The ONE AND ONLY Luka Doncic discussion thread

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The only people “dreading” Bagleys return to the lineup are you and the other Lukaphiles. The vast majority of Kings fans can’t wait to get him back in the line up, not to mention the coaches and players.
Somewhat amusing for me to sit back and watch both sides, and see the side which apparently has no interest in Luka who plays for another team, pop into this thread with increased regularity, bring emotion and strawman with them and now resort to calling others Luka stans and Lukaphiles.
 
. There is no doubt in my mind why Luka is the golden boy and others who play the same type of style are crucified for it.
I think Luka is easy to root for for several reasons. One, he is just a really nice kid. Always has a smile on his face and seems to be liked by his teammates. Two, in some ways, he is the underdog. The unathletic pudgy kid who is dominating at the highest level in basketball. Three, a lot of us like crafty players who can make the slick pass setting up teammates. All the better when you are a triple double threat every night and the best player on a 12-6 team in the west at 20 years old.
 
So are we gonna rip into Luka for blatantly stat hunting like we all did when Russ and Rondo were at their peaks or does that only apply to non-Europeans?
What stat? Points? That's about the only stat he appeared to be hunting at the end.

42/9/11 and a good road win despite only getting offensive help from Hardway Jr...........but hey Tetsujin let's focus on BS like usual and ignore the fact that he had a great game (again) in a win.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
So are we gonna rip into Luka for blatantly stat hunting like we all did when Russ and Rondo were at their peaks or does that only apply to non-Europeans?
I didn’t watch the game, so care to elaborate on this one? I usually agree with your takes my dude, but you’re going all in on the anti-Doncic. I get it, Kings fans gonna support the team and moves, but at the expense of belittling the other guy?

Also, I get this too.... The people (very much me) who refuse let it go can get annoying. But it doesn’t/shouldn’t take away from what this kid is doing.

41/9/11 from a 20 year old kid in his second season, and it isn’t even remarkable. It’s just Luka doing Luka things. That’s incredible. Luka fans / the non-Luka guys. Take all the glasses and pain and emotion and whatever away, look at it strictly as only basketball it’s just freakin’ incredible.
 
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I didn’t watch the game, so care to elaborate on this one? I usually agree with your takes my dude, but you’re going all in on the anti-Doncic. I get it, Kings fans gonna support the team and moves, but at the expense of belittling the other guy?
Tetsujin is just trolling this thread continually with nonsense that's only mildly pertinent, trying to get a rise out of guys like you and I. Apparently it's working because I'm a sucker for continually responding to it.

Luka wasn't stat padding. Luka grabbed his 9th rebound with 5:40 to go in the game.

He needed just one more to get another 40/10/11 Triple Double. If Luka truly was a stat hunter that only cares about his numbers, I don't think it would be all that difficult to grab that last rebound over the last 5+ minutes of the game. Yet somehow he didn't.
 
41/9/11 from a 20 year old kid in his second season, and it isn’t even remarkable. It’s just Luka doing Luka things. That’s incredible
I wasn’t a Luka guy but go no problems saying I was wrong. I knew after the first half of last season I was wrong about him. Doubting this kid is a foolish hill to die on.
 
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Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
I didn’t watch the game, so care to elaborate on this one? I usually agree with your takes my dude, but you’re going all in on the anti-Doncic. I get it, Kings fans gonna support the team and moves, but at the expense of belittling the other guy?

Also, I get this too.... The people (very much me) who refuse let it go can get annoying. But it doesn’t/shouldn’t take away from what this kid is doing.

41/9/11 from a 20 year old kid in his second season, and it isn’t even remarkable. It’s just Luka doing Luka things. That’s incredible. Luka fans / the non-Luka guys. Take all the glasses and pain and emotion and whatever away, look at it strictly as only basketball it’s still freakin’ incredible.
He was one board shy of the triple double and he was not shy about trying to get it.
 
Tetsujin is just trolling this thread continually with nonsense that's only mildly pertinent, trying to get a rise out of guys like you and I. Apparently it's working because I'm a sucker for continually responding to it.

Luka wasn't stat padding. Luka grabbed his 9th rebound with 5:40 to go in the game.

He needed just one more to get another 40/10/11 Triple Double. If Luka truly was a stat hunter that only cares about his numbers, I don't think it would be all that difficult to grab that last rebound over the last 5+ minutes of the game. Yet somehow he didn't.
Ya if he was stat hunting that 10th rebound would’ve came by 5 minutes
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I didn’t watch the game, so care to elaborate on this one? I usually agree with your takes my dude, but you’re going all in on the anti-Doncic. I get it, Kings fans gonna support the team and moves, but at the expense of belittling the other guy?

Also, I get this too.... The people (very much me) who refuse let it go can get annoying. But it doesn’t/shouldn’t take away from what this kid is doing.

41/9/11 from a 20 year old kid in his second season, and it isn’t even remarkable. It’s just Luka doing Luka things. That’s incredible. Luka fans / the non-Luka guys. Take all the glasses and pain and emotion and whatever away, look at it strictly as only basketball it’s just freakin’ incredible.
I actually have no problem at all in agreeing with this. Maybe at some point it will be more about what he's doing and not what uniform he's (not) doing it in. I could easily live with that.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Not a 40 point triple double? Wow, what a loser.
I heard his defense is lacking though and his team only beats cupcakes. He’s a paper champion.
Come on guys. You're making it pretty impossible for anyone to try and extend any kind of olive branch. Or is that what you want? Just curious... I know I said I'd stay out of here but it's hard not to pop in when NBA history is being made.

As SLAB said in the post I quoted above, if you look at it strictly as only basketball you cannot help but be mindboggled.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Come on guys. You're making it pretty impossible for anyone to try and extend any kind of olive branch. Or is that what you want? Just curious... I know I said I'd stay out of here but it's hard not to.

As SLAB said in the post I quoted above, if you look at it strictly as only basketball you cannot help but be mindboggled.
Can you admit it goes a little both ways though.

“Lukaphiles?” From the last page? “Luka Stans” to a lesser extent.

The silly attempts to bring what the kid is doing down because he has his loud group of fans here?

I’m pretty sure if the whole Kings situation never happened there would still be a pretty active thread about watching something special happen. We’re not a dumb bunch of fans at this place. And we know what we’re seeing.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Come on guys. You're making it pretty impossible for anyone to try and extend any kind of olive branch. Or is that what you want? Just curious... I know I said I'd stay out of here but it's hard not to pop in when NBA history is being made.

As SLAB said in the post I quoted above, if you look at it strictly as only basketball you cannot help but be mindboggled.
I am mindboggled but I am also gonna call people out when they complain about stat hunting and free throw drawing for one dude but magically see nothing wrong when another dude does it.

I could be more careful with my words and rhetoric and, trust me, I am trying to tone it down but I am gonna call Luka stans out when it calls for it just as I call out Bron-stans or Harden-stans or Kobe-stans.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Can you admit it goes a little both ways though.

“Lukaphiles?” From the last page? “Luka Stans” to a lesser extent.

The silly attempts to bring what the kid is doing down because he has his loud group of fans here?

I’m pretty sure if the whole Kings situation never happened there would still be a pretty active thread about watching something special happen. We’re not a dumb bunch of fans at this place. And we know what we’re seeing.
Where was the Westbrook thread?
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Can you admit it goes a little both ways though.

“Lukaphiles?” From the last page? “Luka Stans” to a lesser extent.

The silly attempts to bring what the kid is doing down because he has his loud group of fans here?
Really? I try to get away from being involved in that and you want to drag me back in? I just said "NBA history is being made"... (I edited my post after you quoted it).

Some of the "loud group of fans here" have been obnoxious and pretty much anti-King, anti-Vlade, etc. If someone wants to refer to them as "Lukaphiles" or "Luka stans" that's on them. I much prefer the term "Doncicians" which I use to refer to those who want to make everything about Luka Doncic.

How does what any of them say become an "attempt to bring what the kid is doing down"? I seriously doubt if anyone in the NBA is going to judge Doncic by what is written on a message board.

Kingsfans.com has fought through the ages over various things. Remember the Peja-Webber wars? The Evans-Rubio pre-draft debate? This time, the only real difference is that one part of the argument isn't even a King.

All I ask of any of you is that you keep it civil. I've tried to tone down some of my commentary but it does indeed go both ways. Some of the responses I've gotten haven't exactly given me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Bottom line, whether he's a King or not, he's making NBA history right now. People may not admit it, but if they really love the game there's no way they're not watching. If the draft debate was removed from the equation, I think we'd all be openly rooting for the kid to succeed.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Where was the Westbrook thread?
Come on, Tetsujin. That's just baiting. Russell Westbrook was never going to be a King. There weren't discussions of him coming to Sacramento. That's also the reason there isn't a LBJ thread or a Joel Embiid thread, etc.
 
Somewhat amusing for me to sit back and watch both sides, and see the side which apparently has no interest in Luka who plays for another team, pop into this thread with increased regularity, bring emotion and strawman with them and now resort to calling others Luka stans and Lukaphiles.
FWIW, I do have interest in Luka, as he’s currently putting up monster numbers for my fantasy team.:D Perhaps the “Lukaphile” comment was a bit much, but I do take issue when I feel like posters (not you, but some in general) feel the need to denigrate Bagley to elevate Luka even more. His play more than stands up on its own, as you know.
I felt like his comment about people “dreading” Bagleys return was a bit much, a bit overblown and a cheap shot toward our player that has played 1 game for us this year, hence my comment.

As most of my commenting history would show, I’m very much “front of the jersey” fan. I’m generally optimistic by nature and look for the good in most situations. By no means does this make me blind to reality. I can see what’s going on around me. I know my favorite team in all professional sports has been horribly mismanaged, I know we’ve missed on picks, and I know we missed on Luka. That being said, from what I saw from Bagley in college and what I saw from Bagley last year. This isn’t a we drafted Darko, we drafted Bowie, we drafted Johnny Flynn type of situation, We drafted a potential all star. Did we miss on the potential HOF? Yeah, it looks like we did. Will it end up costing Vlade his job? Maybe. I feel like we still have a young talented roster that if it lives up to its potential can compete in the playoffs, we shall see.

There has been plenty of Snark, strawmen, and emotion on both sides of the Luka fence. If I’ve contributed to that, I’m sorry. I will limit my comments in the Luka thread going forward to comments surrounding HIS play only.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I am mindboggled but I am also gonna call people out when they complain about stat hunting and free throw drawing for one dude but magically see nothing wrong when another dude does it.

I could be more careful with my words and rhetoric and, trust me, I am trying to tone it down but I am gonna call Luka stans out when it calls for it just as I call out Bron-stans or Harden-stans or Kobe-stans.
Fair comment. Come over towards my side. It's not that bad...and I've got adult beverages and cookies. :p
 
Come on, Tetsujin. That's just baiting. Russell Westbrook was never going to be a King. There weren't discussions of him coming to Sacramento. That's also the reason there isn't a LBJ thread or a Joel Embiid thread, etc.
also I’m not sure Russ played a winning brand of basketball and I was one of his biggest supporters
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
What was Westbrook doing in his second season and also at age 20?

20: 15/5/5
2nd season: 16/8/5

The fact he’s doing what he’s doing so young in his career is part of what makes it incredible. You know that.
It is. Absolutely no freaking one is debating that. At the same time, Luka hasn’t been perfect! He’s been damn great but there are still things that aren’t awesome about his ascent this year and anyone that isn’t overflowing with pure adulation is immediately attacked like they’ve just made a direct threat against Luka’s family.

As I’ve said time after time after freaking time, I wanted Luka. I wanted him bad. It hurts that we didn’t get him. At the same time, it’s not like Marvin Bagley has been actively awful (he’s in fact been pretty damn good) so forgive me if I’m not as outwardly negative as some of you. Maybe I’m just not wired to feel so much pain over missing out on Luka or over sports in general anymore quite frankly. I’ve been approaching watching Luka from purely a basketball perspective and thought that there were enough comments about what he does good that I could point out what hasn’t been that awesome and for that I apologize.

Apparently some of you have been construing my posts as trolling, which hasn’t been my intention at all, but for that I apologize and promise to take a step back from here so you can all celebrate greatness/curse Vlade’s name in peace.
 
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Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Come on, Tetsujin. That's just baiting. Russell Westbrook was never going to be a King. There weren't discussions of him coming to Sacramento. That's also the reason there isn't a LBJ thread or a Joel Embiid thread, etc.
It was an honest question. He said even without the Kings angle, there would be a thread about him and his season. If that was the case, where was the thread about Russ during his crazy season? I could have worded it better but it was in the moment and not an attempt at an attack by any means.
 
I think Luka is easy to root for for several reasons. One, he is just a really nice kid. Always has a smile on his face and seems to be liked by his teammates. Two, in some ways, he is the underdog. The unathletic pudgy kid who is dominating at the highest level in basketball. Three, a lot of us like crafty players who can make the slick pass setting up teammates. All the better when you are a triple double threat every night and the best player on a 12-6 team in the west at 20 years old.
Yes. He is more relatable to some people.

Also, let's not forget that this is his 6th year playing pro ball.

With that, I'll bow out and let you all enjoy Luka to the fullest.
 
The reason I'm so anti-Bagley is that I graded his situational awareness as a defender in college to be horrible.
You're still anti-Bagley based on the player you projected him to be while he was still in college? What about now that youve had the chance to see him as an NBA rookie?
 
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