Dallas Mavericks: Behind Luka Doncic, title contention is on the horizon
Luka Doncic took the league by storm during his rookie season. After his sophomore season, he has the Dallas Mavericks on the verge of contention.
After a sensational rookie season in which he averaged 21 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on 43 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from 3-point range, Luka Doncic took home NBA Rookie of the Year honors for the 2018-19 NBA campaign.
It was a fantastic start for a player that had plenty of questions surrounding him at the 2018 NBA Draft. However, thanks to a great rookie campaign, he more than proved that he can hang in the Association. The questions now don’t revolve around whether he could play at the NBA level. Instead, they revolve around how great of a player Doncic will develop into over the next few seasons of his career.
If his sophomore season was any indication, Doncic will go down as one of the best players in NBA history. At times, players can often fall into a “sophomore slump” after impressive rookie campaigns. That wasn’t the case for Doncic.
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Luka was somehow even more impressive during his second season in the league, averaging 29 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists on 46 percent shooting from the field. What was even more impressive was the fact that Luka (27.7) was fourth in the NBA in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) in 2019-20, only behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, and Anthony Davis.
That’s great company to be around. Furthermore, after the Dallas Mavericks finished the 2018-19 season at 33-49, the team was on pace to win 50 games in 2019-20 and were sitting in the seventh seed of the Western Conference and only 2.5 games back of the fourth seed.
The Mavs were set to be a playoff team and were set to be one of the most dangerous underdogs in the tournament. Keep in mind, Dallas likely should’ve been in a much better spot too. Doncic missed 17 games due to injury in 2019-20.
In just his second season in the NBA, Doncic is barely scratching the surface on the player that he can be in the league. The fact that he’s averaging a near triple-double while scoring nearly 30 points per game should quiet any concerns about Doncic.
And these aren’t empty stats, either, as is evident by how well the Mavs play when he’s on the floor. Dallas was set to be a dark horse in the 2020 playoffs and this team is only going to get better with every passing year.
The next step is what’s important. Doncic is going to get better, but even if he doesn’t he’s already one of the NBA’s best players. He’s a superstar, even if he’s to league’s most underrated one. Title contention is what should come next for the Mavericks.
Behind the leadership and play of Luka Doncic, the Mavs will soon be the third-best team in the conference, behind the two Los Angeles teams. The Mavs were a team that not many were talking about or even respected in the Western Conference. It was somewhat of a mirror reflection of what Doncic went through entering the 2018 NBA Draft.
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Luka Doncic is the real deal and, soon enough, so will be the Dallas Mavericks.