Getty Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.
Imagine a world where Dallas Mavs All-Star, Luka Doncic could become an NBA MVP in the next three seasons.
“You know, he has the talent to do so,” Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban told me on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show.
“I’m hoping he’s a NBA Champion.”
Doncic, 21, is one of the most polished and well-rounded products in recent years. The NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year also fills up a stats sheet.
In his rookie campaign last season, Doncic posted a solid 21.2-points, 7.8-rebounds and 6.0 assists campaign for the Mavs.
Last season, the Slovenian point guard averaged 28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists per contest.
In year three, the skies are the limit.
“I want that,” said Cuban pointing to the Dallas Mavs’ 2011 NBA Finals trophy.
“You see that shiny thing behind me? I know he wants one of those things bad like I do. So when you talk to him, he always wants to talk about getting rings. And if you’re good enough to get a ring, then the MVP trophy will come with it.”
Doncic was selected with the third overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2018 NBA draft.
Doncic’s rights were traded from the Hawks to the Mavs in exchange for Trae Young and a protected future first-round pick in 2019.
Young and Doncic were exactly what their ball clubs needed.
How the heck did the Mavs scout out Doncic?
“I mean, you never really know,” Mark Cuban told Heavy Live With Scoop B.
“You always think you know or hope you know. We didn’t know that Luka would be THIS good this soon. We thought he could get there, but not in his first three years, right? What happened on that draft night, we — what every team does is they talk to each other; all 30 teams talk to each other and you never ask the Mavs who you’re going to draft but you say, ‘Okay, who do you think the Spurs are going to draft?’ And then you kind of triangulate it to figure out who’s who. And so, we had the 5th pick and we were hoping that Luka would fall that far but, it was unlikely once we did all that triangulation, it didn’t seem likely. We kept on trying to trade up whether it was first, second or third and we didn’t think whether if he would get to fourth or not and do, we just started talking trades. And once we heard that Atlanta liked Trae Young the best, then it just came down to can we work out a deal with Trae Young because you kind of had a feel of who was going to get picked at four; and we were able to work out a deal and it worked out great for Atlanta — Trae Young’s a star and it worked out great for us.”
The NBA season begins on December 22. Doncic and the Mavs open their season on the road in a game against the Phoenix Suns. They’ll then play the Lakers at Staples Center on Christmas Day and the Clippers on December 27.
With COVID-19 and the vaccine all buzzwords these days, what if the NBA season doesn’t work out as planned? “Adapt and be agile,” says Mark Cuban.
“If things get worse and we get guys sick in a bad way, we’ll figure out what we need to do. The good news is at least in our first road trip to Milwaukee, guys really understood the protocol and they knew the drill and they knew what was at stake, and that’s most important. And so, they weren’t running to get out and they saw what happened with the NFL and the Broncos not having a quarterback and realized that you’ve really got to be careful.”