Luka Doncic's first NBA game was October 17, 2018, on the road in Dallas against Phoenix.
Doncic was 19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers on 5-of-16 shooting from the field that game, -18.
Sort of a really bad game, right?
What I wrote the other day:
That is, his blocking maneuvers, shot-turned-pass dexterity, vision, judgment, and decision-making, even in a poorly played debut game, were clearly outstanding.
Some talents can't be practiced, like vision, like memory: see LeBron.
Hand-eye coordination: see Bird and Curry.
Doncic, first of all, has the brain of a super organizer.
Close to the LeBron level of vision, close to the Nash level of "offense to find the opportunity to instantly point to" reaction and judgment, fearless and fearless big heart.
This is what we all understand, the so-called mind, the so-called intangible talent.
Willis is the best in the 1 position in terms of running and jumping, but why has he not been a good organizer? That's what's missing.
This has been said enough, so I won't go into it again.
Let's talk about Doncic's body.
His running and jumping isn't top notch, but there's something about it that's great for basketball.
There are some gifts that are instantly recognizable: height and size.
There are some talents that are universal to most sports: running, jumping, strength.
So all you have to do to be selected for basketball is to be tall enough to run?
Not necessarily.
We all know Kevin McHale, a white guy who isn't a great jumper or a strong guy, right? Not exceptional by running and jumping. But the Cardinal took one look and he said he was a physique set up for basketball.
Reason: arms too long, hands too good.
Of the four centers we all know, David Robinson is actually ahead of Dream in terms of running, jumping, height, and even mid-range shooting. Why is Dream unique? Because of his center of gravity, balance and coordination.
Wade's jump is only 35 inches - Nick Young 39 inches. According to the running and jumping height, Nick Young should be above Wade. But why is the achievement difference so far? Riley in the spring of 2003 at a glance Wade, is:
"His center of gravity when dribbling is so low that his shoulders can be lower than his knees."
That's a bit of an exaggeration, but anyone who's seen it gets it.
Height and size, running and jumping strength, that's a necessity, and it's needed in all kinds of sports.
But there are some specific talents in basketball:
Long arms, big, flexible hands, quick lateral footwork, center of gravity, balance, coordination.
Like Doncic's average running and jumping, but he's got great hands, a solid lower body, excellent balance, and coordination.
Broad-shouldered and thick.
That's why he, Harden and Leonard are very good at "stealing over the opponent through cover, using the shoulders to hold the position, and stopping to do the follow-up operation".
All three of them are not fast, but the basketball never need to be as fast as Willis from start to finish, there are a few steps fast, and have the size to be able to get stuck in the position is good.
The most subtle point is Doncic's slowdown ability.
Everyone knows that players who accelerate explosively can stomp out a strong first step. But really ......
Late last year, Santa Barbara's P3 did concentric and eccentric force output assessments.
A bunch of terminology and such aside, anyway:
Doncic has amazing braking ability and he can control his center of gravity cleanly. He's better than 93% of the players in the league when it comes to braking.
This allows him to maintain his balance at high speeds and in large movements.
Off topic: in that test, Harden was better than 99% of NBA players - we all get it about his ability to stop and stop in a hurry.
This one from Doncic, the forward, brake, and backward step: that's balance and coordination in action.
It's an aspect that Nash described fifteen years ago:
"I'm not so much fast as I am elusive, and a lot of people will confuse those two things. I'm really kinda great when I move: that requires you to have coordination, timing and balance all good. I can do a lot of things once I'm moving, but I'm really not good at explosiveness."
There are similarities, I think, between Nash, Harden and Doncic in that regard.
What makes their blocks, hustle stops, sudden changes to passes on the break, and so on so good is not how fast they are, but that they are coordinated and balanced well enough.
This is where I have to go off on another tangent.
The LeBron who can run and jump the most is the one he was before 2007. The most physical LeBron was the one he was from 2011-14.
But the one with good detail control is the one he had after 2016 - there's no question about that, is there?
I discussed this in 2017 in between gags with a very respected teacher. While LeBron doesn't run and jump as much as he did at his peak:
Me: I think LeBron's coordination and core strength have also improved.
Pi: Mr. Zhan is very aware of the target training.
Me: The sense of balance and stability seems better now than in 2009.
Pi: A new hybrid trainer I hired the other day said that Mr. Zhan can do stable foam-axis planks, as well as inversions in yoga. That's number one in the business.
Me: Isn't that like David Robinson and Ray Allen?
Pi: Relative strength, absolute strength and explosive confrontation is so good that you can still do this.
I: Although it is said that Wilt (Chamberlain) body is good, on the track and field is certainly also good; but the combination of body and technology to say, really not as good as LeBron. The monster ah.
He: tsk, can't figure it out.
Basketball is not a sprint track or a triple jump pit.
Running fast, jumping high, looking at the most explosive and coolest and most likely to be on the top ten ball.
But the important thing is to be able to hurry stops and starts, to be able to accurately control the hands and eyes, to be able to see or remember the target position in the high-speed movement: this is a wider range of applications than the simple running and jumping.
That said, watching the game if you only stay in the stage of looking at running and jumping to judge talent, it is easy to disregard such factors as touch, coordination, change of direction and balance and reaction, and it is easy to produce the dunk monsters' physique, is the most suitable for the idea of playing basketball stature - it is very easy to run off the beaten track.
Like more than a decade ago, Yao black people like daily chanting "Yao Ming in addition to high is a stupid big man" this kind of, ignoring the hand, balance, reaction, coordination of the faint words, is this kind of wrong ideas to lead to the extreme results.