Luka Doncic's Rise: A Unique Talent Approaching Greatness
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00:00 Big game, Luka Doncic has 73 points over the last nine games.
00:05 He's averaging 45 points, nine rebounds, 15 assists.
00:10 What's really funny about Luka Gilbert,
00:13 I don't know if maybe you'll agree or you'll disagree,
00:15 you'll tell me, it felt like two years ago,
00:17 he was the hottest discussion in the NBA.
00:20 Like he was part of all of it.
00:22 He's gonna win multiple championships.
00:24 He's gonna win multiple MVPs.
00:26 I think that he's done nothing except for prove
00:29 that he can do that.
00:31 But Dallas hasn't really properly built enough
00:34 around him to win.
00:35 Mark Cuban still running the operation,
00:38 but interesting message to see that some of the teams
00:41 sold there as well.
00:43 And look, I'm not saying we're gonna go through
00:46 a whole drama with him as far as leaving
00:47 or anything like that.
00:49 But what has to happen here, Gilbert,
00:51 for us to pay more attention to him now?
00:53 It feels like this is the one player in the NBA
00:56 that was in the news cycle every day for like a year,
00:59 and now has like kind of like an afterthought.
01:01 And he has these big games, it's like, oh great,
01:03 but we know Dallas isn't doing anything.
01:06 - It's funny, Craig, I think you kind of see
01:08 history repeat itself.
01:09 I think it happened early on in LeBron James' career.
01:11 It happened at a certain point in Giannis Antetokounmpo's
01:14 career as well.
01:15 We get a little spoiled.
01:16 We get used to these once in a lifetime talents
01:19 doing things that at a certain point,
01:21 we just shrug at it.
01:23 We saw Luka Doncic score 60 points in a game last year.
01:26 Then score 73 points in a game this year.
01:28 And I think he's averaging 45 plus points
01:31 over the last six or seven games,
01:32 which nobody else has done except him.
01:35 And I think what happens is we get a little bored
01:38 or we get a little spoiled by it
01:39 because we haven't seen him win the big thing yet.
01:41 But I think it's important to remind ourselves
01:43 that he hasn't even turned 25 yet.
01:45 He will late February.
01:47 So to say that he's doing all these things
01:48 before his 25th birthday is a reminder
01:50 of just how special he is.
01:52 And the fact that the best is yet to come for him.
01:54 With respect to this Mavericks team,
01:56 they've kind of continued to try different things
01:59 to build around him.
01:59 At first, they tried Kristaps Porzingis.
02:01 Then it was Jalen Brunson.
02:03 And now it's Kyrie Irving.
02:05 And again, there's some similarities
02:06 to what the Bucks and Cavaliers try to do
02:08 around Giannis and LeBron.
02:10 I think as Luka continues to come into his own,
02:13 it's scary to say that he probably won't reach his peak
02:15 until he's 27 or 28 years old,
02:17 when he really learns to kind of perfect
02:20 the nuances of his game.
02:21 And I think that's the part to be excited about.
02:23 We saw him make it to the conference finals
02:25 a few years ago.
02:26 The Mavericks didn't have enough.
02:27 So I think now they figure out the perfect formula
02:30 to build the team around him.
02:32 He continues to do special things
02:33 that we haven't done before.
02:34 And I think that maybe we can take a step back
02:36 and put it in perspective again and realize just how special
02:39 of a talent he is.
02:40 But I think that what really will open our eyes to it
02:43 is until he leads them to win something tangible,
02:46 like a conference championship or an NBA championship.