Protect Luka Doncic at all costs
Wonder Boy is already absurdly good, and only misfortune can stop him.
Good morning. (Have you subscribed yet?) Let’s basketball.
Luka Doncic is the player most like LeBron James since LeBron James.
Just writing that is totally unfair to Luka, because it holds him up to an impossible standard of excellence and health and longevity, and Wonder Boy is only 20 years old. But it’s true: no other player has had this level of basketball IQ, passing ability, scoring ability and skills at this age in the NBA in recent years.
Other players have gotten there after a few years in the league — Steph Curry came in as an elite shooter and strong passer from Day 1, and added the rest. Kevin Durant could score from anywhere on the court as a rookie, but took a few years to learn how to make plays for others, defend and score efficiently. James Harden really took a few years to figure out how to do what he did at Arizona State in the NBA. Giannis was perhaps the most raw eventual superstar of this century — Dirk Nowitzki is the other contender there.
LeBron was pretty close to complete upon entering the league, which isn’t to say he hasn’t improved — James of course did improve, by building up his body, refining his skills, developing a leadership style and executing it. Luka will improve, too.
Even if he doesn’t, he’s on track to be an all-timer. He is one of a few players we can expect to define the next decade of basketball, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis and maybe Zion Williamson. Giannis and AD are of a somewhat older cohort than Luka, but they will all compete simultaneously for MVP awards and Best Player Alive status over the next decade. (They are already competing for the former!)
All that can stop Luka at this point is misfortune. Injury. A broken team. Kevin Durant will go down as one of the best players ever — top 20 for sure, top 10 perhaps, there’s a lot of story left to be written there. It would take some surprising results over the next several years for Durant to get into the Jordan-Kareem-LeBron conversation, though. Durant had everything needed to get there — the skills, the talent, the work ethic, the internal fire, the good-head-on-his-shoulders, the support system. But a couple of unfortunate injuries and some bad team luck over a stretch of years (plus the legacy-altering free agency decisions) have set him back. You sincerely hate to see it: Durant has had an incredible career and there still could have been just a touch more if things out of his control broke differently for him.
Those are the paths Luka faces. Like Giannis, he has it all. (Well, Giannis has the all-world defense as well. But Luka can shoot. We all make allowances.) We don’t know where Giannis will end up in a decade — it will be thrilling to watch. We don’t know where Luka will end up — it will be thrilling to watch. All we can do is marvel and hope for the best. It’s rare to see this happen and be able to identify it from a player first entry into the league. We’re getting that with Luka.
Appreciate every minute and protect him at all costs.
Photo via YouTube screenshot.
Scores
Nets 89, Magic 101 — Markelle Fultz with a career-high 25 points! On the weird orange Orlando alternate court in the black and orange alternate uniforms, no less.
Thunder 113, Sixers 120 — Joel Embiid dislocated his finger something vicious, I love you FAR too much to link to an image of it.
Celtics 94, Wizards 99 — These Wizards are totally inexplicable. Ish Smith is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
Nuggets 123, Hawks 115 — There’s a strong case against Trae Young being an All-Star based on team quality. But there’s also this compelling argument for Trae Young being an All-Star.
(Nikola Jokic had 47 points in the win, by the way. 47 points for Jokic feels like 80 for Kevin Durant.)
Jazz 128, Pelicans 126 — Controversial finish as Brandon Ingram tried to tie it at the buzzer but Rudy Gobert denied him at the rim. In slo-mo, Gobert pretty clearly got Ingram across the wrist, not on the ball. But Ingram seems to have initiated contact and has Gobert wrapped up. Gobert gets the nod and essentially a game-winning block.
Bucks 104, Spurs 126 — I don’t believe this one.
Warriors 98, Kings 111 — Marquese Chriss played 15 minutes for the Warriors back in his hometown, and then got waived so Golden State can sign Damion Lee. Tough league.
Dwight Howard Is Going to Ruin a Perfectly Good Comeback
Shams Charania reports Dwight Howard will participate in the dunk contest at All-Star in Chicago next month. This is a bad idea on many levels — not necessarily just because Howard is 34 and has lost his bunnies (he is markedly less explosively athletic than he was a decade ago when he was winning dunk contests, of course). Dwight can probably still put down some pretty good dunks. He’s a really good dunker!
This is mostly a bad idea because we currently have the correct dose of Dwight Howard in our lives, and him being in the dunk contest will increase the dosage of Dwight Howard in our lives for at least one weekend (and quite possibly the week before and after All-Star Weekend) to what I fear is an unsustainable, dangerous level.
Dwight Howard’s reputation in the public eye is recovering because he is quietly doing his job with the Lakers — no theatrics, relatively little media coverage. (His contract is becoming guaranteed on Tuesday.) This is all that we need from Dwight Howard at this juncture to feel good about cheering on his career resurgence. If more Dwight Howard is presented to us — and what is the dunk contest if not a platform for theatrics and media coverage? — we will lose that warm feeling that is building in our hearts. We will collectively remember why we stopped liking Dwight Howard in the first place, and this will all crumble.
Maybe we can execute a pact in which we all stop talking about Dwight Howard, we watch and comment on his dunks, and then we stop talking about him again immediately? That’s the only hope.
Why are you doing this to us and Dwight Howard, NBA?
Schedule
Six-game Tuesday slate with an NBA TV double-header. All times Eastern. Games on League Pass unless otherwise noted.
Pistons at Cavaliers, 7
Blazers at Raptors, 7
Thunder at Nets, 7:30, NBA TV
Wolves at Grizzlies, 8
Kings at Suns, 9
Knicks at Lakers, 10:30, NBA TV
Links
Blake Griffin is considering season-ending knee surgery. The tank is revving up in Detroit.
Royce Young with a good piece on all of Trae Young’s many tricks.
At SB Nation, I wrote about the lasting importance of David Stern’s Seattle SuperSonics heist.
Mike Sykes on the year ahead for Drake with Nike. If you care at all about sneakers and sneaker culture, you should really sign up for Mike’s newsletter The Kicks You Wear. It’s free and really informative and engaging. I am not a sneakerhead but I learn so much from this.
Speaking of newsletters, blessings to my friend Curtis Harris, who is starting a basketball history newsletter. It will be glorious! No one better to write it than Curtis.
Mike Prada urges the Sixers to embrace their weirdness.
Which stars are most and least consistent?
The only people who love Alex Caruso more than NBA Twitter as the Lakers themselves.
Pretty much every good team and some bad teams are trying to get Davis Bertans from the Wizards.
As if this season couldn’t get any worse for Kings fans, there’s a report that Sacramento has talked to the Lakers about a Kyle Kuzma deal, sending chain lightning of fear through the entire Capital region.
How the Mavericks built a contender around Luka Doncic.
Thanks for the support, and be excellent to each other.