In this clip, JJ Redick and Fred VanVleet talk about defending Luka Doncic and The Dallas Mavericks. Fred wonders why teams don’t double him more the way The Toronto Raptors did. JJ says “mixing up the caverage” is also an option the way The Boston Celtics did with The Mavs last night. Comment below with your thoughts.
Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter YouTube channel today for more nba analysis, highlights and player interviews.
#jjredick #nba #fredvanvleet
43 Comments
Lukas IQ is way too high for anyone to consistently double in my opinion
Feel’s illegally to be this early 😳
Because he's great at finding the open man and handling the situation as it comes. Getting consistently doubled isn't always a compliment. It means that your weakness is knowing how to get your teammates involved and handle it well not being the one scoring. That's why you can't double team Luka, Jokic, LeBron, Steph, Butler etc. Giannis was doubled or triple teams by the Heat in the 2019-20 season. Know he doesn't get double teamed nearly as often, cause he's gonna find the open man. So he hasn't got this weakness anymore. That's what's happening imo.
You can double team Luka especially when your man is Bullock
Bad 3 point FG% for the whole Mavs team tonight against Boston. I hope Mavs will concentrate on the paint when 3's are not now working! Start with high FG% shots first and get the momentum going! I believe on team momentum will can be contagious when your hitting your high FG% shots.
Interestingly, we had a showing of potential Luka defenses last night. That said… the dude is a runaway train; not the fastest, but dangerous as all hell when he’s moving.
I would double Luka and take my chances with Bullock and others beating me.
Old heads MJ was better than Bron when he’s not even as good as Luka
Seeing how good these guys are dam the old heads gonna try comparing MJ to Bron when MJ isn’t even as good as Luka
Sometimes the defense has to play the long game: let the superstar get his shot as much as you can force him to shoot, but make him work as much as possible for each shot… with goal of wearing him out by the 4th quarter. Let the rest of the team get cold and disengaged defensively because they’re not getting to do much on O. Warriors used to routinely let James Harden work hard, get his shots, and get tired.
me likes the double on a jump ball approach
Celtics last night showed on several plays how to correctly double Luka. When you've got players doubling him, you gotta have your other players guard his shooters and steal the ball mid pass because Luka is definitely going to pass it to his open teammates when doubled.
FVV future Mav
"There's been 3 times in the last 4 weeks that 5 guys have gone for 40 or more." I feel like I'm listening to Kyrie explaining the earth's dimensions.
Luka is the most doubled player in the NBA.
you don't double because that makes his teammates more attentive! gives his coach more incentive to run plays for someone else! his usage is crazy! put your best defender on him….hope for the best…and lock in on the other guys that can score on his team! he cant win every game himself!
Individual scoring is up, because teams are playing drop coverage all the time(because of the Boston Celtics run last season)…You can't play drop all the time against players like Luka, Embiid etc..This is a transition year, coaches will learn that it can't be just analytics, you gotta be rellying on your feel, especially againg superstars…
Dallas vs Celtics,… I thing dallas was swallowed by defence, they double luka a lot…. and more match up problems… I think coach kidd's worst decision on match up and team adjustmenst…
Dallas are best with carlile… fire kidd…
Warriors gave everyone the blueprint. They handled him pretty easily in the playoffs . Lukas style will never win a ring
the best way to guard Luka, is to stay between him and the ref
Offense is at a hall of fame level you would see at least 10 offensive highlights from a star players a game
It might be entertaining, but its not good for the overall health of the game.
you need to just rely upon the fact Luka has a bad team
Luka is MVP
It’s honestly very easy to defend Luka. Just make the player matched up with the worst offensive Maverick double him. Force the role players to take shots and try to contain Luka as much as you can. He’s a horrible defender , so it’s easy to consistently score against him and force him into foul trouble. 80% of the Mavs possessions consist of Luka dribbling for 20 seconds so his teammates rarely ever get time to create good shots.
Because the nba wants the game to be faster, more entertaining and higher score. Random players are having 40+ nights. Jordan would have 50 easily multiple nights in this era. I used to remember san antonio spurs holding teams to 80 point nights, many many nights. If you scored 90+ you were known as a high scoring team.
“He needs help” what championships caliber player is going to play with someone that high of usage?
How comfortable is the merch.. is it worth to get the hoodie
This Mavs team just the 2016-18 Rockets with a better coach.
kinda looks like drake
Actually 1:54 it’s not at an all time high. The early to mid 80s 1983-84 season teams shot way better AND they scored more points per game.
Doubling says more about the others on the team than the one doubled.
That office chair though.
Great video as always. Best media out there.
The thing is, with great players who have high basketball IQ like Luka, Bron, Jokic ect.. you can’t just have one game plan all game. Nobody just doubles them every play and nobody plays man to man with them every play. You have to mix up the defensive coverages and hope you catch them make a mistake on reading what you are in. That’s all you can do. These dudes are perfectly fine with dishing out passes all game long which is why you can’t just double them all game. I know people joke around about some of these guys’ teammates but they still are NBA players. You cannot leave someone open every play and expect to win. As far as people talking about the scoring going up this season I think a big factor is for some reason I’ve watched all these teams start playing dropped coverage. And nowadays there are a lot more players who can knock down the 3 ball. I don’t get it but that’s something I’ve noticed this season.
If you double Luka he'll just get 20 assists lol… Unselfish players are really hard to defend. No offense Kobe (R.I.P.). 😅
“If you don’t double him (Luka) it’s 50. Guaranteed.” That’s a crazy quote right there
Because Luka style of play won’t result in a championship any. Let him put up ridiculous numbers and just guard his teammates. Luka doesn’t pass enough and guys have to sit and wait while he dribbles the ball into the ground. Luka is basically James harden. Great numbers that won’t ever amount to anything.
Close your eyes and tell me you don’t hear Steph Curry talking
Imagine just for a second Giannis and Luka playing in same team at some point in their career while they are still in their prime.. just imagine
I kinda miss the days where defenses were allowed to get physical. I understand that flashing scoring is fun but having a series of scoreless and whistle-less possessions really builds up the intensity
3:01 wtf was that lmfao
There is no reason to play playoff defence during the season. Nick Nurse philosophy is: Double and triple team the best player and leave wide open shooters in the corner😁
I think Nick Wright's take on scoring is correct.
The last time scoring was this high was 111 points per game in 1985 Current league average is 113. Those teams in 1985 were scoring that many points without using the 3 prolifically.
The league got an influx of talent after ABA merged with NBA. There were only 24 teams so many talented players on a limited amount of teams.
In the 60s there was a year where teams averaged 118 per game and Wilt averaged 50 that year while Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double. There were only 8 teams and almost every team was stacked with Hall of Famers.
NBA expansion happened and we went up to 30 teams so the talent was spread and scoring went down.
Now we have had 30 teams for a while. The talent is coming from all over the world instead of just the U.S.
Out of the top 10 players in the NBA almost half are foreign players.
Giannis Nigeria / Greece; Luka Slovenia, Jokic Eastern Europe, Embiid Cameroon.
7 of the top 8 rebounders in the league are foreign.
We have a lot of talent, we have analytics, and players who can primarily focus on just basketball.
Also, all the players scoring 40+ and 50+ are all superstars. There are no random Sadiq Bey 50 point games this year. If average players were getting 50 then I think we would have a problem.