Minnesota Sports Forum

Just how good is this kid? The numbers he's putting up at 20 years old is mind blowing. I think he's a top 5 player already.
He controls the pace of play with his rebounding and court vision and is a threat for 35 pts each and every night. It's amazing.

PorkChop wrote:Just how good is this kid? The numbers he's putting up at 20 years old is mind blowing. I think he's a top 5 player already.
He controls the pace of play with his rebounding and court vision and is a threat for 35 pts each and every night. It's amazing.

He's amazing. 36 points, 19 assists and 14 rebounds tonight. He's a super elite player and will probably lead the Mavs to a championship before his career is over.

lipoli390 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:Just how good is this kid? The numbers he's putting up at 20 years old is mind blowing. I think he's a top 5 player already.
He controls the pace of play with his rebounding and court vision and is a threat for 35 pts each and every night. It's amazing.

He's amazing. 36 points, 19 assists and 14 rebounds tonight. He's a super elite player and will probably lead the Mavs to a championship before his career is over.

His success doesn't surprise me. Just a reminder he was the 3rd pick in that draft...

To me the stats are nice, but the most important part is he leads his teams to wins.

Yeah too bad we couldn't watch him and prime Dirk play together for a few years.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:Just how good is this kid? The numbers he's putting up at 20 years old is mind blowing. I think he's a top 5 player already.
He controls the pace of play with his rebounding and court vision and is a threat for 35 pts each and every night. It's amazing.

He's amazing. 36 points, 19 assists and 14 rebounds tonight. He's a super elite player and will probably lead the Mavs to a championship before his career is over.

His success doesn't surprise me. Just a reminder he was the 3rd pick in that draft...

Congrats to the Mavs for showing that you can have success in the draft even if you're picking higher than #6. :)

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:Just how good is this kid? The numbers he's putting up at 20 years old is mind blowing. I think he's a top 5 player already.
He controls the pace of play with his rebounding and court vision and is a threat for 35 pts each and every night. It's amazing.

He's amazing. 36 points, 19 assists and 14 rebounds tonight. He's a super elite player and will probably lead the Mavs to a championship before his career is over.

His success doesn't surprise me. Just a reminder he was the 3rd pick in that draft...

Congrats to the Mavs for showing that you can have success in the draft even if you're picking higher than #6. :)

Yeah they were super lucky. Lol Remember Atlanta made that deal out of that pick and...I looked them up and Trey Young's stats are no slouch.

I finally watched the game where Luka put up those numbers. Of course, that wasn't an anomaly. Luka led the League in triple doubts this season.

I think it's clear that Luka isn't just an all-star level player; he's a foundational elite player who you can build a championship team around. My question for discussion in this thread is this: What makes Luka such a great player?

He's not a great athlete or particularly fast. While he has good size, he's not freakishly long and he doesn't have a chiseled muscular frame. So what is it about him that makes him so good?

lipoli390 wrote:I finally watched the game where Luka put up those numbers. Of course, that wasn't an anomaly. Luka led the League in triple doubts this season.

I think it's clear that Luka isn't just an all-star level player; he's a foundational elite player who you can build a championship team around. My question for discussion in this thread is this: What makes Luka such a great player?

He's not a great athlete or particularly fast. While he has good size, he's not freakishly long and he doesn't have a chiseled muscular frame. So what is it about him that makes him so good?

Coming into that draft I could tell he was by far the best player, a once a decade type player. He has elite vision on the court first of all. His handle is great, his body control in tight places in traffic is superb. Solid not elite shooter but very good and getting better. Finishes well close to the rim.

I saw him as a LeBron minus the 44 inch vertical. He has similar skills in that way. The passing, handle, finishing.

I recommended trading up into the top 3 to get him, using Butler and pick/s to do so. However, we know how that turned out.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I finally watched the game where Luka put up those numbers. Of course, that wasn't an anomaly. Luka led the League in triple doubts this season.

I think it's clear that Luka isn't just an all-star level player; he's a foundational elite player who you can build a championship team around. My question for discussion in this thread is this: What makes Luka such a great player?

He's not a great athlete or particularly fast. While he has good size, he's not freakishly long and he doesn't have a chiseled muscular frame. So what is it about him that makes him so good?

Coming into that draft I could tell he was by far the best player, a once a decade type player. He has elite vision on the court first of all. His handle is great, his body control in tight places in traffic is superb. Solid not elite shooter but very good and getting better. Finishes well close to the rim.

I saw him as a LeBron minus the 44 inch vertical. He has similar skills in that way. The passing, handle, finishing.

I recommended trading up into the top 3 to get him, using Butler and pick/s to do so. However, we know how that turned out.

I think you're spot on, WolvesFan21. Luka is a reminder of the qualities that an NBA player has to have to great, at least if the player is a guard or wing. Those qualities are especially important for a player who lacks extraordinary speed, length or athleticism. They're the same qualities that made Larry Bird and Magic Johnson great in spite of their athletic limitations. I've attempted to identify these qualities as follows:

1. Extraordinary feel for the game. It's the vision thing. But I think it's also referred to as a high basketball IQ. By whatever name, I would describe it as the ability to see the game in slow motion (like Neo in the Matrix), to read the floor and anticipate what's going to happen, to anticipate where players will be before they get there and to spot a driving lane the split second it opens up.

2. A great handle combined with excellent body control and the ability to change speed and direction with the ball. The ability to change speed is less important for an Allen Iverson who has extraordinary speed, but it's still important and Allen was terrific at changing speeds and directions. This is another set of qualities the Andrew Wiggins lacks. He actually has terrific body control, but he has a poor handle.

3. A hyper competitiveness and intensity combined with a passion for the game. Great athletes like Andrew Wiggins and Derrick Williams lacked this third set of qualities.

I can't think of a great NBA guard or wing over the years who didn't have all these qualities. MJ had them along with extraordinary hops. Magic and Bird relied on these qualities more than MJ because they lacked the extraordinary athletic gifts of MJ Doctor J and others. There have been plenty of players with extraordinary athletic gifts who didn't make it in the NBA or who became little more than role players. But I've never seen a truly great Hall-of-Fame caliber NBA guard or wing who didn't have all three of the qualities I listed. An NBA big can be great without possessing the second quality I've listed, but he'll need the other two, or at least the third.

As I look ahead to this year's draft, I'm trying to figure out who might have these three qualities. I think LaMello Ball clearly you has the first two. But I wonder whether he has the third.

Edwards has the best set of physical tools among guards and wings in the draft, I think his handle is under appreciated and I've been impressed by his change of speed and direction. He seems to have the necessary hyper-competitive passion on the offensive end, but many believe it's missing on the defensive end. And I wonder about the extent of his feel for the game.