Throughout his 8 years in the NBA, Luka Doncic has proven that he is among the top-five players in the league. This season, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar hasn’t missed a beat en route to yet another dominant campaign. However, former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague believes Cade Cunningham has eclipsed him.
Advertisement
These two stars went toe-to-toe last night, which resulted in the Pistons leaving Crypto.com Arena with a victory. Despite the loss, Doncic put up quite a heroic performance. The Slovenian star finished with 30 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists. Cunningham almost matched Doncic shot by shot and ended up with 27 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists.
There wasn’t much gap between the two players during their battle but Cunningham appeared more favorable due to his impact on winning while on the court. He finished the game with the best plus/minus of any player with +23. The Lakers, meanwhile haven’t looked the best over the past five games and this loss only pushed them down the standings. Teague watched the game and unsurprisingly was rather frustrated with Doncic.
“Give me Cade, he actually plays defense,” Teague said on the Club 520 Podcast. “Nobody says Cade’s a cone.”
Teague didn’t hold any punches while criticizing Doncic’s defensive efforts. Notably, he isn’t the first one to call out Doncic for his lack of defensive prowess. During the game, Reggie Miller criticized Doncic for his lack of drive.
“It’s okay to move your feet a little and help out. This would be frustrating for me,” Miller said.
Teague is pretty much on the same boat and he doesn’t feel the need to coddle the Lakers star anymore.
“I think Luka is one of the greatest offensive talents we ever seen. It’s two sides of basketball. It’s too glaring. When everybody in the world knows you’re not gonna stop nobody, it’s kinda f***** up,” Teague said.
Doncic has never been an exceptional defender, nor is anyone asking him to be one. He has such a huge offensive burden it would be impossible to expect him to be a lockdown defender as well. However, that doesn’t mean he should play no defense whatsoever.
During the Dallas Mavericks’ 2024 NBA Finals run, the Slovenian played some of his best defense, and was not a liability when he was on the court. Unfortunately, that level of effort hasn’t been replicated since.
Lakers fans can only hope that this change soon. The Lakers are already a poor defensive team. They’ll need any juice they can get on the defensive side of the ball, especially from the face of their franchise.
