if you follow the NBA on social media there's a pretty good chance you saw some clips of Luca donic just absolutely frying the Mavericks trainers and what I find so funny about these videos is that it almost looks like he's moving at 25% speed and barely putting in any effort yet you turn on a random Mavs game and you see him doing the exact same things to even the very best defenders in the NBA Luca is the definition of playing at your own pace he makes every possession Look So Easy yet nobody in the league
can stay in front of him that's because his change of speed is among the best we've ever seen starting and stopping with precise timing so that Defenders aren't able to keep him from touching the paint at times he sort of intentionally gets into really awkward attack angles as a way of setting up his man instead of bursting right out of a tween he pauses with his feet in a wide stance but because he's not relying on speed he can take that first step with the same Effectiveness getting all the way to the cup for a
big body finish because he can burst out of literally any stance Defenders never know when he's going to start his drive so what he'll do is just Spam size ups and hesitations to keep them guessing so that when he does attack they're always a step late sliding in front of the lane here's one where he wants to set up a drive down the middle and to create that angle he's going to really exaggerate a left-hand hesitation at the exact moment that Kyrie slides Luca throws it between his legs while accelerating downhill and just like that
he's left with a Runway to the basket the way he's constantly pausing and reading his Defender allows him to have a counter for literally every situation first he looks to spin into a drive but Terrence Ross does a good job of Shifting his momentum to play that threat so Luca hesitates out of the spin only to burst again and that one gives him an angle right around Rossford for a layup later in that same game he hit him with the exact same move first it's a right-hand hesitation to set up a spin back to his
left then the hesitation into a drive as he sets up another easy two it's not just the speeding up aspect that makes Lucas's change of pace game so lethal but how fast he can slow down he's in complete control of his momentum at all times which means that he can adjust it accordingly his deceleration or ability to stop on a dime is among the best in NBA history first you see that spamming of size ups and hesitations as he looks to set up a drive and when he gets that first step by Lillard he throws
all of his momentum downhill only to come to a screeching halt right in front of the basket so that he can float it over a shop blocker this slamming of the brakes pairs incredibly well with Luca's length I can't really find the words to describe exactly what he's doing here but the slow motion I exaggerated strides as he speeds up and slows down repeatedly sets him up for a highquality finish to make things even more difficult he'll use shoulder bumps while coming to a complete stop for even more separation and then his length and touch
as a finisher are able to take care of the rest those types of plays are made possible by his strength we're talking about a huge perimeter Creator at his preferred playing weight he's 67 230 lb and that's a big 230 he's moving Mass so in the event that his initial change of pace doesn't create an automatic Advantage he'll just use his large frame to initiate contact and Bully his way to wherever it is he's trying to go take this play for example he first looks to attack on a left-hand drive but Jaylen Williams cuts that
off so he drops the shoulder for some space to change direction and instead attacks right but that also gets closed off so he again creates contact before counter spinning back to his left then you get that oneof one deceleration generating a wideopen floater that combination of size and strength enables him to just abuse mismatches Dennis Smith Jr has the lateral quickness to remain in between Luca and the basket but as soon as that shoulder gets lowered it's like he's not even there it isn't just smaller players that Luca will do this to either Al Horford
is a sturdy Center who's had success against the likes of Giannis and Joel embiid in the playoffs but even he has nothing for that big body shoulder bump the way Luca uses his body and constantly seeks out or plays through contact has turned him into a free throw machine he's also got some tricks in his bag like the way he uses up fakes to get Defenders off their feet and the way he can pretty egregiously sell even the smallest bit of contact but say what you want about his shamelessness because it works and he's an
elite fou drawer last year he got to the line 10 and 1 half times a game fourth in the the NBA everything I've talked about up to this point the size strength the ability to stop on a dime also means that out of drives he has unlimited access to the mid-range last season he took about nine mid-range shots every 75 possessions and hit 52% of them the only other player to reach both of those marks was Kevin Durant who's probably the best mid-range scorer in NBA history he'll weaponize the change of pace driving threat with
those size ups and hesitations because he can just pull back into a jumper at any moment out of drives is where you see the strength and deceleration setting up these opportunities he first attacks right spins into a drive left while initiating some contact with his off arm only to slam the brakes for a short jumper from inside the paint one thing Luca really likes to do when his Drive gets cut off is drop the shoulder while slowing down and then spin back out towards the perimeter for some separation on a fallway jumper his footwork and
body control is just so smooth when going through these motions and all he needs is just an inch of breathing room because he's such a tough shot maker another reason these spins are so tough to defend is because you never know if he's looking to set up a jumper or if he's going to take it all the way through with those lengthy strides into a layup and then there's also the fact that his counters have counters of their own spinning back towards the middle for a jumper except he just throws that into an up fake
before ducking under for a scoop finish the way he uses these fakes and crafty footwork makes him just as much of a threat to score after picking up his dribble first it's a fake floater then a fake pass that almost buckles Nas Reed then he's spinning back into a mid-range jumper with nobody in his vicinity these things also help him in the post which has turned into a much bigger part of his game than I think a lot of people realize last season Luca averaged four points per game in the post fourth in the NBA
and first by a wide margin among non bigs and he did it on an extremely efficient 1.14 points per possession these are numbers you'd expect from a guy like joic or embiid not someone who does most of his Creation with a live dribble on the perimeter of course the size and strength allow him to just abuse mismatches getting all the way to the paint with ease and what he'll do against these smaller Defenders is just patiently back his way in no matter how long it takes he's getting to that spot whether you like it or
not most commonly what he's looking to do is set up a post fade over his right shoulder a shot that he's completely mastered and helps juice those incredible mid-range numbers and he'll use the threat of that right shoulder Fade to open up other opportunities this time it's an up fake and step through absorbing contact for two points plus the foul on this one it again starts with an up fake but his Defender doesn't bite so when he steps through that's just to set up another spin back towards the middle and this time he's going to
take the fade with that added separation here's an example where Dallas clears an entire side of the floor for that Luca post up and with the Baseline completely unoccupied and a big man digging from the middle it almost seems too obvious that he's going to turn over that right shoulder for a fallway jumper so instead of doing that he rips through help in the middle which draws a reaching foul and goes up into a hook for another potential three-point play I know I said he prefers to turn over his right shoulder on his fadeaway but
when that starts to get overplayed he's also capable of spinning into jumpers over his left and so what you get is this level of unpredictability because he's a threat to turn over his left he'll use that to open up more stuff over his right this time throwing a half spin to freeze his Defender and that's all the space he needs for two points over the top again it's all about perfect timing when we talk about the the change of pace attack it typically describes driving but Luca also has that with his back to the basket
feeling out Defenders and darting into spins over either shoulder he's not super agile but because of how well balanced he is and the perfect body control his spins are actually ferociously quick and can leave him with wide openen layups it's not just with his back to the basket where he'll operate from a standstill he's also a guy who can face up from any spot inside the ark remember I mentioned how he can burst out of awkward foot angles both of his feet are facing the middle of the floor but in just one motion he's exploding
Baseline for a wideopen dunk this is a real similar play except this time his initial step gets closed off so he just drops the shoulder and works his way to the rim like an all pro fullback Luca is not at all an explosive or traditionally athletic guy but he's got all of those tools that turn him into an incredible athlete in a walking mismatch the size strength and length with the change of speed balance and overall coordination leave you with this guy who's just impossible to contain inside the ark he's going to get to a
spot just about every single time he touches the ball and Defenders just have to deal with it hoping he misses or whatever and in addition to all of that he also happens to be a highlevel off the dribble three-point shooter so it all comes full circle back to that live dribble game on the perimeter Defenders aren't able to Sag off of him at the point of attack or play in a softer more paint oriented coverage because he has the outside threat he wants to step back to his left at almost a 45° angle and to
set that up he'll use those hesitations and size UPS I keep going back to before aggressively pulling back to create space once again it's all about perfect timing setting up his man as if looking to drive before getting into his shot and it's not that he needs tooo much separation anyways because he is a ridiculously tough shot maker at times I feel like he wants to be tightly contested as opposed to open also there's the range he will hit from multiple feet Beyond The Ark pretty consistently since 2021 he's taken just under 7 and 1
half pull-up threes every 36 minutes and hit 35% of them these are some really impressive numbers especially when considering the difficulty in his shot diet and the way it pairs with the rest of his attack gives you this leveraging the threat effect that allows him to access all three levels whenever he wants he's spamming that signature tween cross size up and from that position we all know he'll burst on a drive so when he instead steps back into a jumper it's a late contest and he's comfortably pouring in three points but when he spam the
size up throws a couple hesitations aggressively pulls back as as if looking to Fire and his Defender bites that just opens up a driving lane and he's jogging into a free two points at the rim and finally when he threatens the three-pointer into a drive and that gets cut off well he can just fall back on that near League best mid-range scoring you hear the term three-level scorer used to describe guys all the time but he's one of the few who actually uses all three at volume and on good efficiency there's the highle Rim pressure
he was third in the NBA at about 20 drives a game last season and although I never went too in depth on his Arsenal as a finisher he's got it all the Scoops The Crafty angles the strength and length to always generate a good look he shot 72% at The Rim on some pretty difficult shot quality another thing is the touch which is especially noticeable from a bit further when he's going to his little running Hooks and floaters the guy shot 58% from 3 to 10 ft last year for the sake of this content if
yic was just erased from history I'd probably say that Luca has the best push shot I've ever seen big shout out to his new teammate rwn Holmes though if a Defender is somehow able to slow down that area of his game he's got the mid-range with the shot making and creation skills needed to literally have a quality release valve at all times and finally he'll get off 7 to8 off the drible threes a game at a respectable clip and there's nothing a defense can do to take that away the overall result leading the league at
about eight isolation points per game and generating 1.11 points per attempt just an Unholy combination of volume and efficiency and if you even think about bringing an extra defender or two to slow down his scoring he's one of the most versatile creative and deadliest Playmakers the game has ever seen as a result I don't think there's a player in the NBA who can really compete when it comes to how much offense he's capable of generating with the ball in his hands and Dallas has leaned into that ball dominance he had the ball in his hands
for more than 9 Minutes a game last year right around where Westbrook and Harden each landed in their respective MVP Seasons this isn't even getting into Luca's pick and roll game either and despite dominating the ball so much because he's so good at it you still get absurdly good offensive results with Luca on the floor the Mavs produced a 120 offensive rating and that's with a lot of his time being spent next to stationary spot up defensively inclined players it's been amazing to watch what he's capable of doing at such a young age and I
really like what the Mavs have built around him this season and I just can't wait to see how he and Kyrie continue to make a fool out of opposing defenses if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you're interested in my more in-depth research make sure to check out my website and social media profiles you can find those links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you think of Luca as always I
hope you all have a great day and I'll catch you guys in the next [Music] one
