Having lost three of their last 4 games, the Dallas Mavericks don’t seem to be on the pace they had expected themselves to be. With the NBA playoffs arriving shortly in a month, the Mavericks appear to be on the verge of repeating what happened to them last year, despite trading for another All-Star player. During the Mavs game against the Miami Heat, TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley argued over Dallas-franchise talisman Luka Doncic’s numbers while comparing them to Michael Jordan’s.
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On a recent episode of Inside the NBA, Shaq and Barkley had different opinions regarding the numbers being put up by the Slovenian international this season. Chuck made his argument that despite the Mavericks having plenty of good players, Doncic’s numbers should go down. The numbers he has been averaging should be less, given that other players can take over the offensive load.
The 1993 MVP claimed that the Mavericks are not winning games because Doncic has been doing too much for the team by himself instead of including his teammates in the offense.
However, Shaquille O’Neal had a different perspective on this. Shaq mentioned how Michael Jordan’s numbers did not go down even when he had started winning championships and he was still averaging big numbers even when he had great players alongside him.
“I disagree…Kyrie and Luka, they both have the same problem. They do what great players do, but they just don’t do what the greatest players do. I don’t think their numbers should go down. If you’re gonna care for your numbers like that, you should be able to do both and it’s been done. Michael Jordan’s numbers didn’t go down when he started winning.”
As confident as Shaq was while giving his take, he may not have been entirely right when he brought in Michael Jordan’s numbers to support his argument. According to Basketball Reference.com, Michael Jordan averaged 37.1 PPG in his third year with the Chicago Bulls. But when the Bulls started to turn things around, MJ’s points per game averages did see a slight decrease in numbers. MJ had 31.5 points per game in the regular season when the Bulls won their first championship in 1991 and it decreased to 30.1 in the following season.
His assist averages, on the other hand, saw a bump compared to his numbers before as MJ had started to trust his teammates more when it came to winning games as a team. So, the argument that Barkley made may hold some value as he wasn’t entirely wrong.
Should Luka take some notes out of Michael Jordan’s playbook?
Luka Doncic is the league leader in points per game, averaging 34.1 PPG on a nightly basis. According to Statmuse, he is also the team’s leader in assists, rebounds, steals, and other stats. Yet, the Mavericks are struggling to win games. So, is Charles Barkley right in claiming that Dallas is struggling because Luka Doncic has been taking too much of a load on himself?
The team traded for Kyrie Irving last season when they missed the playoffs. While Irving is doing his part during matchups, players other than Kyrie can help take the load off of Doncic. The team traded for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford but the two have not been getting enough touches to create their own offense.
Maybe, it might be time for the Mavericks coaching staff to take a different approach to their offensive game plan before the team misses out on the playoffs for the second time in two years. The Dallas Mavericks currently have a 35-28 season record so far, placing them in the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
If the team continues to lose more games, they’ll soon be out of the top eight that qualify for the playoffs. Judging by how Dallas has been playing so far, do you think the Mavericks will be able to make it to the postseason or will they miss out on the playoffs once again? Let’s see how things turn out for Luka Doncic and the Mavericks.
