Mavs Coach Jason Kidd Wants Luka Doncic to Emulate Klay Thompson
The Dallas Mavericks have received incredible production from Luka Doncic throughout their 2022-23 campaign. He's averaging a league-most 34.2 points, ranks top five in average for assists (8.9) and steals (1.7), and leads guards in rebounding average (8.7).
Doncic hasn't just avoided slowing down; his production has actually increased as the season has progressed. He finished his most productive month of the season in December but closed it even better than it began. During the Mavs' six-game winning streak, he has averaged 42.2 points, 10.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists.
Before the Mavs' 126-125 win over the San Antonio Spurs, coach Jason Kidd explained that he envisions the "next step" for Doncic will be to effective scoring without requiring as much dribbling to reduce the "pounding that he takes" throughout a game.
"When someone's going the way he's going, it's like a pitcher with a no-hitter. You try to stay out of the way," Kidd said regarding handling Doncic's workload amid a historic run. "There are also points of being able to put him in different spots on the floor to still be effective without the dribbling and pounding that he takes. Playing him on the elbow or playing him on the block.
"After that New York game, I wanted to see — could we say a Klay-type game where he had 5 dribbles and had 70 points? That's the next step for him, to understand how to pick the defense apart without putting so much stress on his body."
The exact figures from Thompson's iconic performance were 60 points on 11 dribbles and in just 29 minutes on Dec. 5, 2016, in a blowout win over the Indiana Pacers. He shot 21-33 (63.6 percent) from the floor while knocking down eight of his 14 of his attempts from 3-point range.
Doncic is simply never going to emulate Thompson's play style for a few reasons. Thompson is able to comfortable play a primarily off-ball role playing alongside Stephen Curry, who commands heavy defensive attention deep off the 3-point line, along with having the playmaking of Draymond Green. However, it starts with Thompson's skill-set being predicated on catch-and-shoot fluidity while Doncic is far from that type of player. Regardless, there certainly are still ways to reduce Doncic's workload within the half-court.
In terms of reducing the burden placed on Doncic's shoulders to create, the concern isn't about usage rate data, it's important to first look specifically at what he's asked to do with the basketball in his hands. He leads the NBA in time of possession (9.9) and averages seconds per touch (6.43) and trails only Trae Young (5.71) in average dribbles per touch with 5.66. A ton of what Doncic does requires him to create off-the-dribble,
Doncic has spent the vast majority of his half-court scoring possessions running pick-and-rolls (38.5 percent), in isolation (27.4 percent), or operating out of the post (15.1 percent), which all three of those play types combine for about 81.0 percent of overall half-court possessions.
The reasoning behind usage rate being a less effective measure is that it tracks the percentage of team plays a player was involved in while he was on the floor, provided that the play ends in one of the three true results: field-goal attempt, free-throw attempt or turnover. If Doncic magically morphed into Thompson and he's coming off a double-wide pindown before firing a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, that would still count as a shot attempt — making it indifferent in the measurement to orchestrating, say, a high pick-and-roll.
Throughout a typical game, Doncic is rarely playing off the ball just spacing out, waiting to shoot a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, or to attack a closeout to get into the paint. In fact, only 5.7 percent of his half-court possessions have been derived from spot-up plays while just roughly 1.5 percent have featured him being deployed in an off-ball screening action. To be more emblematic of Klay Thompson, these areas would be a start.
Doncic's shooting mechanics aren't necessarily built to be that type of sharpshooter who quickly explodes around an off-ball screen and lets it fly with a defender trailing to contest. He's shown reluctance to even take the initial catch-and-shoot look available to him when the ball finds him after spacing the floor as he drives 56.1 percent of the time as opposed to taking the no dribble jumper 43.9 percent of the time. Continuing to be more aggressive in taking quicker looks off the catch is a good start.
Compared to last season, Doncic's rate of taking the no dribble jumper out of spot-up has increased from 35.9 percent to that 43.9 percent figure. He's shown some examples of lacking hesitation in the shot process. Unless it's a situation that involves him getting the ball back after getting the defense in a need to make a recovery, these opportunities typically depend on others to produce, which isn't necessarily a strength of his supporting cast.
The next problem becomes a matter of what type of methods would be utilized in terms of half-court actions to get Doncic favorable opportunities. Even when running a wide pindown action for him, the big defender playing in a drop is going to send him to the floor on a drive. In some ways, he becomes more of a target for contact since the big has to recover. In his only two examples of deep drives out of an off-ball action this season, he was sent to the floor by the opposing center.
In other situations, the big will simply switch the play and Doncic ends up essentially having to play out of an isolation anyway. There is a chance the big setting the off-ball screen is clogging the lane as this transpires, prompting Doncic to take a step-back 3-pointer, which is fine, but again, that's not the ideal outcome for an action meant to create simpler outcomes.
Doncic has shown his greatest comfort with catch-and-shoot situations when a defender goes under an off-ball screen. The read is clear in these situations, given the defense is choosing to try to prevent the drive. A quick attempt before a tight closeout occurs is the ideal outcome. He's done it before, but it's not a common sequence in his repertoire.
There are countless options for getting creative with how Doncic is deployed within the half-court offensively. The Mavs could get creative using more half-court sets to get him touches inside the 3-point, whether at the elbow or the block. He could even be used as a screener to create opportunities of that nature. It's just challenging to fully unleash these elements until a more dynamic initiator is playing alongside him.
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