One of the things that NBA fans noticed immediately as soon as the 2020-21 preseason commenced was that Luka Doncic wasn’t in particularly good shape. This came as a bit of surprise to folks, since all the chatter in the offseason seemed to center around how this would be the year Doncic took over the league.
In fact, most sports books had Doncic listed as the favorite to win the 2020-21 NBA MVP award.
This week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shined a light on why Doncic came into the season a bit out of shape.
During an appearance on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket, Cuban indicated that Doncic planned to spend this offseason playing with the Slovenian national team. That was the intended means of keeping the 21-year-old in shape.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, those plans fell apart. And because Doncic could not practice with the Slovenian national team, he had no way of getting in shape.
“He’ll tell you that he didn’t come in as good of shape as he wanted to,” Cuban said.
“You can’t replicate all that [expected offseason work] that quickly.”
As far as Cuban is concerned, expectations need to be adjusted due to the shortened offseason.
“Guys are not going to just be as sharp as they were last season or the season before or after a normal training camp, so it’s just going to be a little bit different,” he said.
“And almost like you saw in other sports, the NFL in particular, what happened in those first few weeks is different than what’s happening now toward the end of the season as guys have gotten into a routine, a practice schedule, and gotten more coaching.
“It’ll be the same with all NBA teams, including the Mavs and Luka.”
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— Game 7 (@game7__) December 29, 2020
Despite coming into the season a little chunky, Doncic and his team have looked dominant at times. In particular, they completely shellacked a Kawhi Leonard-less Los Angeles Clippers squad 124-73.
Doncic finished that outing with 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 26 minutes of action.
“Luka’s job is to make everybody on the court better and to help us win games,” Cuban said.
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— Game 7 (@game7__) December 29, 2020
“We saw what we can do against the Clippers. But we saw what happens when we don’t make shots like against the Suns and the Lakers or guys don’t do their job and box out against the Lakers.
“Luka knows that when that happens, he’s going to get the blame, no matter what. But there’s nobody in the organization that has changed our perspective of Luka at all. We know he’s amazing. He’s a top-three, top-five player in the league and he’s only going to get better.”
So far this year Doncic is averaging 27.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game.
Will this be the season he officially establishes himself as a player capable of carrying his team deep in the playoffs? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
