Luka fouls a lot and the refs never call them. Same with Jokic. All these shit defenders get WAY more leeway to foul than actually great defensive players.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Tiny sample size
Also, last year he started out as a positive defender and then was back to his old ways by the time the season wore on
He has all the tools both physically and mentally, it's a question of if his motor can keep up and if he puts the effort in.
I wouldn't be surprised to see him put together a decent defensive season if Kyrie can share enough of the load offensively for him to expend less energy.
no
Hes been a top 10 defender since 2021. This sub just hates him
James Harden has a better defensive rating than Luka this season so there’s your answer
I dont think on ball defense is an issue for Doncic, but off ball has been, at least before this season
You have to consider matchup difficulty otherwise these stats mean nothing. It makes a big difference if he’s defending isos by Curry and Fox than if it were Royce O’Neal.
Trae Young, best 1-4 defender?
Luka passes the eye test as a defender. He slides his feet, puts in effort and contests shots
when he stops forcing his team to defend 5 on 4 because he wants to yell at refs
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation?PerMode=Totals&TypeGrouping=defensive&dir=D&sort=POSS
nba.com shows 19 ISOs against Luka at 1.16 points per possession lol
"How long before Luka can shrug off the terrible defender allegations?"
Never, defensive reputations almost never change. Players who are long since past playing good defense get All-defense nods, players who are looked at as bad defenders to start their careers never shake the reputation.
Luka's elite defence makes up for his poor offense.
what have you done
"Elite defender" is definitely a stretch but he's been solid this season for sure
I would just like to note, there are multiple types of defense. Luka can be legitimately elite at isolation defense and still be bad at all other aspects of defense. That being said, I don't watch enough Luka to comment further.
From what I remember last season, his worst trait defensively was ball-watching and getting backdoor cut. Sometimes I saw him even getting face cut
It’s surprisingly normal for players with a reputation as bad defenders to have good iso defense numbers because far more players try to hunt matchups than can actually do so efficiently.
In any event, I’ve never seen iso defense given as the primary reason for considering Luka a bad defender—it’s transition and off-ball defense, which aren’t well measured by primary-defender stats because the usual fault is not being in position to be the defender in the first place.
I think it's too small of a sample size to make any conclusions, but he has seemed noticeably better this year, being very active on-ball. I think it's because the offense seems to be moving the ball around a lot better and he's not gassed as much on defense maybe? Idk, I'd definitely not say he's been elite, even with the improvement, but not a liability. Solid defender mostly, so far
He needs to keep it up but yes he has been noticeably putting in much more effort defensively this season, like it's super obvious, while still leading the league in scoring. So far so good.
At least a full season. Luka stans are obnoxious.
There's a reason he's guarded the most isos