Author Topic: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?  (Read 1281 times)

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Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« on: November 27, 2022, 01:27:37 AM »

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Luka is one of those players who needs the ball in his hands to be successful. But can he do it alone? Yes he brought the Mavs to the conference finals but obviously it wasn’t enough. Who’s the ideal player to pair with him in order to bring the Mavs over the top? In the age of super teams and dynamic duos, who can team up with Luka and make the Mavs a serious title threat?

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2022, 02:33:07 AM »

Offline Ed Monix

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Luka Doncic shares a lot of characteristics with LeBron James, thus in my opinion, Anthony Davis would be perfect for him as a secondary star.

I’ve also always thought that (healthy) Gordon Hayward would have been a great compliment to Doncic.

Finally, Doncic operates very much like James Harden as a pseudo point guard, so a guy like Desmond Bane would balance out his weaknesses, and accentuate his strengths.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2022, 02:39:37 AM by Ed Monix »
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Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2022, 02:39:01 AM »

Offline kraidstar

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Anyone good, really.

Put any great player next to him and the Mavs are a perennial contender.

I honestly feel bad for him because that roster is not title-worthy.

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2022, 03:51:56 AM »

Offline RockinRyA

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Luka Doncic shares a lot of characteristics with LeBron James, thus in my opinion, Anthony Davis would be perfect for him as a secondary star.

I’ve also always thought that (healthy) Gordon Hayward would have been a great compliment to Doncic.

Finally, Doncic operates very much like James Harden as a pseudo point guard, so a guy like Desmond Bane would balance out his weaknesses, and accentuate his strengths.

I dunno, its somehow apparent that AD and Lebron dont really mesh well.

Prime klay wouldve been an aqesome fit, great catch and shoot guy while also being a very good defender. But going by the current players hmmm maybe someone like Jaylen Brown

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2022, 04:15:07 AM »

Offline Jvalin

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2-way (s)wings who can play either on or off the ball: Kawhi, George, Tatum, Brown

mobile/switchable PnR/PnP bigs: Davis, Bam, prime KG. Christian Wood fits the mould, although he's obviously less talented than these guys.

glorified 3+D guys: prime Klay

Fill out the rest of the roster with 3+D role players, plus one backup PnR ball handler.

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2022, 08:40:18 AM »

Offline Csfan1984

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KD. He knows how to play with guys that want the ball all the time and he still gets near 30 a game.

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2022, 10:34:26 AM »

Online Moranis

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The problem with the Mavs is more that Luka just hasn't figured out how to scale back his ball dominance.  There are times and places that he needs to scale it back and he hasn't figured that out (and he may not, sort of like Harden never really figured it out.)  It also doesn't help that Luka is a horrid defender.  Luka's on/off differential just isn't what you'd expect from a truly great player.  His teammates don't really play much worse when he doesn't play because he is SO ball dominant.  He is better this year at +4.3, but for a guy with his numbers he should be way better than that and his career average is just +0.4.

Until Luka figures it out, it makes no real difference who plays with him.  Luka has been the problem, nit his teammates.
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Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2022, 10:49:51 AM »

Offline Who

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Anyone who isn't ball dominant. A James Harden type figure for example would be too similar to Luka and lead to too much diminished returns & broken his turn / my turn team offense.

Luka would work great with a 2nd ball-handler who is not a high usage ball-handler. He had a terrific relationship with Goran Dragic in his National Team. Luka needs that secondary creator off the bounce in Dallas. Currently it is Spencer Dinwiddie who isn't really good enough to be the 2nd best shot creator on a title contender.

Another good prototype is the Klay Thompson type player. Someone who doesn't dribble much but is an elite shooter and aggressive shot taker. A two way player. Or at least the pre-injury version of Klay.

A versatile two way forward as mentioned above in the likes of Kawhi, PG13, Tatum or Durant is also an excellent foil to Luka.

Then there are the bigs with Embiid, Jokic, Anthony Davis who are all capable of working well with Luka.

So in summation, Luka works well with most players but I would exclude one group - the ball-dominant ball-handlers - from the mix. Aside from them, Luka works with everyone else. He is a very easy to build around.

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2022, 11:00:10 AM »

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Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2022, 11:17:19 AM »

Offline liam

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Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2022, 11:48:45 AM »

Offline perks-a-beast

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Embiid. They'd be the modern day Shaq/Kobe. Wouldn't matter who the other guys on the team were, they'd be in the finals every year.

Re: Who’s the ideal second fiddle to Luka?
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2022, 01:44:32 PM »

Offline gouki88

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Without going the obvious route (Giannis), Jaylen Brown or Paul George. Two-way wings who can create on and off-ball at high levels of efficiency.

I think Bam Adebayo would be a great big man pairing. Those illegal screens would work wonders for Luka
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