During the course of the 422 games he featured in for the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists. Then the Mavericks front desk decided he wasn’t committed enough to be the star they wanted him to be, even though he had just led them to their first NBA Finals since 2011, and traded him to the LA Lakers in a shocking move last season.
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In the 28 games he played for the Lakers, the Slovenian national averaged 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.5 assists. However, the Lakers were eliminated in the first round by the Timberwolves, and there was a lot more chatter about Luka’s fitness. If that wasn’t enough, Doncic still had to deal with reports and a lot of unnecessary chatter about his physique and how he wasn’t serious enough a player to lead the Lakers into a post-LeBron James era.
Consequently, Doncic decided to lay off the ice cream and hit the gym hard this offseason, dropping 30 to 35 lbs to improve his conditioning, speed, and performance on the court. In the recently concluded EuroBasket, Doncic led the tournament in scoring, averaging 34.7 points, while producing 8.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.
Unfortunately, it would appear, that isn’t enough for former Lakers star Byron Scott. Asked if his new fitness regimen would make people stop questioning his commitment to the game, Scott said, “The only way people are going to view him (differently) is once he gets on the basketball court.”
The former Lakers coach also noted that you could look at him right now and say that he looks great, but compared it to what people used to say about the Lakers in the 2000s.
“That’s just like saying, ‘well, the Lakers back in 2000, whatever, when they had Gary Peyton, Karl Malone, ‘oh, man, these guys are going to win the championship.’ It looks good on paper,” Scott asserted.
Scott added that until you see Luka on the basketball court, go up and down that floor … “and then what most of us are going to say, ‘let’s see if he plays defense,'” he joked, adding that it would be interesting to see how he does now that he’s lost a lot of that body mass.
Olden Polynice, also present for the discussion, agreed with Scott and asserted that Luka doesn’t do justice to his greatness if he doesn’t play hard on defense. “I have seen him play defense. He doesn’t commit to it all the time. So, you devalue yourself, and that’s why,” he added. Scott chipped in at this moment and noted that when Luka does this, it results in his teammates not trusting him.
He added that even if he gets beaten by someone, he can’t just give up. According to him, everybody gets beaten in the NBA, but then they have to go at it again, a second time, and a third time, should the team need it. Anything less remains unacceptable in his opinion.
Scott noted that he saw Luka get beaten so many times and then just stay at the free-throw line. This podcast episode might have been recorded pre-EuroBasket, because Luka’s performance in the tournament would’ve silenced their doubts. Not only is he still the unstoppable scorer he was before, but his defense looks really good as well. In fact, he was among the top defenders in the tournament.
With training camp less than 10 days away, we’ll have to see how new-look Luka and the new-look Lakers look, and if he can silence all the doubters.
