JJ Redick on Luka Doncic: “He’s playing as well as anyone in the NBA right now, and that’s not being talked about enough, but I’m going to talk about it.”
It’s hilarious the media chose to gang up on Luka for weeks on end right when the Lakers were getting everyone back healthy to make a run. They’re such morons.
Since January 1 (not counting Luka’s 51-10-9 tonight):
Luka: 32-8-8 / 58 eFG%
SGA: 31-4-7 / 56 eFG%
Jokic: 27-13-9 / 56 eFG%
Wemby: 24-11-3 / 56 eFG%
Cade: 24-5-10 / 51 eFG%
Brown: 27-8-5 / 50 eFG%
He is having an overall great season, Lakers are also 3rd seed despite all the injuries.
Didn’t most of the media predicted Lakers being 8⁄9 seed lol.
Yep. He has a worse roster than every other MVP candidate by a huge margin.
That’s not true. Cade has the worst spacing in the league to work with and jaylen brown’s second option is shooting 39% this season. Lebron and reaves would both be the second best player on the pistons and celtics. There’s a reason the lakers over under win total was higher than both the celtics and the pistons. The lakers have a better roster than both of those teams.
No, the Lakers do not have a better roster than the Celtics and Pistons.
Yes they do. The only reason you would think that is because brown and cade are carrying mediocre rosters to look better than they actually are. Luka can rely on reaves and lebron to help him run the offense and create for themselves when they need to. Cade has to do literally everything, spoon feed his teammates the whole game, and still score 25+ every night for them to score enough points to win. Brown is the only player on the celtics who can break a defense down and get in the paint consistently. The offensive burden on his shoulders every game is undeniable. The lakers are the only team in the league with three 20+ ppg scorers and would’ve been the only team in the league with 3 all stars if reaves didn’t get injured.
I’m not saying the lakers are built perfectly and have a historically great roster, but painting this lakers roster as luka not having any help is crazy
delulu af
Holy fuck do you even watch Celtics games lmao the absolute disrespect your throwing towards your own team is nuts.
Goofball. If that were true Lakers would be high in betting odds to win a chip
Lmao, the best defender on that poor lakers roster is a 41 year old, the second best player missed half the season and the third barely cares to try. That squad is bums and a huge misfit
Literally before the Lakers got Kennard, they led the league in missed wide open 3s
And you’d never guess which team generated the most wide open 3s
Derrick White is better than Jaylen Brown. Cope harder.
Chill
Maybe not really “better”, but surely has been more “valuable” for team success this season by all metrics
I would take every single one of these role players over lakers in a heartbeat
Derrick White is shooting like ass and is still a top 10 player in EPM. Don’t try and act like his impact isn’t monumental
If Luka had Jalen duren there’d be no point even playing the playoffs out. They’d be the best pnr duo this side of year 2000
Sorry but that’s not true. We have a superstar, two borderline all stars and a bunch of decent players (also Gabe is gone now). Our issue is roster construction since many players overlap.
im ngl that luke trade moved em up so much more than ppl think
Nico did nothing wrong (for the Lakers)
You have three quarterbacks. You only need 1. Reaves is a good sidekick and can and should take over in the non Luka minutes.
Lebron is just not needed anymore. As great as he is.
Every laker game I’ve watched, bron does well with the second unit. Wins those minutes. Still a great player imo he just can’t be making max money alongside another player making max money.
This.
Lebron is still really good, they just need someone to play that 3&D lockdown role because they just get abused by athletic guards and when you’ve got 3 negative defenders, there’s just not much you can do.
They’re great offensively, they just give up way too many easy points at times.
Exactly this. We’re supposed to be a play-in team lmao. The narratives surrounding a team that is in contention for 3rd seed, AND has been dealing with a ton of injuries to our stars, has been absolutely stupid.
The sad part is it’s not even all coming from other fans, but our own cesspool of “supporters”.
I left r/lakers because of all the hate. Not in the game threads, I’ve never read those since learning how awful every team’s in-game-thread is - no, the daily “whatever” threads were so awful, so full of “supporters” trashing Luka, the only guy that can take that team all the way (with the right guys around him). Piss on that kind of “support”.
I dislike any kind of bad talk about players, even guys like Ayton. Those guys are still Lakers, and as long as the team itself supports that guy, I’m rooting for him no matter how “ass” he is.
As for game threads, I’m convinced those threads are full of gambling addicts obsessed about their prop bets, lol.
Oh right, I just mentioned Luka because of the context and how ass-backwards it seems to me. But hating on any of them, really, is depressing, especially to an unhealthy degree? Yeah, why would I want to wallow in that? Might as well go read about politics and the international news of the day.
You’re probably right about the prop bets.
I’m still convinced our team, as constructed, can make some noise in the playoffs. Might be delusional for sure, but in the small chance I’m right, Imma stay subbed to r/lakers so I can talk smack when the time comes, lmao.
You’re right about the wallowing in misery thing. I want to talk optimistically about the team I’m rooting for, not this depressing and negative bullshit the world around seems to be obsessed with.
You’re being a good fan. I’m sure I’ll see you over there at some point, just really needed this recent BS to blow over somewhat. Reading the comments even here on r/nba gives me hope haha…
Fuck ass ESPN had Golden state projected to win 63 games lmao
The big asterisk was if they were healthy, all what ifs much like most predictions for unknowns.
Still ridiculous.
They do that to us every year. And then act like it never happened
I mean we are 2 games ahead of number 7, west is just ridiculous.
I didn’t see anyone say the lakers were anything lower than 5-6.
Tbf, we are two games away from being the 7th seed. The West is tight. The takes will all change in a big way if we lose to the Nuggets again this weekend.
He is the most in form player in the league right now but all you’ll hear about is his defense which has been perfectly fine. It’s been good actually.
He’s been the second best defender on the Lakers, unironically.
That doesn’t say much
The worst thing is how brown is being propped up so hard, he is not close at all and does not deserve 1st team nba
Idk where his pr is coming from but its the best in league for pr to performance ratio
People talk about Lakers bias, but Boston media bias is probably even stronger
East coast bias in general which probably favors Boston the most. The media doesn’t stay up for Lakers games
I’m trying to be as impartial as possible and might sound defensive, but it’s not. And that isn’t the fault of the fanbase, but NY and LA are the biggest markets in the country. There’s a reason why the Lakers and Knicks are always at the top of the most nationally televised games list, usually regardless of record.
I think right now the narrative is rubber banding, which always happens during the course of the season. The Lakers won a few games without Lebron and lost a few games with him, so the narrative becomes “they’re better without him”. Luka gets a couple lowlights for arguing with refs, so the narrative becomes “he’s overrated”. And then the hate reaches a tipping point, so the narrative rubber bands the other way.
I don’t think JB is the front runner for MVP or should win it, but the Celtics have two compelling narratives in Tatum’s return and in being arguably the biggest surprise in the NBA while he was hurt, mostly due to JB stepping up, so while it can get blown out of proportion I understand why the narrative exists. But there’s a reason why Shannon Sharpe said “OKC KFC UFC Lakers in five”, it’s because Lakers talk always drives up engagement for ESPN, whether it’s positive or negative discourse.
It’s the whole two way player argument which funnily enough doesn’t apply to Jokic who isn’t the most talented defensive player.
Jaylen brown hasnt been the terror defensive player people prop him up to be because of his increased usags
So you mean to say defensive effectiveness reduces as usage increases? Hmmm I wonder if this applies on others as well
This is factually wrong. By defensive FG% he’s the 3rd or 4th best guard in the league. He’s holding guys to 41% shooting.
Yeah, but Brown is bad at essentially everything else on defense: D-EPM, D-LEBRON, DARKO, D-RAPM all have him as an overall negative defender.
Somebody like Luka is actually positive in D-EPM and D-RAPM this year (and is 49th percentile in DARKO, so barely negative) and media would make you think he is the worst defender in the league lol
Im sure thinking basketball will come out with another luka hit piece soon to keep the narrative going that Luka is ass.
It’s simple MVP is a narrative award. People gave the Celtics maybe 37-40 wins and they smashed the expectations and he is the best player before jt came back .
Browns defense has been amazing. Factoring in games played, he’s the best defensive guard behind Ajay Mitchell and Derrick White. On about 12 defensive possessions per game he’s holding guys to 41% from the field.
All 4 advanced stats (EPM, LEBRON, DARKO, RAPM) have his defense from below league average to just plain bad.
He contests well, but his absolute volume of contests is below league average, he doesn’t steal or block at high rate, he is terrible at generating deflections, his stop generation rate is below league average too.
He is essentially elite at contesting (but on small volume) and is good at rebounding: everything else is league average or worse.
The game is about generating stops on the defensive end. Sure blocks and steals help, but shooting pct against is massive.
Why use eFG?
eFG% in March of 2026? What’s the reasoning for ignoring free throws for the player that takes the most in the NBA lmao
to push their fav player one place higher
In that time span Kawhi has averaged 29-6-4 / 57 eFG% as well
He’s been great since ASB. Def in contention for all nba first or second team.
As a Mavs fan, every year you had to defend him because the whining for foul calls makes him unlikable but it doesn’t erase how great he is
Above Jokic and Ant in the standings, tied for the 3 seed, with a worse supporting cast on 33-8-8, good efficiency and improved defense
Most disrespected and somehow underrated player in the league
Also with his 2 stars Reaves and Lebron trading time away being injured
Reaves also has had a handful of games where he forgot how to score lol
Lol people have Cade and Brown higher than him on MVP lists, saying he will not make First-Team All NBA
That just sounds crazy to me, there is a huge huge difference between these two and Luka as players, not to mention the season he is having.
Facts
We Laker fans better be obnoxious about this stretch because the Luka slander has been intolerable the past few weeks. There’s only Jokic, Shai and him in that tier.
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Wemby is 4th or 5th (healthy Giannis) and half a tier below still until he shows he can do something in the playoffs. Keep in mind this man hasn’t even played in the PLAY IN yet.
I mean I literally just said Wemby is top 5 LMFAO. And bron probably was too.
Only spurs fans will downvote you for saying Wemby, in only his 2nd somewhat healthy season, is not on the same tier of the two MVP front runners who are also past MVPs and champions LOL.
Bron carried bums to the finals in year 4 btw
Wemby needs to do it for a season and not get hurt and be consistently available, something the other 3 have proven time and again. He’s in the Kawhi “special” tier for me for peak performers but still has mid availability where you’re always worried if he’s healthy or what.
Giannis used to be in that top tier but he’s been hurt.
Oh, I was talking about “overall” player tiers, not specifically this stretch. I was only talking about this stretch in the context of Luka being “forgotten” by everyone as being that guy.
Also, I love Wemby, pls don’t hate me, lol. But I also believe he’s still a tier below the top guys.
He’s been a lot better and more efficient since the start of the new year and especially since all-star break. I hate the blubbery man but gotta give credit when it’s due.
Definitely the best player in 2026, I don’t see how you can argue otherwise, his defense has been genuinely good for the most part, not just for his standards but consistently good in most nights.
But SGA is also amazing, the last couple of games even more so, his Denver game was the best SGA game I have seen maybe ever, and he was better to start the season so yeah
You’re delusional.
Luka’s defense has not been genuinely good. He is one of the league leaders in defensive FG made. He gives up 8 FG per game on 48% shooting.
Luka is a positive defender by D-EPM, D-RAPM and barely negative (49th percentile) by DARKO. Only D-LEBRON has him as a bad defender and even that is “bad”, not “terrible”.
Luka is league average at contesting on extremely high volume, he is the best defensive rebounder in the league at guard position, top-20% in steals, above average in blocks, top-15% in deflections generated and top-20% in stop rate because he takes a ton of charges on top of deflections and being among league leaders in defensive rebounding.
He is basically exact opposite of Brown: he actually does everything good to great besides contesting, which he does at league average rate while Brown contests great, but is bad at basically everything else.
Tier 1
SGA, Jokic, Luka, Wenby
That’s it. I don’t want to hear anything else from the haters
real question, do you think Wembenyama is better than Giannis and Kawhi? Not talking about potential.
Easily. Wemby legit is the closest to SGA for MVP helping that Spurs team completely shatter expectations. His defensive impact alone is game-breaking, and he’s really picked it up on offense too. Luka & Jokic are just slightly behind due to team performance and their defensive limitations.
Honestly I can’t put him above Giannis yet. And that spurs team is deep as hell.
This season, I don’t even understand what argument there is for Giannis over Wemby. Not that Giannis has been bad, but Wemby has just been insanely impactful. Spurs are 16 NETrtg better with him on the court, he turns them from an OK team to arguably the best team in the league.
They played the nuggets with no wemby. It took a Jamal Murray 40 piece and a jokic 30/20/10 to put them down by 5 points. They’re more than decent without wemby they are genuinely deep as hell.
I’m not arguing against his positioning on the mvp ladder, I just can’t say he’s a better player than Giannis or Kawhi YET. Operative word yet.
I mean, you can also say that on a night where they were shooting extremely well, they managed to blow up a 20pts lead for the 1st time because their defense fell apart without Wemby. Spurs were like 21-0 when shooting 40% before that night. With Wemby, it might very well have been a 20pts blow out for the Spurs, we don’t know. But the 3rd best defense in the league suddenly giving up 136 isn’t nothing.
I think people have just more trouble estimating his impact because defense doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. But the fact that he can STILL look like the best player on the court while shooting 37% FG, makes it all the more insane when he’s also averaging 24⁄11 in just 29min on 62.5 TS%
I’m fully aware of wembys defensive impact. I’ve watched spurs games and seen dudes flat out avoid heading into the paint where he’s waiting for them.
Like I said I’m not arguing against his MVP case. I just think is disingenuous to say the Spurs are simply “OK” without him, and I also posit that it is too early to say whether he is a better player than Giannis and to a lesser degree kawhi. If Giannis wasn’t on the horseshit bucks and instead on a contender, I don’t think you would have taken that approach in your reply.
Wemby is phenomenal, I’m simply cautious to jump the gun on things like that.
If Giannis was on the Spurs they would be the best team in the league. Wemby has the defensive advantage but Giannis is so clearly more efficient and effective on offense
Hard disagree. That Spurs’ defense is way too reliant on Wemby’s rim protection, and on offense they got a lot of ball handlers who need spacing. Replace Wemby with Giannis and they might honestly be a Play-In team (although fit is a big reason for that).
Giannis does not hurt spacing. He actually creates way more space on offense as a driver than Vic does on rolls/post ups. Giannis cannot fully replicate Wemby’s defense because no one can (although he’s still quite good), but Giannis is an all-time offensive engine and Vic is nowhere near there yet
Shhhhhhhh
Cheerleader coach
JJ is the sassiest coach right now. 🤣🤣
His own coach: “Right now”.
Gee, I wonder why?
When you coach Luka and LeBron part of your job is to stroke their egos on a daily basis
It’s Sga (team record), Luka, Joker, Kawhi, Wemby for me (Giannis injured )
First round exit
Luka’s playing great offensively and maybe playing average to slightly below average defensively.
If you look at all guards who defend at least 8 possessions (filtering out low minutes and low possession guys) per game (90 players) Luka is ranked 65th in DFG% letting dudes hit at a 48% clip. Jaylen brown is 2nd with 41%. Cade is 6th at 43%. SGA is 4th at 42%.
DFG Stats
Luka is definitely a better offensive player than Cade and Brown. But SGA is comparable and a far superior defender.
I’d rather have guys who can give me a decently efficient 25-30 and all league defense than a guy who can give me pretty good efficiency (Luka is 40th among guards in TS%) and average defense.
Cade can be close to Luka convo, it is justified.
Brown has absolutely no reason to be anywhere close.
Player net ON-OFF rating (garbage time removed):
Luka: +7
Cade: +5
Brown: -9
EPM:
Luka: +6.4 (+0.1 D-EPM)
Cade: +4.7 (+0.9 D-EPM)
Brown: +2 (-0.3 D-EPM)
DARKO:
Luka: +4.7 (-0.2 D-DARKO)
Cade: +3.8 (+0.5 D-DARKO)
Brown: +2.5 (-1.1 D-DARKO)
LEBRON:
Luka: 5 (-0.6 D-LEBRON)
Cade: 5.9 (1.8 D-LEBRON)
Brown: 2 (-0.1 D-LEBRON)
There is not a single overall stat that would have Brown anywhere close to Luka or Cade in value.
Ah yes. The perpetually under-reported Lakers superstar.
Is defense not a thing anymore? I don’t care if he’s a 10 on offense, he’s a 1 on defense. Great player but the best? Not even close
So you just decided to announce to us straight up that you haven’t watched Lakers games over the last couple of months with that take?
Doncic has legit been 2nd (3rd when Ayton gets his head right for a few games) best defender for the Lakers in 2026.
Lol this is such a reddit take that its clear you don’t watch the games, you just watch reddit.
No he isn’t.
“He’s playing as well as anyone in the NBA right now”. On offense, fine. Does defense count?
“That’s not being talked about enough”. Says coach of team that dominates NBA discourse. Even on days where a player on another team scores 83 points.
This whole thing is some next level head coach gaslighting. Phil Jackson would be proud.
Do you watch games? He plays a good defence right now
Yes, defense does count and he has been fine on that end, too. But don’t let that keep you from clinging to your narrative and feeling smug about it.
You’re still stuck in the “he’s the worst defender in the league narrative” right? Watch the games.