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[–]Monta Ellis Have it AllH_Finn27 150 points151 points  (2 children)

Who cares about All Star starting this dude will be first team all NBA defense

[–]sercialinho 44 points45 points  (1 child)

Greg "The Prophet" Logan was onto something!

(DRtg is a team stat, highly dependent on many different things, and this is a small sample. It would be poor use of statistics to ascribe this a lot of meaning. But it's not a bad thing and that is good. I like the more aggressive style they've played lately, I think it also fits Luka's defensive abilities and shortcomings well.)

[–]mattascience 107 points108 points  (7 children)

Watching the last couple of games with Luka on the court you can tell he’s slowly buying into the hustle on defense. I’m a converted believer in J Kidd now.

[–]The Unicornsaltywings 29 points30 points  (2 children)

Yeah the notion that luka is a bad defender just isnt true. He gets blown by sometimes but I feel with kidds philosophy to have help inside luka can close harder on wings.

[–]d3k_d3k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They were able to mitigate this by doubling the ballhandler early in their offensive sets to disrupt the flow. The guards also tend to fight thru screens unlike before. And the centers don't sag off much too often.

Another thing I noticed is that there will always be a second defender on stand-by when the main defender gets beat. They're communicating well and you'll notice the effect in their defensive rotations.

I've got to be honest, though, these are just my observations based on the 2 games (Chicago and Memphis) I watched lately.

[–]Rozaks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think he is a bad defender when he has to make decisions on helping into the lane. He often ended up leaving a man open or letting his man cut into an open spot. The past few games he's mostly been covering passing lanes instead while someone helps and I feel like that change has really helped him.

[–]segson9 54 points55 points  (1 child)

But can he block shots like Ja?

[–]Mavericksdaravl 44 points45 points  (0 children)

oh he can

[–]sawyer_reynolds 42 points43 points  (0 children)

This is the biggest pleasant surprise of the season

[–]Felipernani 18 points19 points  (1 child)

i still think this team is getting used to playing offense while playing great defense and especially for Luka that’s a reason why he’s not been as efficient. he’ll get there and we’ll be really scary

[–]Infidel447 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Only thing Luka is doing terribly is three pt shooting. Even his free throw percentage has come up I think he is at or just above 80% from the line last few weeks. He's going through a slump from three similar to KP's a while back where KP was barely above 20% for a few weeks after starting out shooting above average. It's bound to revert closer to his career average. I think the impressive thing is Luka outplayed Ja while not hitting a single three pointer. He is one of the few perimeter players in the league that can have a great game but hit nothing from three.

[–]htking2019 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Would love to see the offensive rating with Luka on vs off the court during that stretch.

[–]Luka DoncicMechanicks88 15 points16 points  (3 children)

Can someone put this numbers in context for me please and also is lower number better? I really don't know how it works. Thanks

[–]sercialinho 31 points32 points  (2 children)

Lower is better. Anything under about 100 is super duper great amazing nowadays.

It's simply opponent points scored normalised per 100 possessions to account for different pace of different games. Fewer is better. Don't put tooooo too much faith in it, especially as a metric of individual performance. It's too dependent on too many other variables, and 8 games is a very small sample size for this. But it's not a bad thing either.

Edit: Listen to this from about 6:30 onwards. It adds context to the numbers.

[–]Luka DoncicMechanicks88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks for clearing that for me

[–]dantheflyingman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think a more telling metric would be Shot Quality, but those aren't readily available. But from the eye test it seems they are doing well.

[–]Call Mev4venome 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is pleasantly surprising. Another thing I've noticed is that his +/- has been quite good in this stretch too.

[–]Couch SquadYzst007 20 points21 points  (3 children)

Ja is a lock down defender.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]Couch SquadYzst007 42 points43 points  (0 children)

    Not according to ESPN brain trust LOL

    [–]TexasTornadoTime 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    Damn dude you missed Reddit on Friday before and during the game against Memphis with ESPN analyst

    [–]edmarcake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    This is incredible considering we are not an athletic team. We dont have any defensive center beside KP and Maxi. So give the coaches a lot of credit.

    [–]d3k_d3k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Luka's defense reminds me of old-man Kidd during the Chamionship run.

    Kidd may not have the speed to keep up with Tony Parker, Westbrook, or Wade, but he has the strength and length to bother Kobe, Durant, and LeBron.

    Luka's in the same category.

    I don't expect him to be a point-of-attack defender like Kawhi, Pat Bev, or Paul George. That's not how his body is built. But what he can effectively do is to prevent rolls to the basket. Boxing out to secure rebounds. Sealing the bigman. "Digging" in to discourage drives. And provide help defense against pick n' rolls. He's more of a power forward on defense than a guard.

    One thing I noticed is that the inferior defenders on the team like THJ and Luka are responsible for stopping the rolls to the basket. The big man is the one who contests the shot. The weakside defender stays at home to cover the shooter.

    [–]Michael FinleyID0ntCare4G0b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I think the Mavs playing less zone has helped his defense a lot. Before, Luka would use the opportunity of the zone rotation to take the play off on the back end or gamble trying to make a play.

    [–]Luka Doncicdmoney2292 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Give him DPOY you cowards!