The Dallas Mavericks’ offensive engine, which is led by Luka Doncic, is frequently complimented for his amazing balance in scoring, setting up plays, and passing the ball to open teammates. Josh Richardson, Doncic’s former Mavericks teammate, recently disclosed that although the 25-year-old has always made it appear simple, the procedure required a great deal of trial and error to reach its current state.
Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic in action.
Luka was missed by Mavs this game
And it seems that during that process, the Dallas star was given a great kind of freedom that his colleagues would never have imagined. Richardson was asked about playing with Doncic when he appeared on The OGs podcast with Udonis Haslem.
The 30-year-old clarified that Doncic needed some time to learn when to shoot and when to pass the ball after pausing for a second. Richardson spent 2020–2021 as a member of the Mavs, and he witnessed this evolution firsthand.
Richardson speaks about Luka Doncic
Even though hardly everyone gets this chance, Richardson said that the skill of the Slovenian superstar called for this kind of perseverance. He declared,
“I think the time I got there, he was like ascending… So I think he was figuring out still, like a balance – when to kick it up, when to get off it, when to ‘get in my bag’, you know what I’m saying? And you know, for a superstar like him, they get that, they get that leeway. And you kinda gotta let them figure it out.”
Many had criticized Doncic for having a stranglehold on the Mavericks‘ offensive game. In the 2023–24 season, Luka even had the highest usage rate (35.6%) in the league. But Kyrie has assumed a large portion of the playmaking duties this postseason, which has made the Mavs extremely strong.
Richardson continued by discussing Luka Doncic’s explosive performance in Boston, where at halftime he had scored an astounding 27 points. He brought this up to show what the drawbacks of the previous allowances granted to him would be.
It may come as a bit of a surprise that Luka Doncic needed any sort of transition time. But as any NBA ball handler will tell you, it can take a long time to perfect striking the correct balance between creating opportunities and scoring points.
