Maybe before last summer that would be true

I’m a huge basketball nerd and I remember there was a profile done in a small Strength and Conditioning periodical (I think it’s called Men’s Health) where it showed Luka was now ripped and was intermittent fasting.

Casuals may have missed it but I guarantee he’s in prime physical condition

People will comment on his conditioning, which I’m sure does affect him with it being up and down, but he’s also missed time for ankle injuries every year of his career going back to 2019.  

I imagine he’s either regularly in some kind of discomfort as the small injuries pile up or he’s trying to change his playstyle to cut down on the risk of continuing to re-injure himself as he gets older.

Damn can’t believe SGA and Ant got fat and lazy.

Good that you posted this

Never seen this before - puts it into context. Kind of surprised Ant drives as “little” as he does

My theory is its the subtle return of the middy

This doesn’t fit my Luka is bad agenda.. delete it…

Someone do D Rose and D Wade to compare eras.

These also get a bit anecdotal and there are situational things happening.

• Like for Ant, he actually had lower drives in 22-23 with 12.3 and that makes some sense because KAT was injured that season and there was less spacing.

• In 23-24, KAT is healthy and spacing is better so more opportunities to attack the rim.

• In 24-25, Randle provides worse spacing than KAT but also Ant becomes a really good 3pt shooter. So it becomes more valuable for him to shoot 3s and provide spacing for everyone else.

• In 25-26, much of the same from the previous year but he’s become a much better mid-range shooter. He went from taking 16.4% of his shots from 10 to 3p and shooting 35.6% the previous season to 24.2% of shots on 47.2% shooting. So because he’s dangerous at the rim and from 3, teams are giving him that open mid range and he’s taking it because it’s open. (drives are counted as getting the ball >20 feet away and dribbling it into <10. So if he gets it from beyond 3, dribbles into the 15 foot range and takes a midrange, that doesn’t count as a drive)

With SGA, there are some similar things happening with spacing. With Hart, teams do actually have to pack the paint a bit more to prevent offensive rebounds when previously we were the worst offensive rebounding team in the league.

Some of it is how teams are guarding SGA. Some of it is also a conscious effort for SGA to extend his range and put up 3pt volume (which has helped his 3pt shooting over last couple of seasons).

One of the things making a big difference this season is how absurd he’s been from 10-16 feet. He’s taking 27.3% of his shots from this range (up +5.4% from last season), which is higher volume than anywhere else. And he’s shooting a very crazy 59.8% (up +5%).

So when he’s just inside the 3 point line and reading the defense, and he’s 1-on-1, he has a few options. He can make a move to go inside that 10-16 range and take a step back or he can commit to the drive. If he can tell that he’s going to get met at the rim by a solid rim protector and get double teamed, it makes sense to create space and take that stepback.

Not just a “Luka is fat” thing

I agree that there are other things going on but I think part of it is conditioning.

Like for the 23-24, when Kyrie was out they lacked 3pt shooting and so he upped his volume.

They also lacked lob threats and then they got lively and then gafford. So he’s looking for those lobs rather than driving it to the rim himself.

But he’s also just settling for more 3s and long 2s (by year for long 2s: 19.9%, 23.4%, 23.3%, 25.7%). And since he’s not shooting better from distance, it seems like either a conditioning or willingness thing. He did shoot well from 3 in 23-24 but has regressed in the last two years. Lakers do lack shooting but shooting 36.8% and 35.5% on high volume isn’t helping.

With both Ant and SGA, there are some solid reasons why they are driving less, but there just isn’t the same justifications for Luka.

With Shai this year, a lot of it has to do with injuries - he’s been dealing with a bunch of minor ones himself, but more the team is so hobbled that the spacing and secondary creation has died, limiting his ability to get to the rim. They also opened the season blowing teams out so much that he sat the fourth, probably also cutting into his drives per game

Luka became a superstar much earlier than these guys in the bubble.

Ant and Shai had recent incredible developments as part of their superstar jumps to their shooting games (ant from 3 and shai from midrange and 3) so obviously their shot criteria changed.

Also lakers have terrible spacing so it’s harder to drive

He also doesn’t have a good center to run pnr with aside from hayes. Teams are much more willing to leave ayton more open and recover since he fumbles the ball a lot, and isnt an amazimg lob threat.

for an 82 game season, it makes sense

especially cause he’s god tier in the floater range, really good midrange shooter, and for a guy who self creates his threes, 35.5% is very good

but i do wish he would go to the rim like 5-10% more

it’s kind of like Blake, the jumper got better, got more skilled, and now it’s fewer at rim shots

most players are like that

People forget how important driving to the rim is. It’s not just about getting a shot off, it’s about collapsing the defense and causing the defense to react and switch and producing mismatches for your offense

Another reason LeBron is the goat

The motor usually doesn’t get worse at 26.

It’s why players peak from 26-32. It’s when the peak skill and peak motor have the most overlap. Luka’s motor being gone is a terrible thing.

This is just another “I’ve been waiting for Luka to have a bad game so I can shit on him” post. The sub gets flooded with them every time the Lakers have a bad loss, nothing new. He just had 38/6/11 3 STL 1 BLK against the Clippers the game before last, but we’re gonna pretend that Luka is getting worse and Nico was actually right until the Lakers win again thanks to another 30-40 point triple double Luka game. Honestly, no other star has these kind of expectations put on them on a night by night basis, it’s getting crazy the amount of ridiculous slander put out by both fans and the media

To me he just looks like he’s got a lot of miles on him. When he gets up from falling down he looks like it hurt a lot

He didn’t pass much or get the ball into the post almost at all last game. Would have made a world of difference.

Because shots at the rim doesn’t mean more free throws, he still drives a lot, he’s like top 15 in drives

But his drives are slow methodical drives where he stops and baits players into contact

He’s averaging 14 drives per game now, he averaged 14 in his rookie season (where he took most of his shots at the rim)

He has the Laker whistle

The perks of being a Laker

Lakers whistle + he complains all the time 

Went further than Harden 5 year into his career but go off lmaoo

Maybe getting fuckall in return was what people were upset about, not that he didn’t believe in Luka’s future

It’s exhausting seeing the same shit posted like clockwork.

Nobody said he didn’t improve in other aspects, but him getting to the rim much less is a clear trend and is happening earlier than expected in his career

You blaming the 3 pt era for him continually choosing low % step back 3’s over literally anything else?

This is not trend across the league at all, let’s take another established star, Donovan Mitchell. He stayed very consistent with the number of drives throughout this time and has more this year

The spacing era actually gives you more runway to drive