When Luka Doncic was supposedly playing bad basketball, the talking heads out there were more than happy to take the ball and run with it. It was the focus of every live show, podcast, etc. as the bad narratives flooded basketball discourse. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is playing some of his best hoops now, and suddenly, it is radio silence. JJ Redick stood up for his franchise guy.
"He's playing as well as anybody in the NBA right now. It's probably not being talked about enough, but I'm gonna talk about it."
Redick is right on the money. During the Lakers' stretch of winning seven of their last eight games, the Doncic narratives have quieted immensely. You would think some sort of effort would be made for giving Luka love in the NBA MVP race, at the least. Nope — there has been little to nothing.
Doncic has easily been right up there with the very best players in the NBA all season. From the way the some members of the media discuss him, one would be forgiven for forgetting that Luka is leading the NBA in scoring and dragging the Lakers to respectable record in a very competitive Western Conference.
Luka Doncic's ridiculous season is not getting enough credit
When Cade Cunningham had a stretch of play that would Doncic's usual days at the office, there was an immediate push to get him into MVP talks. Jaylen Brown is still (wrongly) being pushed into those conversations until today. Luka has a stellar stretch, and it's reminiscent of the men in black showing up to wipe your memory clean.
During this 7-1 run for the Lakers, Doncic is averaging 33.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game. The superstar point guard is shooting 50.5 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from beyond the arc (on 11.6 attempts per game), and 80.0 from the free throw line.
When Doncic was allegedly playing defense so bad that it was up for debate as some of the worst in the league, the slander was endless. Luka has been absolutely dialed-in on that end and no one is doing any type of work to highlight it.
It is about having the cake and eating it too with some of these narratives. The Lakers can be this putrid basketball team, but no reasonable explanation is offered for how they so high in the standings. It could not possibly have anything to do with the top-five player on the roster.
This is all unfortunately way too par for the course in Doncic's career. The criticism has always come at a deafening pitch, while the apologies come with the decibel level of a mouse. At least the Lakers superstar can know his head coach firmly has his back.