The ONE AND ONLY Luka Doncic discussion thread

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Luka is fun to watch but it's not as enjoyable when I'm constantly reminded by commentators and media everywhere that there were two bigs taken before him.

I know world, believe me I know...
 
I'm sure Vlade (and Vivek) know that they made a terrible decision but it's not like they can admit that publicly. They gotta stick up for their guy (as they should).

The real question to me is Vivek? If he himself wanted Luka I don't see how he can just let this slide if the Kings miss the playoffs or at the very least dont win 40+ games.

As an owner I sure wouldn't feel comfortable in another lottery draft with the guy that passed on Luka making my decisions. Vlade absolutely has done some real good things here but you just can't ignore a mistake this big. And let's call it what it is, a massive mistake. Luka is not getting worse, on the contrary he's actually getting better. He's the best thing since LeBron at 20 and any anybody that says otherwise is just lying to themselves at this point. He's absurdly good. His basketball acumen and skill at 20 years old is off the charts.
 
fansinceday1 said:
16 games with over 25/5/5. He’s gonna break Jordan’s record. He’s gonna break a lot of records. Just an unbelievable talent.
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Yeah, and after 50 years dudes are putting up triple doubles like they're working an easy bake oven. There is a reason. I can't wait to see what Luka looks like in the playoffs unless they clipped those balls too.
 
sergmatt said:
I'm sure Vlade (and Vivek) know that they made a terrible decision but it's not like they can admit that publicly. They gotta stick up for their guy (as they should).

The real question to me is Vivek? If he himself wanted Luka I don't see how he can just let this slide if the Kings miss the playoffs or at the very least dont win 40+ games.

As an owner I sure wouldn't feel comfortable in another lottery draft with the guy that passed on Luka making my decisions. Vlade absolutely has done some real good things here but you just can't ignore a mistake this big. And let's call it what it is, a massive mistake. Luka is not getting worse, on the contrary he's actually getting better. He's the best thing since LeBron at 20 and any anybody that says otherwise is just lying to themselves at this point. He's absurdly good. His basketball acumen and skill at 20 years old is off the charts.
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After the solid play after the lackluster start if the Kings don't go comfortably above .500 for the rest of the year when healthy I think it will be safe to say Vivek will be quite disappointed.
 
Well, I think the reality has firmly set in. After all the disaster picks by this franchise, this one here is going down as one of the worst in NBA history.

How can Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic miss so badly on this talented and polished of a player from their own area of the world? It's a mind boggling embarrassment. We’ve seen a lot of incompetence, but this takes the cake.

Just devastating for a franchise in dire need of a big break, to get so lucky with the #2 pick in that draft and whiff on the clear obvious choice. To top it off, the guy was given an extension the same season as making this bad of a mistake!!! Sometimes all you can do is just laugh. It’s so damn bad and incompetent, it’s laughable
 
SacTownKid said:
Yeah, and after 50 years dudes are putting up triple doubles like they're working an easy bake oven. There is a reason. I can't wait to see what Luka looks like in the playoffs unless they clipped those balls too.
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While they're easier to get now than ever, they're still not that easy to get. Only really good players get them.

How many does Buddy have? How many will Marvin Bagley ever have in his career? How many has Fox had so far, I think just 1. Luka gets more triple doubles in an average week than Fox has ever had. I can say with utmost confidence that Luka will have more triple doubles in a month if not just a couple of weeks than Bagley/Hield will ever have in their entire careers combined. I don't say that to insult Bagley/Hield either but to prove a point. So how exactly is it so easy?
 
SacTownKid said:
Yeah, and after 50 years dudes are putting up triple doubles like they're working an easy bake oven. There is a reason. I can't wait to see what Luka looks like in the playoffs unless they clipped those balls too.
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Our players sure don't crank out triple doubles like they are working an easy make oven. How many triple doubles did our guys get last year? If they are so easy to get and our players can only get a few a year, what does that say about this franchise and the players we draft?
 
sergmatt said:
While they're easier to get now than ever, they're still not that easy to get. Only really good players get them.

How many does Buddy have? How many will Marvin Bagley ever have in his career? How many has Fox had so far, I think just 1. Luka gets more triple doubles in an average week than Fox has ever had. I can say with utmost confidence that Luka will have more triple doubles in a month if not just a couple of weeks than Bagley/Hield will ever have in their entire careers combined. I don't say that to insult Bagley/Hield either but to prove a point. So how exactly is it so easy?
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To there credit if you add there stats lines Bagley/Buddy together would get triple doubles
 
SacTownKid said:
In fairness he's only in year 3 of his own reset. Remember the whole trading the franchise player thing? I'd say he's done an admirable job resupplying the team with talent even if you can look back at a few drafts and question things. Now it's time to see what that talent does. I highly doubt he feels this team can continue to exist on a horizontal plane of success. It's time to start moving up. And any success or failure last year is conjecture. The Kings were more talented after that trade and we've already seen the positives of it this year. Making the playoffs last year and not having that talent is a short view story.

And for reference, my point isn't that he "drafted well". I'm saying the end result of the team left after all was said and done is better than it was and is in a good spot on paper. Go back in the draft threads and you can see plenty of my frustration as it happened. Haha. Your point was he should be fired for his draft record. I think that's a rather short sighted view. There are more aspects than just drafting when it comes to building a team.
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If Vlade picked Bosh over LeBron in 2003 he should be fired. I don't really care if the team is setup to maybe make a run at the 8th spot in the next year or two.
 
Showtime said:
Yeah I don't get it. Barnes, Buddy, and Bagley need the ball to score. Bogdon needs the ball to both create and score. People act like Fox is John Stockton and facilitates everything. A lineup of Fox, Buddy, Luka, Beli, and Holmes would be more than fine.
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Sigh.... That's legitimately depressing to look at. Could easily be a title contender, fits so well around the skill-set of Luka and Fox as the lead creators.
 
sergmatt said:
Yeah agree I noticed that too. It's great that Vlade apparently found an NBA rotation type player in the second round while nobody else had Justin James on their radar.

However that doesn't justify his massive whiffs in the first round (Papa G, Justin Jackson, Malachi, etc.).

Justin James may be a nice little find but he doesn't move the needle let alone change the trajectory of the entire team. I'd much prefer my GM get the big picks right.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1200644500776861697

In addition to trading a first round pick for cap space, using none of our cap space to acquire future assets but on veteran contracts, losing value on a pick swap for cap space, trading back 8 places in the 2nd round for cash, traded Boogie way too late and got a fraction of the value he could have had he traded him earlier. It's not good that Justin James looking solid in his first 6 games might be one of the better draft moves this team has made in 5 years being at the helm.

Just hard to see this team ever getting over the hump with him at the helm. Might be a team that can compete for 7-8 seeds, but I don't have any confidence Vlade can turn this into a consistent powerhouse team that's top 4 in the conference.
 
ShastaKingsFan said:
Well, I think the reality has firmly set in. After all the disaster picks by this franchise, this one here is going down as one of the worst in NBA history.

How can Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic miss so badly on this talented and polished of a player from their own area of the world? It's a mind boggling embarrassment. We’ve seen a lot of incompetence, but this takes the cake.

Just devastating for a franchise in dire need of a big break, to get so lucky with the #2 pick in that draft and whiff on the clear obvious choice. To top it off, the guy was given an extension the same season as making this bad of a mistake!!! Sometimes all you can do is just laugh. It’s so damn bad and incompetent, it’s laughable
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Not one of.

The.

It's the biggest draft miss in NBA history barring injury or some inexplicable regression, and it's not close.

Oden over Durant was a two-way race the entire draft process, and may have even been a little better of a prospect, and of course injuries.

Darko was heavily scouted and was a darkhorse #1. Even if he didn't have any serious consideration over Lebron, he was still more touted than the three that came behind him.

Bowie over Jordan happened in an era that was much more big-friendly and Jordan iirc was hidden in North Carolina's system compared what his talent actually was.

The Kings took the worse fit for their position of need, era, and style of play, and the inferior talent where everybody and their mom knew it even without the benefit of hindsight. This was idiot-proof, the rest of these draft picks to at least some extent were not.
 
Vlade should have been fired when he made those insane trades to Philly to appease DMC (not a franchise player not even close) and maybe make a run at a 8th seed where the team gave up cause he hated George Karl. I'm not going to lie I thought JJJ would be better than both Luka and Bagley but Vlade couldn't judge a franchise talent a long time ago (neither could I in the Doncic case) when he went all or nothing on a guy that the corpse of Zach Randolph matched in terms of W/L as a #1 option. Investing in the empty per 36 stat ticking time bomb was pure insanity.

I give him props on Holmes/Bjelica and James and Fox.
 
I've watched a couple of Luka's games and he seems to get away with a lot dropping his shoulders into his defenders to make space. He would back them down and then drop a shoulder to clear space and then hit a fall away jumper. He also gets a ton of fouls called for him and he goes to the line a lot to help his PPG. Most any other NBA player not named LeBron would be called for an offensive foul on those moves. Luka is already getting a ton of "superstar" calls from the refs.

He seems to lull his defender to sleep with his moves. He's very crafty and has a very high BBIQ to make his passes or moves, but he moves very slow to me. He doesn't have the quickness to blow by defenders, but he uses his body well to create space.

Watching the Clipper game, they seemed to have the recipe to contain him. The Clippers were being very physical with him and you could tell he wasn't allowed to get comfortable and dictate the pace of that game. Luka will always be a force on the offensive side of the ball, but once teams start realizing that they need to get more physical with him to contain him, I can see some of his numbers eventually dropping.
 
sergmatt said:
While they're easier to get now than ever, they're still not that easy to get. Only really good players get them.

How many does Buddy have? How many will Marvin Bagley ever have in his career? How many has Fox had so far, I think just 1. Luka gets more triple doubles in an average week than Fox has ever had. I can say with utmost confidence that Luka will have more triple doubles in a month if not just a couple of weeks than Bagley/Hield will ever have in their entire careers combined. I don't say that to insult Bagley/Hield either but to prove a point. So how exactly is it so easy?
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I was talking about someone from todays era breaking records from the past. Totally different games. Back then it was an alpha game, now it's skill.
 
fansinceday1 said:
Our players sure don't crank out triple doubles like they are working an easy make oven. How many triple doubles did our guys get last year? If they are so easy to get and our players can only get a few a year, what does that say about this franchise and the players we draft?
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Again, my comment was in reference to the talk of someone breaking records of the past when the rules of doing so are quite different. The points and assists are one thing, the rebounds another. Any big worth their salt is going to tell a guard to get the F out of my paint and break out. It's like with Westbrook this year so far. Capella has put the kabosh on those Westbrooks triple dubs. Harden as well since he's sharing the ball. I just don't think you can look at the numbers anymore and gather a whole lot. I mean it's gotten cartoonish how many players are up in that 25-30 ppg zone. When numbers are easier to get, they simply don't mean as much.
 
Showtime said:
If Vlade picked Bosh over LeBron in 2003 he should be fired. I don't really care if the team is setup to maybe make a run at the 8th spot in the next year or two.
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You're comparing two different situations. LeBron was the clearest of clear number 1 picks since I can't even remember who. NOBODY was going to pass on him, not ever. Doncic was drafted and traded. Vlade wasn't the only person who skipped on him.
 
I have purposely not watched Dallas games since the pick. I watched a good bit of the Pels game and Luka is as good as advertised.

It is hard to understand how the Kings missed a Euro sensation with Vlade and Peja in the front office???

At this point Kings Fans just have to hope Bagley can stay healthy and be a good 20 and 10 a night All Star.

And always remember Luka was the FOURTH Third pick (Thanks Capt). 3 teams passed on him. ATL went out of their way to trade him to Big D. The Mavs deserve credit for standing tall and making that trade.

Edit- The Suns, Kings and ATL all passed on Doncico_O
 
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