MAVS 103, NUGGETS 89

[KillerLeft]

Do you believe there has been slippage in Luka's play? 

If so, in what areas?

I do believe that he was out of shape to start the season and probably still is, a little. That is on him, but I’m not as concerned about it as you are because I think it’s probably pretty common for kids his age, and the only reason we notice is that he has already positioned to himself as the face of a franchise. I strongly believe that he will grow to be a pro’s pro.

I do not attribute his poor shooting and inability to penetrate solely to this observation as you do, however. I think the best case scenario is that he is being asked to play in a system that he and some of his teammates were struggling to understand early on. The worst case scenario is that the design of the Mavericks offense this year is simply not up to par with the best teams in the NBA. It is no longer state of the art, and pretty damn outmoded.

I see him come back from Covid, have one very rusty game and then look very much like his old self in the second game. I see that this happens during a game Porzingis misses in which they aren’t warring over how to attack the defense. To my eye, there was much more space out there for him to create off of screens. I do not think this is coincidence.

I am not 100% decided as to whether I just hate Jason Kidd’s offense (so far) or think that KP and Luka don’t see eye to eye on how to run it. But I do not agree with the idea that the Luka we saw in the olympics one month before the season forgot how to play his style of basketball. There are things he needs to continue to work on diligently, of course! But he has looked bad at times this year, and I do not think the team is playing to his strengths anymore.