Luka Doncic averaging historical numbers in rookie season
I think we can all agree that NBA is the best basketball league in the world and this is because it has the most superstars. Starting from Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Bill Russell to Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson, the NBA has always had the best players in the world. Consequently, one of the most fun things that you can do is try to guess who will be the next Allen Iverson, the next Kobe Bryant or the next LeBron James.
And for the first time in a lot of years, this special player seems to be a European, Luka Doncic. The 19-year old was raised at the Real Madrid academy, one of the best in Europe, and officially debuted for the senior team in 2015. Doncic continued to work hard, and his efforts were rewarded last season when the Slovenian managed to win Eurobasket 2017, the Euroleague and the Spanish title while being named MVP of the Euroleague regular season and also of the Euroleague Final Four.
Having won almost everything that he could, Luka Doncic moved on to the next big challenge in his career, the National Basketball Association (NBA). Drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, he was traded immediately to the Dallas Mavericks where he found himself teammate with another European legend, Dirk Nowitzki. The organization ran by Mark Cuban is in a stage of reconstruction, so this means that Doncic has a lot of playing time. The Slovenian ‘Point Forward’ is playing almost 35 minutes per game while averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. More than that, Doncic became the main offensive weapon of his team.
If we compare Luka Doncic’ stats from his first 12 games to other superstars’ stats in their rookie season, we observe that he stands better than big names such as Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Paul George, James Harden, Jimmy Butler and his teammate Dirk Nowitzki. Of course, this stats depend a lot to the team that a player gets on because his minutes are set by the coach that leads the team. But, in any way you want to look at it, the numbers of Luka Doncic are amazing, and every NBA Specialist acknowledges it. In fact, the Mavericks’ rookie is the first one, since Michael Jordan, to average 20+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 4+ assists in his rookie season.
Now, the big challenge for Luka Doncic is to keep up this kind of numbers, to stay healthy and try to improve every day. And, hopefully, one day we will see him as an MVP of this league, and as a champion.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
