NBA: 3 August takeaways and 3 predictions for the playoffs in September

August takeaway – Luka Doncic: good at basketball

A scorching hot take, I know. But after forcing the Clippers into a six-game series despite playing with a bum ankle while having to deal with Marcus Morris’ nightly impression of Johnny Lawrence from “The Karate Kid,” I think it’s safe to say that Doncic might be pretty good.

I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said about Luka a million times by now, but I think it’s important that we recognize how special he was in his first playoff appearance. A lot of young players can put up stats in the regular season, but for Luka to be 21 years old and dragging a banged up and ill-fitting roster to 6 games against arguably the best team in basketball is an accomplishment that can’t be overstated.

I’m not going to compare Luka to Michael Jordan. I won’t do it. But if somebody were to make a comparison to Michael Jordan based on these playoffs, they would probably say this feels a lot like the Bulls losing to the ‘86 Celtics in MJ’s second season. The Celtics won the series, but it was pretty clear that the Michael Jordan kid who averaged 43-6-6 was going to be a big problem for the rest of the NBA. But again, I would never make that comparison…it’s all hypothetical…for now.