Can You Make Reads Like Luka Doncic? (Take The Test)

Luka Doncic is no doubt one of the smartest players in the NBA. Part of what makes him so much fun to watch is how easy he makes the game look. In this video we're going to go through a few different clips of Luka Doncic making decisions and I'm going to pause right before the read that has to be made and you're going to have to decide what he should do in that situation. Keep track of your score, make sure you comment. Let me know what you get let's get into it. In this first clip, Luka comes down the floor and uses his ball screen. Russell Westbrook trails over the top of the screen and PJ Tucker plays this drop coverage. Here are your three options should he 1 try and beat PG Tucker to the right and get to the basket 2 try and hit this slip to Boban right here or three Hit the skip pass across the court to Trey Burke in the corner. Foreign Luca's court vision is phenomenal on this play. He recognizes that the entire weak side of the defense is collapsing into the paint and Austin Rivers at this point has completely turned his back to his man. The weak side collapse takes away any opportunity to hit that roll guy and obviously makes it more difficult for Luka to score as well. He recognizes that and then he hits a 43 point shooter in the corner. In this clip. Luka comes off this high ball screen, his defender gets caught by that screen and he faces the drop defender. What should he do right here? Should he 1 attack that drop defender, 2 hit the roll guy or 3 hit Trey Burke in the corner for a 3? The first thing you'll notice with this play is that it all starts with this screen. Lukas defender gets hit by this screen and ends up off balance and almost falling over, meaning that he's essentially out of the play. So the mavericks have a 5 on 4 advantage by hitting the roll guy. When he drives down the lane, he's either gonna have an open lane in the basket or he'll have to have one of those weak side defenders slide over in to help. Regardless, it's gonna be a three on two situation and if that bottom guy is the one who slides in and help, then it creates a two on one situation with the big guy as well as the corner shooter. So no matter what there's an the maps in this clip. Luka comes off of a drag screen, his defender goes over and gets caught and he stays with this big man who's flat footed in a drop position. What should he do here? 1 Should he keep on attacking this flat footed big man and get to the rim. Two, take this pull up three or three, hit Chris S up top for the open three. This drag screen provides one of the most difficult challenges for this drop defender because it allows Luca to gain momentum coming downhill off the screen. This puts Aaron Baines, who's a slower big, at a big disadvantage because he's flat footed standing still as Luka's coming at him. A lot of momentum. And because he has his momentum built up, there's no way Aaron Baines is going to be able to stop Luka from getting past him and getting to the basket. So the read right here is to continue to drive by and get all the way to the rim. Let's take a look at another clip from this Suns game. Luka comes off this ball screen going towards the outside and he immediately slows his pace down to create contact with Rubio and put him in jail. What is his read coming off of this? Number one, hit the screener who's rolling. Number two, attack the retreating big and get to the rim. Or number three, stop and immediately shoot the pull up hoping to get fouled. This play shows the power of patience and how when you're patient, a lot of times you can create plays out of nothing. When Luca first comes off the screen, the drop defender is in pretty good coverage and it seems as if the only shot he's going to be able to take is a contested mid range shot. But because this drop defender still has to recover and get the roll guy, Luka knows that if he waits a little bit, that defender is going to have to retreat back to the basket to take away the roll and and that's going to open up the lane for Luka to drive as long as he keeps Rubio on his back so that he can't cut him off. Luka essentially uses the roll guide to create his own scoring opportunity. And understanding the responsibility of that drop defender is how Luka creates the easiest basket of the entire night. Now I'll let you guys try this one solo. With no options, Luka now comes off of this double ball screen and faces Blake Griffin as the hedge defender. What should he do here? Griffin is playing to contain Luka right here as his hedge guy. He's playing in more of a hard hedge format, trying to make sure that Luka doesn't get around him and is banking on Luka's defender being able to recover in time to stop him from getting middle. But when Luka comes off of the screen and takes that right handed dribble to sell that drive towards the outside, Blake has to slide even further to cut off that outside which allows Luka a good amount of space to be able to go behind his back and split that hedge so he can get to the basket and finish. Okay, last ball screen one and I'll let you guys pick this one again. Luka comes down the court into an early offense ball screen. What should he do with this screen? Luka reads that primary defender and sees that he's really itching to get over that screen. So when Luka goes into this float dribble to sell that he's about to use the screen going to his right. That defender starts to cheat over that screen. Luka crosses back over to his left and rejects the screen which gives the offense the advantage because two guys are now with the screener. Luka gets down to the basket and scores. For this last play, I'll give you guys a couple of options. With this ball getting swung back to Luca. What should he do right here? Should he immediately take this 3, 2 pump, fake and drive or 3 bait the defender and kick it over Seth Curry. Foreign roles to have in the NBA is a shooter on a team with Luka Doncic because of plays like this. This ball gets swung back to Luka from the right wing and instead of taking that three pointer right away, he understands that he is the best three point shooter on his team on the wing next to him and at this point it's a two on one with the defender. When Luka gets this ball it puts Trey Lyles in a two on one situation. So Luka baits him in by hesitating and then kicks the ball over to Seth Curry for the wide open three. This is a great demonstration of unselfishness and passing up a great shot to get the best shot. Make sure you guys comment, let me know what you got. Also make sure you guys click the top link in my description below to get my free elite perimeter score workout. If you guys enjoyed the video, drop a like and subscribe. If you're new, talk to you guys soon. Peace.