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2018 NBA Draft: Luka Doncic is the real deal, and worth the hype

By Quinn Allen

NBA Draft (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NBA Draft (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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There’s a lot of intriguing prospects for this summer’s NBA draft, including an 18-year old Slovenian by the name of Luka Doncic, who is lighting it up for Real Madrid in the Euroleague

We have an absolutely outstanding crop of NBA talent coming out of college basketball this year. Names like Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton, Texas’ Mo Bamba, and Duke’s Marvin Bagley come to mind. Players who look NBA ready, and are sure to go high in this summer’s draft.

But every year, there’s always a couple of players within those 60 picks of the annual draft that come from the Euroleague, arguably the next best league in the world to the NBA.

This year one of those players from the Euroleague is 18 year old Luka Doncic. A lot of hype has been surrounding the Real Madrid star, being praised for his versatility to play so many different positions and his ability to score from all over the court.

Is Doncic the real deal?

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All-around talent

Doncic is averaging 17.9 points per game, which is second in the entire league. The impressive part is he’s shooting an astounding 60.9 percent from the field which is absolutely unheard of.

He’s also shooting 34 percent from downtown. Doncic is also averaging 5.2 rebounds per game and 4.5 assists. He really has top notch skills not just from a scoring standpoint, but also as a playmaker. Evident by his 4.5 assists per game, he has a special ability to pass the ball and find open teammates and make everyone around him better.

But the eye-opening part of his game that stands out and makes him a top 3 consensus pick is his ability to score.

If you take a look at the video above, it really shows his abilities to score from inside and outside the perimeter. He has unreal ball-handling skills; even at 18 years old in the Euroleague, he is absolutely dominating competition.

He does an amazing job of finding lanes to the hoop and getting through tight crevices to create opportunities in the paint. But then he also can shoot it from 3-point range, where he likes to use that crossover and step-back move to get an open look. Doncic is 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds and the scary part is he is still growing.

He’s quite athletic and moves around well but he could definitely become that much more of a presence once he hits full growth. He’s really shown a maturity playing against guys who are on the hole a lot older than him.

How high will he go?

Doncic has shown a lot of versatility this year being able to play guard, shooting guard, and small forward. But that could be one reason he doesn’t go number one overall, because he doesn’t have a set position, like the others who are projected to go top five.

The versatility does show how athletic he really is though, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. When he does get to the NBA it could end up being a benefit for a team, to have a guy who can play all over the court.

My prediction is he will go second overall, to DeAndre Ayton. Ayton is a talent that doesn’t come along too often, a big who is freakishly athletic and can shoot it. Doncic is very special, but a 7-foot 1-center who can shoot like Ayton is rare to find. That doesn’t mean Doncic won’t turn into one of the league’s elite though. Once he matures and hits his man body, The Slovenian could be that much better.

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There are no doubts that he will turn into one of the better all-around scorers once he comes to the US. He has amazing court vision and a very natural sense for scoring. The hype is definitely worth it with Luka Doncic. It will be interesting to see where he gets selected in this year’s NBA Draft.