The ONE AND ONLY Luka Doncic discussion thread

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SLAB

Hall of Famer
I was like that too I defended every Vlade move no matter what until the Boogie trade but I recovered, but Luka man this hurts
It took me a full season to recover from Boogie. Then we got the 2 pick and I screamed from the rooftops how we were saved because we were getting Doncic.

To many hurts in a long list from a franchise that only exists to torture their fans.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
VF21 let's be honest, would you feel the same way if Pete D'Allesandro made the same draft decision? Could your love for Vlade be effecting your objectivity? You seem really hesitant to even remotely question any of Vlade's decisions.

You had no problem jumping on the Gerbil anti-Pete bandwagon.
I had no problem jumping on the anti-Pete bandwagon because I met him in person and couldn't believe what a smarmy little weasel he was. I also knew people whose jobs were lost because of his weasality... the only honest thing about him was his dishonesty.

I have questioned Vlade's decisions but I have a lot of respect for what he has done over the years, both here and in Serbia. If you think that affects my objectivity, that's on you. I think people are all too quick to blame him when overall he's done an incredible job in rebuilding a franchise AND a fanbase that was just about demolished. Look at the crew he has put around himself. They're here NOT BECAUSE OF VIVEK but because of Vlade Divac. I firrmly believe he deserves much better than what some have given him.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Sadly, my relationship with the team will never be the same until Vlade is gone. Skipping Doncic is an unforgivable mistake, as solid as he’s been otherwise.

It’s a dark cloud hanging over mine and the team’s head I have chosen not to deal with.
 
Actually if we skipped on Luka cause Vlade didn’t like his dad than I like that. That’s better than skipping on him due to talent or fit cause that means we’re ****ed no matter what
 
Nah
Whatever. I've been part of this fanbase since 1985. I've seen painful in a way you couldn't even imagine. Ever hear of Ricky Berry?

It's the hand-wringing drama that I'm objecting to from a few in here.

SLAB has been around forever. I get his angst. He and I have exchanged thoughts, disagreements, etc. for a very long time. I know what he means and hopefully he knows what I mean.

You think I don't realize what an incredible talent Luka is? We had a chance at him and didn't take it. Horrible decision? Quite possibly but at what point do you quit whining about it? You're on a Kings board but I see very few comments about anything but how horrible the FO is, how great Doncic is, and how any of us who don't agree completely with what you and a few others say are just fools.

Go back to the spilled milk. Eventually you're gonna realize it's dried up and blown away and you still can't get it back.
vf, he is getting better and better. It’s gonna get worse. There is no way to explain this away and there is no way to complain about people complaining about not drafting Luca. Spilled milk? Your damned right. Get over it? HELL NO. And it’s gonna get worse the better he gets. You better get use to it.........
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Sadly, my relationship with the team will never be the same until Vlade is gone. Skipping Doncic is an unforgivable mistake, as solid as he’s been otherwise.

It’s a dark cloud hanging over mine and the team’s head I have chosen not to deal with.
No offense, dear SLAB, but you're dealing with it. Just not very well.
 
I feel as some here. I’ve taken a step back until a competent Gm is hired. It’s embarassing that vlade is still the GM here and it’s extra embarrassing, IMO, that such a bad Gm is tolerated by the fan base. Run his a$$ out on a rail.

kings fans may not want to hear about doncic but when he comes in here and drops a 45 spot on us with his sub par team that has a better record than us there will be no choice.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
(Luka) is the straw that broke my back. I just don’t care anymore.
This is clearly untrue. You care, and you care a lot. You care enough that you felt the need to post about Luka 39 times and counting in the past week.

As an instructive example, I don't care about quilting bees. And true to form, I have never once gone online to quilting forums to complain about how Bertie Silverstedt used the gingham instead of the paisley. I don't attend quilting bees, I don't keep track of Bertie's stitches per minute, and as a matter of fact, I don't even know how quilting bees work. THAT is how to not care. What you're doing is decidedly the opposite of not caring.
 
Sadly, my relationship with the team will never be the same until Vlade is gone. Skipping Doncic is an unforgivable mistake, as solid as he’s been otherwise.

It’s a dark cloud hanging over mine and the team’s head I have chosen not to deal with.
It's a dark cloud over your head but I doubt it's anything over the team head. They're winning and learning to play with each other despite missing a large chunk of their core.
 
Dallas is playing the Clippers next. If he is ever going to get "clamped and abused" this would be the night. He will be guarded by Kawhi and George (the rest of the team is not that bad defensively either).
 
Actually if we skipped on Luka cause Vlade didn’t like his dad than I like that. That’s better than skipping on him due to talent or fit cause that means we’re ****ed no matter what
I understand your point, that it wasn’t about Vlade not recognising talent but instead personalities.
For me that makes it worse. I always liked the idea Vlade was dialed into and should have had a heads up the Europe league, I liked that about Petrie too. This news about Luka’s dad just makes me think Vlades connections are a liabilty, and his judgement was detrimental to the Kings.
I have always thought there was more to the passing on Luka than Bagleys percieved better talent or fit with Fox. I actually reconed team Luka made it clear Sacramento was not a destination they wanted, but if the dad story is true Vlade just lost a lot of my respect as a GM.
 
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I have questioned Vlade's decisions but I have a lot of respect for what he has done over the years, both here and in Serbia. If you think that affects my objectivity, that's on you. I think people are all too quick to blame him when overall he's done an incredible job in rebuilding a franchise AND a fanbase that was just about demolished. Look at the crew he has put around himself. They're here NOT BECAUSE OF VIVEK but because of Vlade Divac. I firrmly believe he deserves much better than what some have given him.
You have questioned his decisions? On here? I have not seen much of that if any.

Absolutely Vlade has done some positive things for this franchise over the last few years. (See Post #558 that I made in this thread giving him credit for his leadership and his honesty).

His draft picks have not been good though, that's a fact. When you are running a franchise that is rebuilding, the draft is perhaps the most important part of your job. Unfortunately that is the one part of his job he is not doing well at all.

You and some others here seem to be very hesitant to admit he blew the Luka draft and keep saying things like "possibly got it wrong", "give it time", "wait and see", etc.......... what is there to wait for? The consensus pick that he should have drafted is averaging 30/10/9 and having an MVP caliber year at 20 years old. Luka could have been doing that here with more talent around him and a playoff berth highly likely.

Luka isn't just suddenly going to regress and turn into Adam Morrison next year. Likewise Marvin Bagley (who I do think could be an all-star) is very unlikely to play at an MVP type level anytime soon. Nonsense about giving it more time and letting it play out. You already know what Luka is and even at his best Bagley won't be able to match it.

I'd be quicker to let it go and turn the page so to speak if some in this thread would quit trying to pretend he didn't blow it (let alone a few that still think Bagley was the better pick). The constant spin and justification for making the wrong pick is half the equation for what is giving this thread so much life.
 
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For a player grew up playing against Euroleague defenses, NBA regular season just looks like a 82-games scrimmage.

As I've already said, LeBron wasn't this good at the same age.
 
Nah

vf, he is getting better and better. It’s gonna get worse. There is no way to explain this away and there is no way to complain about people complaining about not drafting Luca. Spilled milk? Your damned right. Get over it? HELL NO. And it’s gonna get worse the better he gets. You better get use to it.........
Even if every one of us on this board gets over it, this ain't going away. You know how Bowie over Jordan is branded into the public consciousness? What's the first thing that enters people's minds when they hear "Portland Trail Blazers"? It's either that or Oden over Durant.

That's what this is.
 
You were spot on. That team would be unwatchably bad if something happened to Luka. I would guess that nobody was playing hard at that point in the game anyway so there wasn't much harm in leaving him in for another 5 min or so, but still. It would have looked real bad if something did happen.

I also hope that at some point you're able to look past all the chest pounding taking place here (which is a bit much I agree, even as a Luka, err, enthusiast I guess is the right word) and enjoy watching the kid play basketball sometime just as a fan of the game. We only play the Mavs 3 or 4 times a year. The rest of the time you can still enjoy seeing a unique talent do his thing every once in awhile. It'd be a shame if the very vocal contingent of draft mourners here have ruined any chance of that for you forever. I'm a Kings fan but I can still appreciate a good play regardless of team affiliation. Nothing Luka does at this point is actively harming the Kings anyway, unless it's the playoffs in which case he's just gonna have to lose, obviously.
I echo your thoughts.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
For a player grew up playing against Euroleague defenses, NBA regular season just looks like a 82-games scrimmage.

As I've already said, LeBron wasn't this good at the same age.
The pace and style of the game has changed since Lebron was Luka's age. Luka has been ridiculously good but let's draw the line before we start calling him better than the greatest physical specimen and singular talent the sport has seen since perhaps Wilt.
 
The thing that's shocked me about Luka is how easily he gets into the lane very few slower PG's have had that ability in recent times (Andre Miller when he was young got where ever he wanted), there are times he's blocked off but literally 80-90% of the time he gets to the exact spot he wants to get to it's really remarkable I thought he would have way bigger issues against the speed of NBA player but not the case.
 
The thing that's shocked me about Luka is how easily he gets into the lane very few slower PG's have had that ability in recent times (Andre Miller when he was young got where ever he wanted), there are times he's blocked off but literally 80-90% of the time he gets to the exact spot he wants to get to it's really remarkable I thought he would have way bigger issues against the speed of NBA player but not the case.
The exact reason why I capped his ppg so low I thought he’d score more in pick and roles but he’s getting his in iso situation
 
You have questioned his decisions? On here? I have not seen much of that if any.

Absolutely Vlade has done some positive things for this franchise over the last few years. (See Post #558 that I made in this thread giving him credit for his leadership and his honesty).

His draft picks have not been good though, that's a fact. When you are running a franchise that is rebuilding, the draft is perhaps the most important part of your job. Unfortunately that is the one part of his job he is not doing well at all.

You and some others here seem to be very hesitant to admit he blew the Luka draft and keep saying things like "possibly got it wrong", "give it time", "wait and see", etc.......... what is there to wait for? The consensus pick that he should have drafted is averaging 30/10/9 and having an MVP caliber year at 20 years old. Luka could have been doing that here with more talent around him and a playoff berth highly likely.

Luka isn't just suddenly going to regress and turn into Adam Morrison next year. Likewise Marvin Bagley (who I do think could be an all-star) is very unlikely to play at an MVP type level anytime soon. Nonsense about giving it more time and letting it play out. You already know what Luka is and even at his best Bagley won't be able to match it.

I'd be quicker to let it go and turn the page so to speak if some in this thread would quit trying to pretend he didn't blow it (let alone a few that still think Bagley was the better pick). The constant spin and justification for making the wrong pick is half the equation for what is giving this thread so much life.
If you want an example where VF21 was livid at Vlade, go to the thread where DMC was traded. You will see where she removed her avatar in protest. Her avatar had been a staple of hers forever.

In regards to Vlade's "honesty," go back to when he got the job. Cold blooded. There are other examples such as the DMC trade.

He has made questionable trades that appear to be made for the players benefit.
 
let's draw the line before we start calling him better than the greatest physical specimen and singular talent the sport has seen since perhaps Wilt.
Your mention of Wilt reminds me of something I read yesterday. If Doncic maintains his current PER through the rest of the year, he will top Wilt by a point or two*, and have the highest in NBA history. While I fully appreciate the absurdity of comparing these particular players, who have so little in common, the sports press have now done it, and despite the awful comparison, they do make some kind of point. I can still look at Luka vs Wilt and laugh, but it's not a comfortable sort of laugh.

*Peak Wilt ('62-3) = 31.8, current Doncic = 33.35
 
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Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
If you want an example where VF21 was livid at Vlade, go to the thread where DMC was traded. You will see where she removed her avatar in protest. Her avatar had been a staple of hers forever.
While it is true that VF21 replaced her avatar for a time, you can't go back and check. Avatar data isn't saved with the post, it is just looked up from the user profile, so once you change you avatar ALL of your posts have the new avatar regardless of what avatar you had when they were posted.
 
While it is true that VF21 replaced her avatar for a time, you can't go back and check. Avatar data isn't saved with the post, it is just looked up from the user profile, so once you change you avatar ALL of your posts have the new avatar regardless of what avatar you had when they were posted.
Details. Since I haven't changed mine forever, I hadn't noticed. However, I will stand by my statement of her being livid at Vlade for the handling of the DMC trade. And that was my point not that it matters.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
While it is true that VF21 replaced her avatar for a time, you can't go back and check. Avatar data isn't saved with the post, it is just looked up from the user profile, so once you change you avatar ALL of your posts have the new avatar regardless of what avatar you had when they were posted.
No offense, fellow mod, but "for a time"? I took down my Vlade avatar for months. If you go to the thread @whozit mentioned, I think I actually announced my actions. This, though, isn't the point. @sergmatt took one small part of my comment and totally disregarded the rest. He says he'd be more inclined to "let it go and turn the page" if I (and others) would only admit the grievous error Vlade made in not drafting Luka. I call "shenanigans"... He and others aren't going to let it go, no matter what.
 
He says he'd be more inclined to "let it go and turn the page" if I (and others) would only admit the grievous error Vlade made in not drafting Luka. I call "shenanigans"... He and others aren't going to let it go, no matter what.
Not true. Time ultimately heals all wounds and not enough time has surpassed. We're certainly not going to let it go this early though. Like I said the excuses and spin are not helping either. If the Kings miss the playoffs again this year (and the Mavericks get in) then it's definitely not going away for a while.
 
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