Current Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic made headlines early in his career when he said it is easier to score in the NBA than it was in Europe.
So far though, Doncic has proven that be true as in seven seasons, he has been named to five All-Star teams and collected five First Team All-NBA nominations while averaging 28.6 points.
Doncic’s career is off to a historic start from a scoring perspective, and he explained why he has had so much success and feels it’s easier to score in the NBA on the latest episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash:
There’s no arguing with Doncic that NBA rules make it easier to score. He pointed out the most egregious example of that as in Europe, there is no defensive three-second calls so centers can just camp out in the paint.
NBA rules involve some give-and-take though as playing defense is as hard as ever, which is an area Doncic and the Lakers will need to improve on if they want to get back into championship contention.
LeBron James has been a fan of Luka Doncic since he entered the league and he recently discussed what makes his Lakers co-star so special.
“It’s always his pace. It’s always been his pace. It’s never been a game where it’s like ‘you can speed me up, he can speed me up, this bigger guy can be more physical, this smaller guy can get underneath me.’ It’s like, he moves at his own pace. And he’s never ever been on the floor, where he’s allowed someone to dictate where they’re going to put him on the floor. It’s always been the opposite. And for us, we all working off of that, we’ve just got to stay ready. We’ve seen throughout his career, there’s plays and passes that only certain guys in league history have ever been able to make. And for us, we just have to make sure that we continue to stay ready, especially when you’re going against handsy teams, athletic teams and teams that try to speed you up. We always have to keep our head on a swivel, because you just never know when the ball may find you. And that’s a good thing, that’s keeping the defense off balance and it’s a great thing to have that.”
