The Los Angeles Lakers’ earlier-than-predicted elimination from the playoffs has thrown the light on everybody and Luka Doncic was never going to avoid it.
The Luka Doncic trade ensured that the Slovenian sealed his place as the second-most scrutinized player in the league behind LeBron James.
The challenges of the Doncic trade were clear to see for the Lakers, be it the challenge of playing with Doncic, or the difficulty of playing without Anthony Davis.
Kevin Garnett has sought to help the Lakers sort out the former by giving the Lakers a blueprint, terming Mavericks’ treatment of Doncic ‘perfect’.
Photo by David Berding/Getty ImagesDallas Mavericks ‘perfect’ for Luka Doncic
Despite it crashing and burning in flames, it can’t be denied that the Mavericks had effectively their most successful run in the NBA with Doncic at the center of it all.
They reached the NBA Finals in the 2023/24 season despite not being the favorites, and Doncic had a lot to do with their success.
However, at the same time, what the Mavericks did for the player is often forgotten, which has come into the limelight now that the Lakers failed to create a system around him to be successful.
Kevin Garnett, a man who knows a thing or two about winning championships, has praised the Mavericks for doing ‘perfect’ by Doncic while he was there.
He said: “I thought what Dallas did was perfect for him. They had him focused on scoring and they put dogs around him, they had threats, PJ Washington could hit a corner three. Go catch Lively for a dunk, he comes out, Gafford comes in. You feel me, that lob threat got them through two rounds.
“He was getting seven, eight dimes off the lob, the floater. Aesthetically JJ Redick wants it to look a certain way, I follow results, you got to start building towards Luka and what fits his needs.”
The Luka Doncic template for LA Lakers is clear
The Lakers front office has predicted changes already and they only need to look at how the Mavericks went about constructing their roster to see what works around Doncic.
The Slovenian’s strength is his ability to surgically break down a defense, while he can be prone to the odd defensive lapse.
He also scrambles the defense with his drives where his mid-range games come to the fore, so his teammates will ideally have two skill sets.
They will either be sharpshooters who space the floor out for him, leaving him on an island with helpless defenders.
Or they will be tall, lob threats who erase the threat on the rim on the defensive end to make up for Doncic’s suspect perimeter defense.
The Lakers were fine with the former, even though they didn’t use their best shooter for long, and they were sorely lacking in the latter department.
Once they fix that, Doncic’s best will be clear to see again and the doubts surrounding the player will vanish. He’s still a generational talent the Mavericks fumbled.
It’s just that they used him better while they had him.