Luka Doncic: The NBA's Leading ROTY Candidate

By ANTOINE WILEY ‘20

Slovenian basketball prodigy Luka Doncic made waves at the 2018 NBA draft as the most decorated European basketball prospect ever. Luka went pro in the EuroLeague, Europe’s premiere professional basketball league and the second best pro basketball league in the world. At only 15 years old he utterly dominated the EuroLeague championship, Euroleague MVP, EuroLeague Final 4 MVP, and made the All-Liga ACB First Team (comprised of the EuroLeague’s ten best players) by the age of 19. Luka has the rare combination of size and skill, as he has possesses all of the passing and dribbling finesse of a seasoned point guard but has the height of a small ball forward at 6’7”. Scouts recognized that Luka was a special player, and few were surprised when he got drafted 3rd overall by the Dallas Mavericks. Basketball fans knew he was going to be good, but just how good was hard to gauge. Luka seemed great, but there have been a great number of European busts that wilted in the NBA, and there were concerns about Luka’s athleticism, specifically his lateral speed. These concerns were proven baseless once the season started.

Luka has been statistically phenomenal. According to NBA.com, he leads all rookies in scoring, averaging almost 19.6 points per game; he ranks 3rd in rebounds at 6.5 per game, 2nd in assists per game at 4.4, and 5th in steals at 0.8 per game. What’s even more impressive is that Luka is dropping nearly 20 points a game at a ridiculously efficient field goal percentage of 47%, which ranks 8th among all rookies, including centers. He’s also on fire from three, shooting 39% where other rookies have struggled to find their rhythm in the league, such as Trae Young, who is averaging a less-than-stellar 28% from three. Statistics only mean so much at such an early point in the season and his career, but if Luka can maintain these numbers, then he is sure to win rookie of the year. The Mavericks are a bottom feeder in the NBA, having finished an abysmal 13th in the West in the 2017-2018 season, so Luka is sure to get the minutes he needs to put up big numbers. In the bigger picture, the addition of Luka to the Mavs’ roster makes the team interesting for the first time in a while. Luka Doncic and sophomore point guard Dennis Smith Jr. form one of the most dynamic young backcourts in the league. This duo makes the Mavericks future look a whole lot brighter than it did just a couple years back, when questions as to whom aging superstar Dirk Nowitzki was going to pass the torch to worried Mavs fans and team executives alike. The torchbearer is now here, in the form of Luka Doncic, the talent hailed early on by a Spanish newspaper as El Niño Maravilla, or Wonder Boy. It’s definitely a big adjustment to get used to the quicker, more athleticism-dependant pace of NBA basketball, but Luka can handle it: he’s been a professional since before he could drive.

Milton PaperNovember 18, 2018