Luka was a nominee for the defensive player of the month in March
Additionally to winning the player of the month, Luka was also a nominee for the defensive player of the month in March.
Have to admit, I didn’t even know there is an award like that
https://preview.redd.it/rflzdzcp6usg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1a9689e0d58b496ae66bb58e534247a1feba22f
This has got to be the first time in history anyone ever gave a shit for a player being nominated for defensive player of the month
I didn’t even know it existed but agendas must be maintained.
Do you think people pointing this out is a response to how many people lie repeatedly about Luka’s defense?
The better question is why this wouldn’t be a point of pride given the refusal of so many to acknowledge his strong defense recently.
Exactly. You have every right to be proud of the lies and Lukaganda that enabled this outcome.
I love when people let me know theyre a giant douche right off the bat!
I gave a shit because Rachel Nichols and the entire internet told me Luka has never played defense in his entire life.
In fact, I was told by many a certified reddit basketball knower that Luka is the worst defensive player in basketball history.
Are you telling me that reddit nba subs were incorrect in their analysis? How dare you sir.
Luka stans just taking cues from Luka and whining as much as possible.
Oh no a Clippers fan made a haha against the Lakers. nooooooooooo
Man, it must be torture for Clippers fans now that Luka is on the Lakers. Also just because of being a Clippers fan….
I made a joke about Luka stans and never mentioned the Lakers or Lakers fans.
Seems like you’re making a reading comp joke about Lakers fans.
I don’t remember the MVP race becoming toxic until Luke stopped crying, and Laker fans picked up the slack.
Never seen player of the month award brought up as much as I have these past few weeks with Luka stans bringing up the one he got in January to argue his MVP case lmao
When the overwhelming argument against him has been that he was only good for the last month it feels like a fair thing to bring up to counter that
“It’s crazy that people are using things that are true to refute things that aren’t true!”
And its the most undeserved one too, hes playing better defense hes not a defensive player of the month caliber lmao
are you watching him or just going off what other people are saying?
Does anyone watch the NBA? Aren’t we all just circling and jerking together?
NBA games are televised?
Number of steals isn’t equal to good defense. He’s not playing amazing D, he might have had an average stretch if anything
Some of yall just straight up don’t watch games and talk out of your ass. He was well above average this month defensively. I know that doesn’t fit your narrative, but it’s the truth.
I’ve watched over half his games this month, idk what to tell you
Then you have no clue what you’re watching, idk what to tell you
Powerful argument
You started by disagreeing with 0 argument. The starting point here is that the NBA itself had him nominated. Why do you disagree with that?
Your original argument to his nomination was “he was at best average”. You admitted you watched half of the games, clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about.
lol we know you didnt based on your dumbass comments. he has been really solid on defense. you havent watched shit kid
you’re legit blind then. why are you watching basketball if you’re blind?
Sorry man, you have a different opinion on a subjective matter, it must mean you are disgusting little stat nerd who doesn’t know Real Defense like me, who has had Luka Doncic’s defensive game film physically implanted into my retinas. I’ve never even looked at a number.
So you’re not watching games got it
Literally have
Literally haven’t
Great comment thanks
Do you type in Braille?
This is the only excuse I could imagine if you “watch” the games..
YOUR BLIND
*you’re
Also, an ellipsis is supposed to have three dots. Great job, Luka fanboy.
He’s actually above average defender this season, in the 60th percentile.
I would call someone in the 60th percentile at something “average” with much more confidence than I would call the “above average”.
Also, what single metric do you believe is appropriate to put players’ individual defense into percentiles?
I mean. That’s literally above average. He isn’t an elite defender. But he is above average. Which for an offensive first player is impressive
People compare him to harden on defense but that is no longer true.
51st percentile is “literally” above average too, but nobody is calling the 51st percentile anything other than what it is: average.
In a normal distribution, the players middle 20% of players are all going to be pretty close to the same level. And if your sample size is this season, and the other seasons you have give you worse results, then I don’t think it’s unfair to say that he’s average
Also l, I’d like to ask again, by what metric?
Luka has played legitimately great defense in march…
Dyson daniels was the DPOY runner up and one of the main reasons was because of how many steals he was getting.
That was probably a little undeserved in terms on actual on court impact.
But also, dude had the most steals by any player since Pippen in 1995. He had 229, Shai was 2nd with 131, the gap between him and 2nd is the same as the gap between 2nd and 265th.
Average defensive stretch when leading the league in steals has to be an oxymoron, not that it makes you elite
So steph was a a great defender in 16 then
Off ball yes, on ball no
above average overall
Taking risks on steals doesn’t make you a great defender - that’s just one stat in a vacuum
His steals per game for the season is almost up to James Harden levels!
It makes sense Luka and Kris Dunn were the leaders in steals for the month
What are the odds of you having ever glazed Curry’s defense using steals?
lol what curry has average defense what are you talking about
Are you downplaying him and saying he has never had his defense glazed, especially when making his MVP cases, or what’s your point?
Curry has never had his defense glazed stop this nonsense
No I genuinely never seen his defense glazed before
What year did you get on the internet?
Isn’t that exactly what he’s saying though? Why glaze Luka’s defense using steals as a metric when nobody did that for Curry?
He led the NBA in steals this month. Now steals aren’t a great stat, but Michael Jordan won a dpoy based on it alone.
Steph is a defensive player of the month caliber player in 16 based on this nonsense lmao we all know he was average.
The advanced metrics have Luka in the 60 percentile of defenders this season. Its not just steals
Luka has become a really solid defender. Obviously not DPOY level but a really solid one.
What advanced stats say that exactly? I was just looking at Luka’s LEBRON, RAPM, Laker, and DARKO the other day and he was a net negative by all of those impact metrics.
Defensive stats are worthless. Pull any of them and you’ll see players near the top that that have no business being there.
This is always a lazy debate
Defensive metrics are way more dependable than the “eye test” and people’s biases
Likes anyone who thinks Luka is a bad defender isn’t watching basketball and is allowing their prior bias to blind them
It’s on video champ. They record every single game.
Lukas defense has become so underrated. On advanced metrics he is a better defender than Shai this year.
His reputation kills him on this.
Which metrics?
Bro we got eyes
If you think Luka is still a bad defender than your bias is clouding your eyes
He’s willing and serviceable sure, but In the playoffs him and Reaves are going to get hunted and attacked relentlessly. Bias be damned
Eyes that only read the box score
I’m hopelessly addicted to watching the nba, so sorry, that aint me 😂😂
Clearly not using them.
He’s decent and C level defender. That’s not good to me, that’s average or serviceable. Hes not a defensive demon out there and he will absolutely still get isolated and targeted in the playoffs
Holy moving goalpost. Where does anybody say Luka is a “demon” on defense?
Damn. Nephews in a thread about Luka’s defense being “underrated” in here mad that he’s not a “demon”
If we’re comparing him to Shai because his defensive metrics are better…
I didnt move the goalpost, I’m staying consistent with the level we’re talking. Shais a good impactful defender so if Luka is supposedly better, what word would you prefer I use?
It’s pretty sad when you see how hard he’s playing on defense. Dude has been a menace on the court on both ends.
Shhhh the hive mind will hear you, they hate truth out here
I was downvoted into oblivion for saying he’s in his prime and can still be a decent defender if he tries like a year ago.
That’s why I never believed the “Luka is out of shape” narrative. His problems were always effort related not conditioning
Honestly, I think they’re intertwined. Conditioning makes it harder to do everything, so poor conditioning may have led to focusing on offense over defense.
just speculating tho
Well yes I can’t argue that haha. But the lakers marketing campaign with his new and improved body was so artificial 😂😂
Is that real, Bam?
with wemby in the west, you can nominate people for fun because they have no chance to win it anyways lmao
It’ll be like when actors and actresses get promoted as Oscar nominees in the movie trailers.
Im sorry what lmao
He’s closer to the worst defender than the best that’s an insane nomination by a homer
He is not. This is for the past month, and he was absolutely closer to the best than the worst. Not that he was anywhere close to the best, but much closer to the best than he was close to the worst.
The easiest way to tell somebody doesn’t watch the games is to listen to their take on Doncic’s defense.
That’s just not correct lmao
It is if you watched Lakers games last month.
So the West is just gonna be Wemby every month, unless he misses time
Pretty much, yeah
RUDYYYYYYYYYYYY
Second time for Ausar. He’s got to make 1st team DPOY, eh?
Luka: “I was a part of the survey”
You didn’t realize there was a defensive player of the month award? Huh.
Just trolling
Bro… another Luka post…?
Well no one wants to talk about the Suns
That’s just bait
Then why did Dallas trade him?
This dude Nicos.
I WILL be using this as MVP propaganda
This may be a slight stretch but the Luka defense thing is a fantastic immediate giveaway about whether someone watches games on league pass or on twitter/ESPN talk shows
How is that even possible
37 Steals in march
Bc he gambles after getting blown by, steals are not a defensive metric
Tell that to the NBA who nominated him if he’s so bad.
I’m sorry your defensive narrative against Luka has fallen apart.
Bro
Someone voted sabonis for mvp for like 5 straight years
That would be media voters, who shouldn’t be voters to begin with.
The League determines POTM
The clowns who never watch his games are constantly going on that he’s a bad defender.
The spurs just gave up 113 points to a lineup of Draymond Green, Nate Williams, LJ Cryer, Brandin Podziemski and Will Richard. Keep feeding me the spurs defense tho 😂
Sometimes shit happens. I mean Jordan Poole and friends swept the Nuggets last year
Their starters barely played the fourth quarter, where did the warriors get the most points my guy?
Take votes away from these biased media people
Good for him!
My questions are this: Who the hell votes for these awards? And do they watch basketball?
I’m a fan of Luka. I think it’s him or Joker for best player in the NBA.
Wouldn’t bat an eye if he won MVP.
But, come on. Watch one singles Lakers game and tell me Luka is one of the best defensive players in March.
Lmao bashing people on not watching games when clearly you are not watching them yourself
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Pretty sure Windy has talked about the fact that these awards are nominated on by the team. So the Lakers basically nominated him for the awards which is why he’s there
That makes absolutely 0 sense given there’s only 6 players nominated in each conference for it.
How did the Hawks get 2 players?
How many total players get nominated?
If each team nominates 2, showing us just 6 of them makes it seem like they were the only 6, and is slightly misleading by that post.
Laker fans will hang this nomination like a banner 😂😂😂
Did you really want to talk about banners with lakers fans…? lol this feel like a losing argument for you
Luka ain’t winning MVP
Ok, neither is Wemby. Whats your point? Spurs still have significantly less championship banners than the lakers lol.
Wemby > Luka is my point
lol ok 👍🏽
What……😂
I. Am. Frozen. With. Laughter 🤭
That’s because you sit on NBA reddit and don’t watch games.
Oh man I’m sorry you feel that way
The team nominates their own players btw from what I’ve read. They don’t have to nominate anyone apparently