Luka Doncic is off to a historic start to the season but it’s been a battle every night in an attempt to carry the Dallas Mavericks.
Luka Doncic is the second-best player in the NBA right now, behind Giannis Antetokounmpo. And he’s been red-hot to start the 2022-23 NBA season. He’s every bit the player that the Dallas Mavericks need him to be to remain competitive in the Western Conference.
Luka hasn’t just been red-hot but he’s been good on a historic scale. After scoring 37 points in a win over the Orlando Magic Sunday, Luka became the first player since Michael Jordan (1986) to score at least 30 points in each of his first six games of the season.
Through the first six games of the year, Luka is averaging 37 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists on 50 percent shooting from the field. The fact that he’s still averaging 37 points this season while only shooting 22 percent from 3-point range is absolutely remarkable.
The Dallas Mavericks have struggled to start the year
Doncic aside, it’s been a struggle for the Mavs as a whole. Through the first six games of the season, the team is just 3-3 and they’ve been so inconsistent. They’ll beat the Memphis Grizzlies one night and then turn around to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch the Mavs this season, especially with how dominant Luka has looked on most nights. And I can’t help but think that the front office, once again, let him down after not replacing Jalen Brunson during the offseason.
I’m not sure paying Brunson the big-money contract he was seeking was the right move, but I’m sure doing nothing to replace him was the wrong one. And we’re seeing the repercussions of that this season.
After Luka, the only other starter that is averaging double-figures in scoring is Spencer Dinwiddie. He’s been exceptional to start the season but I’m not sure how much the team will be able to rely on his hot start. For as talented as Dinwiddie is, I have a hard time believing that he’s going to shoot 51 percent from the field overall and 46 percent from 3-point range all season long.
And we kind of saw that in the conference finals. Luka needed help and simply didn’t have enough against the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
We’re seeing that already and on an even lesser stage. How far can Luka carry the Mavs? He may have to have his best season to date in order to carry them to a top 6 team in the Western Conference.