Luka Doncic lastly stopped scoring 30+ factors each sport. His coach would not thoughts that.
Talking with reporters after the Dallas Mavericks misplaced to the Washington Wizards, head coach Jason Kidd shared issues about Doncic sporting down by shouldering too huge of a burden.
Doncic is main the league in scoring with 33.6 factors per sport, and he is additionally taking essentially the most pictures each sport, 23.6. He averages 7.9 assists and three.4 turnovers every sport, which tells us that Luka has the ball in his fingers on a regular basis for Dallas. He is main the league in utilization charge (an estimate of the proportion of a crew’s possessions utilized by a single participant) with 39.1 %, up from his league-leading 37.4 % final season and his league-leading 36 % utilization charge in 2019-20. The 12 months earlier than, he was second.
It places a variety of strain on Doncic to be personally chargeable for a lot of the offense. The Mavericks have solely been middle-of-the-pack in offensive effectivity the previous few years, although Doncic’s capability to hold an offense permits them to play extra defensive-minded, offense-limited gamers. It additionally places a variety of miles on the 23-year-old star within the common season for a crew that hopes to play deep into Might and June.
Kidd can be involved about how a lot Luka crashes to the bottom.
Doncic is second within the NBA in fouls drawn, behind solely Giannis Antetokounmpo (8.1 per sport to the Greek Freak’s 9.2), however Giannis is far greater than Doncic and a higher share of his fouls are opponents grabbing him or fouling on rebounds. Doncic will get fouled extra on drives and thus hits the bottom extra typically.
Not solely do these falls add up over a profession, however they restrict Doncic throughout the common season. He missed 17 video games with numerous accidents final 12 months, significantly a recurring ankle downside.
What is the resolution? Get the ball out of Luka’s fingers extra. Positive, the Mavs need Luka to dominate in crunch time, however Spencer Dinwiddie might take cost extra typically within the first three quarters. And greater than any crew, Dallas might use a gradual, dependable, boring backup level guard to convey the ball up, throw entry passes to Christian Wooden and let Luka spot up.
Doncic has been superb this season, however the Mavs want to guard him or he’ll be too banged as much as be superb in April.
