I don’t have highlight videos to recommend. I’ve watched about a dozen full games of his, which are way better to go off than highlight videos. (Not saying you should run and do that — I watched about a game a month). He’s very instinctive, at both ends of the court. There’s a reason he was the Euroleague MVP, the Euroleague Final Four MVP, the Spanish League MVP, and that his team won the Euroleague, will win the Spanish league this week, and that Slovenia won Eurobasket. He was the best player on the court in September when Slovenia beat Spain by 20 in the Eurobasket semis. That court also included both Gasols, Rubio, and Dragic. There’s no question in my mind he would have started for a majority of NBA teams this season, and would have been in the rotation for every single one.
I don’t know how many, if any, teams will pass on him. Any that do will regret it. I frankly think the Doncic falling past #1 rumor is just a smokescreen and a need to generate clicks, same as it was obvious that Ben Simmons was the best player in the draft a couple of years ago. (And if I had Doncic, I wouldn’t trade him straight up for Simmons). Doncic has a Hall of Fame ceiling with a quality starter floor. He’s the only player in this draft I would conceive of trading Tatum or Brown for.
And the only reason he hasn’t announced that he’s coming to the NBA yet is because his team is still playing, and he’s both professional and a good teammate. A couple days after they win he will announce that he’s coming to the NBA. He has zero left to prove in Europe.
I'll certainly cede to your expertise, here, seeing as to how you've clearly seen far more of him than I have, and in the videos that gouki88 provided (and TP to him for that, btw
), yeah, okay, I loved the two passes that he threw between the legs of, well, two defenders, but I guess that my hesitation/problem with Doncic primarily stems from the fact that he wasn't executing hardly any of his step-back/crossover moves against guys with NBA-level lateral quickness, or at least imo, anyway, which I realize doesn't exactly count for anything, lol
, and when he matched up against Kevin Seraphin, of all people, who could barely guard anyone in the league, Luka couldn't even get around him, not to mention the fact that it looks like he also struggles with getting, well, around "the show" as exhibited by the opposing big guys when defending against pick and rolls in those videos.
Aside from that, those are some pretty bold statements that you've made, there, and for me, I guess that it just comes down to skepticism, as we've seen accomplished European players come over to the NBA, before, who were expected to be stars or at least very good players, iirc, and too many of them just flat out couldn't guard anyone, at the absolute minimum, and as a result I just wonder as to if these guys had come up through the collegiate ranks as opposed to starring on the international circuit, would they even be drafted, because physically, they're not at all different from their American counterparts, and yet the dudes in Europe wind up being lottery picks while similar, well, white American college players ultimately find themselves playing in, well, Europe, lol.
I just think that the whole thing is weird
.