwise). For me, I think the Kings are just in a weird state where I personally don't think we have a true #1 scorer yet. Picking as high as #2, I'd hope we can find that player. For that reason, it's why I'm perfectly fine with entertaining other names at #2 who don't have the same great skillset as Doncic, but they have higher scoring potential.
Doncic is one of the most divisive players I've seen in a long time. It's not just on KFs, but everywhere.