To say Luka Doncic went into his first NBA season with massive expectations would be a understatement. After all he is the reigning Euroleague MVP at the precocious age of 19. Not only that he led his Real Madrid squad to the Euorleague title where he was named MVP again for the Final Four. Couple that with leading Slovenia to it's first European championship in 2017 and Doncic came into the NBA as the most accomplished European prospect ever. It's early obviously, but through his first 7 games, Luka is not only meeting those great expectations, he's exceeding them.
How good has he been, well he's currently averaging 20.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists. So how many rookies younger than 21 have put up those numbers in NBA history? That would be zero*. In fact the only rookies period to put up those numbers would be Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Elgin Baylor and Sidney Wicks, pretty select company I'd say.
Doncic's 31 point outing in Monday's overtime loss was the crowing achievement so far, as he scored nearly at will against a probable West playoff team. He might not be the athletic guy but it hardly matters. He gets to where he wants generally and if not he can shoot the ball from range with accuracy. That's not even mentioning his ability to pass the ball, probably his greatest trait.
There will be growing pains of course, there always are for young players. For instance Doncic is averaging 4.3 turnovers per game, a number that will surely go down as the Slovenian sensation grows more comfortable playing NBA basketball. But it's amazing how much this mere teenager can do right now against the world's best players. Couple that with a promising second year player in Dennis Smith Jr. and the Mavs are in very good shape in building the core of their next contending team
Mavs fans have blessed the last two decades by getting to watch the career of one of the NBA's all-time greats in Dirk. Now a new European wunderkind has arrived and he looks as comfortable as he can be in picking up the torch as the face of the franchise.
(*=h/t to Bobby Karalla of Mavs.com for the statistical nugget.)
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