That's a nice straw man you're constructing there. Passing on Luka did not occur in a vacuum. The Kings didn't say no to Doncic only to walk away with nothing. They selected Marvin Bagley in the draft instead. So if the choice you're offering is between James Harden and a comparable big name talent like, say, Anthony Davis, then yes, I absolutely say no to Harden. I take Davis instead, because he fits better with our core pieces.
My problem with the way many talk about Doncic in this thread is the notion that there is somehow a massive gulf between Doncic's talent level and Bagley's talent level. Personally, I just don't see what they're seeing. I don't see a "generational" talent in Luka Doncic. Yet. There are huge gaps in Luka's game currently, just like there are huge gaps in Marvin's game currently. Either of them could be hampered by those gaps. Both of them could be hampered by those gaps. Either of them could be headed for stardom. Both of them could be headed for stardom.
First of all Luka plays much more valuable position and has much more valuable skillset. Disclaimer: the following is purely an example on positional value, not a player comparison. When Steve Nash and Stoudamire played in Phoenix, they were both considered elite, all star and max salary level players. Still, Nash was way more valuable to that team and its not even close. If you disagree we can talk about that more but atm i'm not going to focus on argumenting that point any further. But thats just one example on why ball handling playmakers are so valuable and much more valuable than players who are more finishers than creators.
And I'm not even going to go into the "but we already have Fox" argument. It has been used constantly and every time it gets shot down by simply saying that elite teams almost all have at least couple of elite offensive creators and so on.
But thats already one huge thing that creates cap between Luka and Bagley, positional value and the value of different skillsets. Other thing is that at this moment, Luka is clearly the superior player. Plays a role that is far more challenging and produces lot more value to his team.
Those are couple reasons on why people talk like there is a big gap between these players.
Simply put, Doncic is not a sure thing. There is no combination of advanced metrics that we could throw together that illustrate how Doncic is a "generational" talent, a future hall of famer. Yes, the raw stats are impressive, but they come by way of extraordinarily high usage, and more to the point, we should be wary of all raw stats for every player in the 2018-2019 season. The freedom of movement rules and the quickening pace of the game are juicing the counting stats league-wide. It's as if steroids have come to the NBA. Per game numbers are on the rise. Guys are scoring 50 with regularity. It doesn't tell us much about what's happening on the floor.
It's taken me years to get on board with advanced metrics, but I've finally come around in the last few seasons. And there's never been a more important time to rely on advanced metrics to explain what's actually happening on an NBA court because of how deceptive the raw stats are becoming in the modern NBA. The names that get used as comparison points to Doncic are not yet instructive names to be offering. Compare the metrics of Doncic's rookie season so far to Lebron's, to Durant's, to Harden's, hell, compare it to Tyreke's. You'll see a defensively-deficient turnover machine who is shooting very well from outside, but struggles to get to the rim and isn't exactly having a very big impact on winning (especially when you take the time to examine Dallas' bench, from which much of their positive production is coming as a team).
What if you compare Lukas rookie advanced stats to Fox's? What if you compare Fox's to Tyreekes? Does it mean that since rookie Tyreeke dominates rookie Fox in advanced metrics, Fox has a limited ceiling? Does these comparisons mean that Luka is going to be a lot better than Fox since Lukas rookie metrics are better than Fox's and your prediction model seems to suggest that?
When talking about advanced stats for rookie ball handling creators, its usually good to remember that those guys doesnt contribute to winning basketball very often as rookies. Fox had trash advancee metrics in his rookie season, one of the worst RPM's in the whole league if I remember correctly. Also using Tyreekes stats is pretty much pointless since he had quite amazing stats for a rookie. Then injuries happened and lack of developement on crucial aspects like shooting and finishing.
Also I'm pretty sure that more than enough rookies will have worse rookie metrics than the second best player to ever play the game of basketball. No one has predicted that Luka will be in discussion with Jordan and Lebron for the best to ever done it so comparing their metrics seems quite worthless to me.
All of this is to say, once again, that I think Luka Doncic is already very good today. But will he be great tomorrow? That's a question that is very much up for debate, despite what some of you are choosing to believe. And because it's up for debate, because it's not yet clear that Doncic is some godsend to the league, a generational talent the likes of which the NBA has never seen, I don't see how it's some massive error that the Kings' front office chose to draft Marvin Bagley, a young player who clearly has a lot of upside and an unstoppable motor to match.
You are entitled to your opinion. My opinion is that I would take the already very good 19 year old playing the most valuable role rather than the 19 year old who plays less valuable role and "who has a lot of upside" aka he has to improve lot of things in order to become "even" a good player.
No one can ever know for certain what happens in the future but at least we know what has happened to this date and to this date Luka has been a lot better than Marvin. We also know approximetly how valuable different roles, positions and skillsets are in general compared to each other. You cant see how some people think that this was a massive error? Well the reason why I think it was a massive error is that combining thos two things above we can form an opinion that suggests that Doncic wouldve clearly been the better pick. Then we can start trying to predict future and developement of these players. Im just saying that Bagley has a lot to develope to even become as good as Doncic is already (plus then there is that difference in positional value). And for that reason even if I would predict that Bagley will tap more into his potential in the future, I would still pick Doncic 100 times out of 100.