Luke Doncic - Laid Back European

[Lipoli390]

Apparently, Luka isn't interested in helping the Mavs recruite players to the team:

Luka Doncic is not active in recruiting players to his team, ESPN reports. "They seek his input, but he's not heavily involved in personnel decisions," ESPN's reporter Tim MacMahon told. "He has not shown interest in being heavily involved. He spends much of his offseason in Europe. He's not a guy who has shown the desire to be a recruiter."
Source: BasketNews

I remember listening to a podcast a few months ago talking about how Luke spends his summers in Europe and always starts every season out of shape, which makes him more susceptible to the many nagging injuries that have limited his playing time. I love his game, but I have doubts about how far he'll take the Mavs or how long his career will last. Lazy summers of wine and beer are very European, but they're not conducive to winning or longevity at the highest level of athletic competition in long grueling NBA seasons.

[Lipoli390]

To be fair to Europeans, James Harden apparently doesn't work too hard in the off season and seems to give burgers and strip clubs a pretty high priority in his life. :)

[Q-is-here]

Something to keep an eye on. I wonder about Dallas. Doncic was brilliant in the playoffs, but he can't be the only horse you ride to contention. As Kek has pointed out, it's really hard to win a title with one super high usage player and a couple of sidekicks. And things aren't going to get easier for him as he ages if he isn't super attuned to his physical conditioning and diet year-round.

[Lipoli390]

Something to keep an eye on. I wonder about Dallas. Doncic was brilliant in the playoffs, but he can't be the only horse you ride to contention. As Kek has pointed out, it's really hard to win a title with one super high usage player and a couple of sidekicks. And things aren't going to get easier for him as he ages if he isn't super attuned to his physical conditioning and diet year-round.

Dallas is definitely going to miss Brunson. As you noted, they're now a one-star team. That one star is an incredible player, but it would trouble me as a Dallas fan if my one star was as cavalier as Luka seems to be - showing no interest in helping to recruit talent to the team and spending his summers relaxing, dining and drinking in Europe.

[Monster]

Something to keep an eye on. I wonder about Dallas. Doncic was brilliant in the playoffs, but he can't be the only horse you ride to contention. As Kek has pointed out, it's really hard to win a title with one super high usage player and a couple of sidekicks. And things aren't going to get easier for him as he ages if he isn't super attuned to his physical conditioning and diet year-round.

Dallas is definitely going to miss Brunson. As you noted, they're now a one-star team. That one star is an incredible player, but it would trouble me as a Dallas fan if my one star was as cavalier as Luka seems to be - showing no interest in helping to recruit talent to the team and spending his summers relaxing, dining and drinking in Europe.

I don't know if I mind so much of a player is not into being part of the recruiting players to a team. I don't think Towns is really into this either. He basically has said he stays out of the team decision making process. Sometimes star players recruiting players can be bad.

Now if Luka is chilling not staying in shape or whatever that's more of an issue.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I have no issue with Luka Doncic staying out of the personnel decisions and not recruiting free agents. It's one of those "nice to have" attributes but it's definitely not a "need to have" in my mind. Sometimes it can do more harm than good as we recently saw with LeBron James and Anthony Davis pounding the table for a Russell Westbrook trade to Los Angeles, for instance. I would also think that it shows, to some degree, that Luka (or any other player that falls into this category) trusts his front office and coaching staff to do their jobs and surround them with complimentary talent. Overall, this is a non-issue.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if he'll ever take conditioning and injury prevention more seriously via various methods of training and medical treatment like other superstars of the present and past, but so far he's shown to be relatively durable given the massive amount of responsibility on his shoulders. If the Mavericks want to make sure he doesn't wear down, then they should surround him with more talent that can alleviate the workload on him. He's asked to do as much or more than every other player in the league on a nightly basis.

[Lipoli390]

I have no issue with Luka Doncic staying out of the personnel decisions and not recruiting free agents. It's one of those "nice to have" attributes but it's definitely not a "need to have" in my mind. Sometimes it can do more harm than good as we recently saw with LeBron James and Anthony Davis pounding the table for a Russell Westbrook trade to Los Angeles, for instance. I would also think that it shows, to some degree, that Luka (or any other player that falls into this category) trusts his front office and coaching staff to do their jobs and surround them with complimentary talent. Overall, this is a non-issue.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if he'll ever take conditioning and injury prevention more seriously via various methods of training and medical treatment like other superstars of the present and past, but so far he's shown to be relatively durable given the massive amount of responsibility on his shoulders. If the Mavericks want to make sure he doesn't wear down, then they should surround him with more talent that can alleviate the workload on him. He's asked to do as much or more than every other player in the league on a nightly basis.

I'm not a big fan of star players meddling in front office matters either. But I like stars who WANT to help recruit better players. My point is that Luka's disinterest in doing so is a small part of the same larger mindset behind Luka spending his summers lounging around in Europe and then coming to camp out of shape. He obviously plays hard and is highly competitive when he's on the court. And I agree that the heavy burden placed on him contributes to him wearing down physically. But that doesn't change the fact that he comes to camp out of shape every year.

[TheFuture]

The guy is about 23 years old, has millions of dollars, is one of the best players in the world, dragging his team deep into the playoffs.

No big deal here.

He doesn't need to recruit. People will come play with him soon enough.

If you don't recruit, it's a problem. If you do recruit and it backfires, it is a problem.

Personally, I hope he pisses everyone off in the western conference to the point that they all go eastern and the Wolves gallop in the playoffs.