I'm out on the 2023-24 season ....

[Branduil]

I want Luka to be unselfish and efficient like Dirk.  Jokic plays the way I want  Luka to play.

Yet I am fine if Luka never plays like those two.

When we only look through certain lenses we forget the times where Dirk was too unselfish for his own good. We forget how Dirk needed to go through a lot of lessons to push himself to be more of a killer. We forget how many times Jokic struggled. 

Luka, like his style or not, will not go out meekly. So when it doesn’t work one can complain about his style but you will never complain that Luka was invisible. So it is totally wrong to compare him with Harden whose numbers and even performance dipped the deeper he went.

Luka is a freak. Sometimes I feel offense is too easy for him. He can score 40 every night just staying near the free throw area and being highly efficient . Truly one of the most special offensive talents. His creativity and touch around the rim is just amazing. However he likes that three point shot off the dibble. What to do?  At first I bought the explanation that those shots open up the lane for him to drive. I no longer believe that. As mentioned he is a fantastic player close to the rim as well. Able to bully smaller players and. frustrate bigger players.

Luka is also a heckuva passer.  His creativity and strength to make passes to the opposite  side with zing is only matched by Bron. Even Jokic can’t do it off the dribble consistently like Luka does.

This is a special talent. He can be selfish but I would not compare him to Harden or anyone else. This is a totally unique offensive machine.

Enjoy this guy than pick aprt his warts. I don’t see him ending his career here. Hopefully he can carry the team to a couple of rings here. Hopefully he matures a bit more.  Don’t let any of that get in the way of just sitting back and flat out enjoying his talent.  Hopefully mgmt addresses a couple of other key issues so that the team around him is also better

Luka won Euroleague MVP at 19 years old while leading his team to a title. Some people think the problem is Luka and not the trashfire franchise he plays for, which had done nothing for 8 years before his arrival and has failed to build any kind of meaningful team around him since.

Would Luka be even better if he was more mature? Sure, just like MJ would have been even better if he wasn't an asshole, Lebron would be better if he had more of a killer instinct, etc. But ultimately if you can't win with those guys, that's on YOU, not a generational talent among the best to ever play the game.