MAVS NEWS:

[michaeltex]

I normally hate talking head shows like this, but I feel like this clip is worth watching, once you get past the mind-nunbingly stupid Chris Canty portion. 

Everyone involved in the conversation seems to "get it," especially Udonis Haslem, who is able to (in my opinion) boil the criticism of Luka down to what's fair and based in reality. There is a TREMENDOUS amount of respect for Luka here, and even much benefit of the doubt that he will improve in the areas being discussed, but he points out (rightly, imo) that while immature frustrations with the officials and lack of defensive effort are problems that can and should be discussed, they are symptoms. The disease is conditioning. Luka must learn to compete against his opponents during the off-season. It's presented here as an obvious, matter-of-fact "this is something many young players have to learn" sort of way, and I think it's right on the money. Good watch, imo. I sure hope Jason Kidd, Kyrie, Luka's Father, etc, are all trying to help him to understand this, but the conclusion here (and one that I agree with) is that the best teacher might be the experience of getting dog-walked in the NBA finals. 

https://youtu.be/Y6T6yLVjHWU?si=T2nQ1lvLsr7IvsrF

With apologies and respect to our Slovenian board members...

I don't think Luka will address the fitness/conditioning concerns until he takes an off season to focus on improving himself physically. I know playing for the Slovenian team is important to him and his fellow citizens, but going from NBA playoffs to national team practice to friendlies to qualifiers to elimination tournaments doesn't give him more than a few weeks to train. Then the offseason is over and it's time for NBA preseason. He's been doing this since before he was drafted back in 2019. I know he's only 25, but there are a lot of miles on his body. Makes me tired just writing about it.

Apart from the physical improvement, I think it would help mentally to just have some downtime to get some perspective on what he wants to achieve and how he wants to get there. In a few years, he will be making roughly ~$1M per game, but he's got to keep producing to get that reward. Maybe having a family now will help.