Luka Doncic: The NBA’s fastest slow guy

While Doncic isn’t an out of this world athlete, he does possess an otherworldly ability to play the game at his own speed.

The rookie wall is as oft mentioned as it is metaphorically stout.

In theory, all rookies hit a point where their respective production falls off a cliff.

The effect is normally attributed to the extended grind of the NBA season, as well as the increased speed of the NBA game.

The latter part of that definition was frequently used as the chink in the armor of international prospect Luka Doncic. NBA scouts worried obsessively over his average athleticism, lack of blow-by speed, and limited lateral movement leaving him exposed against NBA level athletes.

It’s early but the results have already been so astounding, that we can mail in the verdict now:

Luka Doncic will never need to get acclimated to the speed of the NBA game. It seems much more likely that the NBA may need to adjust to the speed of Luka Doncic.

Doncic isn’t fast, but he shouldn’t be quantified as a slug either.

Watching him play is a masterclass in pace. He never seems to rush a set. In fact, if you watch his play, it sometimes appears that he’s moving too slow.

He takes his time to skillfully jab step and contorts his body to find passing angles, and of course, put the peach in the basket.

Their lies the beauty in Doncic’s game. He seems immune to the pace mind games opponents try to play.

He never seems rattled enough to rush into careless mistakes. Or bogged down enough, to slow the game down to a halt.

He possesses an impeccable internal clock, that rides a frequency between the two extremes.

Luka saunters down the court with the confidence of a young Lebron James, while possessing a Nash Esque understanding of pace and passing angles.

If the average NBA rookie’s style of play is frenetic abandon, Doncic’s is abandoning freneticism.

It starts off one way, changes beat and still manages to stick the landing.

While his squad doesn’t play at an above-average pace, Doncic has produced a top-five NBA attack. Through the first three games of the Doncic era, the Mavs have amassed an astounding offensive rating of 117.2. For reference, only the Pelicans and the Blazers have fielded a better offense in this season’s opening games.

To provide some level of historical context, the 2017–2018 Warriors finished the regular season with an offensive rating of 112.7.

While no one would be foolhardy enough to imply that the Mav’s will be better offensively than the Warriors for an entire season. Even a blip on the radar is a feather in the cap of Doncic on a team with so little established offensive threats.

A cap with a solo feather wouldn’t make for a very good one. Luckily for Doncic he gets another for his ambling forays into the paint.

Deandre Jordan immediately established himself as one of the NBA’s preeminent screen setters in his lob city days. When he took his talents to the lone star state, most assumed he would continue to rim roll and free up whichever ball handler shared the court with him.

That was before most of us had been lucky enough to see the Slovenian wunderkind play.

The space created from a Jordan screen seems almost unfair when given to Doncic’s cerebral mind.

In space, Doncic always profiles as a threat. If defenders sag off to prevent him from getting to the cup, he’ll step back and knock it down from deep. If they elect to play up on him, he’ll use his deceptive first step to rumble towards the rim.

From there, he’s proven averse to the Julius Randle method of bulldozing whoever comes between him and the rim.

He’d much rather stop on a dime and loft up a perfectly timed floater. If that’s not an option how about threading the needle between two defenders to a waiting Jordan.

Luka injects Carlisle offense with instant electricity and a never-ending bag of offensive tricks.

While Dallas fans are giddy to watch Doncic play, I can’t imagine anyone is giddier than Deandre Jordan. Minus Cp3, Jordan has grown accustomed to having his scoring opportunities set up by Austin Rivers and Patrick Beverly. Both fine players in their own rights, but neither in the same realm of Paul in terms of passing ability.

While Doncic is still moons away from the Point God, he at least exists in the same orbit. Just like Paul before him, Luka has made it a habit to feed the mountain of Jordan as early and as often as possible. A fact that it’s safe to imagine, neither he nor Jordan is upset about.

Doncic’s playmaking has allowed Jordan to average 16 points a contest. Nearly double his career average of 9.5 points per contest. The feat becomes all the more impressive when you consider that Jordan is still amongst the league leaders in efficiency, despite the drastically higher volume.

Jordan provides Doncic with an extra-large target and bail out option every time down the floor. While the Slovenian guards assist totals don’t currently jump off the page. It’s hard to imagine his numbers not rising, as he gets more comfortable manning Carlisle offense.

As good as Luka’s been, he has room to improve significantly if he continues to work on his body and lateral movement.

A fact that should have Dallas fans jumping with joy, and everyone else cowering in fear.

Luka is following in the footsteps of last year’s rookie standouts. He’s accepted the role of franchise face and fan favorite in stride. Arrived into the league fully formed and ready for more responsibilities.

Doncic is coming for more than just the ROY hardware. He’s coming for the crown, and he’s doing it as his own pace.

NBA beware.