Here’s Why Luka Doncic is Unguardable (Full Breakdown)

From the moment that Luka Doncic stepped foot in the NBA, we could all see that he was one of the most skilled players that we had ever seen. And with a couple of seasons to develop so far, he cemented himself as one of the most unguardable players in the NBA. This is due to both his insanely high skill level and extremely mature basketball IQ as well. The fact that Luka is able to dominate the way he does at such a young age should have basketball fans very, very excited for what he's going to do in the future. In this video, we're going to take a look at why he's able to dominate the way he does. Let's get into it. Watching Luka play, maybe the number one reason he's so difficult to stop offensively is because of his elite ability to change pace. So Luka comes off of the screen and then comes to almost a complete stop. This forces Zubock to raise himself up and relax. And then Luka explodes by him with that push cross and finishes at the rim. Even though Luka is only an average NBA athlete, he's able to blow by defenders so regularly because he's so great at changing his speeds. Being able to go from slow to fast, being able to go from stops to explosions forward, it's extremely difficult to stop. Now there's a few situations that Luka uses the change of pace to create opportunities for himself and for his teammates. This past season, Luka was third in both possessions for a game using the pick and roll and points per game using the pick and roll. So it makes sense that a lot of times when he's using this change of pace, it's coming off of a ball screen. The change of pace on this ball screen does two things. First of all, it relaxes Kawhi Leonard, making it easier for him to get caught by that screen when Luka speeds up. Second of all, it puts Paul George in weird position because Luka's able to attack him going 100% downhill and Paul George, being that drop guy, has to come from a standstill to try and stop him. Foreign key you'll see when watching Luka Doncic use ball screens is that he's not going to be going 100% coming off of the ball screen every single time. He's going to come off going 50, 60, 70% and then he's going to make a decision to either speed up or slow down. In this case, he knows that Morris is going over the screen, so he's going to slow his pace down so we can wait to see what decision that Hedger is going to make. As soon as he sees the Hedger, Zubock or run back to guard the screener, that's when he gets into that Top gear and goes 100% to the basket. A big mistake that a lot of younger guards make is that they feel like they have to be going 100% coming off of every ball screen, when the truth is that if you play with pace and you're patient coming off of ball screens, a lot of times easy situations and easy looks are going to open up for you. Those are looks you won't get if you just go 100% off of every single ball screen. Another situation that Luka utilizes, the change of speeds, is when he goes one on one with somebody. You'll see in this clip with him against Patrick Beverley, how he starts off with slow sides up between the legs dribbles, and then he explodes forward with his between the legs dribble to get by Patrick Beverley and finish at the rim. The other thing to notice about this attack is that Luka attacks Patrick Beverley's top foot, making it incredibly difficult for Patrick Beverly to be able to stop him without fouling. Here's the thing to understand about getting by your defender. You as the offensive player have all the power because you know what you're going to do and the defender doesn't. In this clip right here, despite the fact that Kawhi Leonard is one of the best athletes and best defenders in the NBA, Luka blows by him right here using that change of pace. And it's because when Luka speeds up to 100% right here, Kawhi Leonard has to speed himself up and. And it's just a second too late. And because of that, Luka gets by him and is able to finish at the rim. One of the major reasons that Luka scores the ball so consistently and so easily is because of his willingness and his ability to pass the basketball. A lot of players think that in order to be a scorer, you have to look to shoot the ball every time you touch it. But the truth is, if the defense believes that you might pass the ball or shoot the ball, they're gonna have to play you differently. They're gonna have to be less aggressive guarding you, and it's gonna create a lot of opportunities for you to score yourself. When we look at this pass that Luka makes right here, the significance of it is that it's going to force the help defenders to think a little bit differently the next time Luka drives to the basket. If they know that Luka is willing and able to make this cross court pass off of a drive, then that weak side guy who's rotating over off of Seth Curry is going to have to be cognizant of the fact that Luka can make that pass to a knockdown shooter in the corner. Luka is fantastic at baiting defenders into jumping out of position so that he can hit his teammates for open shots. When when Luka comes off this screen, the miscommunication results in a two on one for Paul George right here. Luka recognizes this understanding that he's got Trey Burke, who's a knockdown shooter in the corner. So Luka baits Paul George into jumping towards him, hits Trey Burke in the corner for a wide open three. Now we'll take a look at a couple of his go to moves. The first move that he loves to use is his push cross. He's going to come into this push cross going slow and then at that push cross is going to be able to explode downhill and attack. The main situation he's going to go to to use this is when he's approaching a stationary defender. So if he's coming in transition and his vendor is waiting for him, or if he comes off of a screen and sees the help defender standing still, he's going to use that push cross to explode by and get to the rim. Another one of Luka's go to moves is the inverted drag. And he uses this move both to get his shot off and also to get by his defender and go to the rim. Now Luka goes to the inverted dragon. When he gets his defender to move quickly in one direction, you'll see him take a hard dribble to the right to get his defender to start moving that direction. And then when he takes that cross step with his left leg, he's going to go between his legs and stop. His defender is going to keep going and he's got the opportunity to either shoot the basketball or attack the open lane. The last category we're going to break down is Luka Doncic's finishing. Now, the first thing you're going to recognize is that he's really, really good at using his body to shield the defender off and neutralize the shot blocker. Luka loves to use what's called a veer finish where he's going to step into that defender to neutralize his ability to jump forward and block the ball. And then he's going to extend out and finish that layup and a lot of times he's going to get an and one called as well. He's also great at slowing down his pace on these veer finishes so that his defender goes by him and because of that when he goes up into his actual layup it's uncontested. He's also fantastic at using the evasion finish to be able to get around that help defender and finish at the rim. And all of this entails is him taking either a euro step or just two wide steps to go around a defender when typically they're expecting him to try and go into them or finish with a veer finish. 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