An honest conversation about Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic's place among the modern game's top superstars is undeniable. Only 26 years old and seven years into his career, Doncic's five All-NBA first-team selections match the career output of legends Charles Barkley and Julius Erving, while he's already one-upped Hall of Famers like Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki.

This year, Doncic became the first international player to top the NBA in jersey sales. He also owns the highest career scoring average (28.6 points per game) among active players, and his playoff average (30.9 PPG) ranks second all time behind only Michael Jordan.

But there's no denying Doncic is coming off the most turbulent season of his decorated career. The newly minted Los Angeles Lakers star has far more doubters today than he did after leading the Dallas Mavericks to the Finals a year ago. With that, let's dig into what's real and what's not when it comes to the criticisms levied Doncic's way.

Defensive concerns are real

Two things can be true: Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison made calamitous errors - not only did he trade Doncic, but he also negotiated with just one team to turn Doncic into an older, lesser star - and Harrison's concerns about Doncic's defense are valid.

Harrison has dug his hole in Dallas deeper with some out-of-touch comments since making the franchise-crippling trade. But when the point of contention is Doncic's defense, Harrison's essentially this classic meme.

Doncic is a massive defensive liability more often than not, with his uninspiring mobility and effort on that end negating any advantages his sheer strength would otherwise provide in one-on-one situations. It says something that despite being hobbled by a bad back in the second half of L.A.'s Game 5 loss to Minnesota, Doncic's defensive movement looked barely worse than it had over the first four and a half contests.

Few stars are perfect, even among the MVP tier. While Doncic's generational offensive talent gives his team a head start in chasing a championship, his defensive shortcomings make it clear that success isn't as simple as plugging him in and figuring out the rest later. Those limitations must be considered when building a supporting cast around him. The lack of a competent center behind Doncic didn't help matters in L.A. However, barring offseason catastrophe, that won't be the case next year.

With better defensive infrastructure around him, I'd bet a motivated and refreshed Doncic will be closer to average defensively next season (as he was during Dallas' 2024 Finals run). Given how he tilts the floor offensively, that would be more than enough for the Lakers.

Conditioning concerns are overblown

I won't sit here and argue that Doncic is in tip-top shape. He can certainly improve his body and conditioning, but it's not the issue Harrison and other detractors would have you believe.

Doncic has played over 80% of games since his 2018 debut, averaging 66.2 appearances per 82 contests. He's logged between 35 and 38 minutes per game in each of the last four seasons, has appeared in 55 of his teams' 58 playoff games, and has often spent summers shouldering an even greater burden for the Slovenian national team (as he's expected to do at EuroBasket again this year).

You don't need a medical degree to understand that staying in shape and maintaining healthy habits helps protect the body against wear and tear. But there's also a decent amount of luck baked into some of the more serious injuries an athlete may incur, and there's no real evidence that Doncic's durability is a red flag other than the reported musings of the incompetent executive who traded him. After the most emotionally draining year of his career, an extended offseason should help rejuvenate Doncic. I expect him to be physically sharper come October.

Having said that, the five-time All-Star will likely never look like an elite athlete. Get over the visual component of this topic.

Time to stop whining

It hasn't received quite as much attention as the defensive and conditioning concerns, but I find Doncic's in-game petulance the most frustrating part about him.

While every athlete complains about officiating on some level, Doncic takes it to an unbearable extreme. Watching him whine after every whistle, flail his arms in disbelief, and yell at refs as his team tries to get back on defense is exhausting even for neutral observers following the action on TV. Imagine how grating it must be for his teammates in the trenches with him and the refs who must continue officiating him unbiasedly. For what it's worth, Doncic ranks third in free throws per game - and first among non-bigs - since 2018. He's also ranked between the 85th and 98th percentile among wings and guards when it comes to drawing shooting fouls in each season of his career, per Cleaning The Glass. His 'Woe is me' act with the refs grew tired long ago.

Every ounce of physical and mental energy is precious over the eight-month journey to a championship. Doncic must stop wasting it on literally every officiating decision made over his 2,000-plus minutes per season.

Few players you'd rather have

Despite these criticisms, and much to Harrison's chagrin (or disbelief), Doncic remains one of the three to five most valuable players on the planet. If you were starting a team from scratch right now, who would you prioritize before Doncic? Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the easy two, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, and perhaps Anthony Edwards or Jayson Tatum rounding out your list. I'd argue that's even a few names too many.

Doncic's combination of scoring, playmaking, pace control, pick-and-roll mastery, and teammate optimization - let alone his big-game resume - makes him the kind of talent teams spend years tripping over themselves to find. He's the foundational piece of perennial contention. If LeBron James returns and the Lakers find a big man, they'll have a chance to win a title as soon as next season, especially since Harrison somehow allowed L.A. to keep its best assets in Austin Reaves and draft picks.

If the Lakers handle their offseason accordingly, Doncic's 2026 MVP odds will look pretty juicy to me.

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead Raptors and NBA reporter.