Draymond Green breaks down Luka Dončić and LeBron James as similar forces who control tempo and manipulate defenses, though LeBron attacks in transition more while Luka plays at his own pace. Stopping elite scorers requires specific defenders like Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, and Jimmy Butler working together to make their lives difficult.
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And speaking of Luka Dončić and LeBron James and the comparisons that are being made to those two guys, here's where I see similarities. And then I'll give you a couple differences. One of the main glaring similarities that stick out at you is how those two guys can manipulate a defense, how those two guys can control the pace of a game. At their size with their passing ability and the way they can put pressure on the rim and pressure on the defense. And with the vision that they have, they're a lot alike. They both understand what they're trying to get to on the court. And, and they will be very methodical in getting to whatever it is that they know that they want to get to. There's not many people in this league that can control a game or control the tempo and the pace of a game like that. I think one of the things that it requires is an uncanny ability for thinking the game of basketball. But I, and I, this may sound a little cliché, but it also requires size. And the reason it requires size, because if you can be sped up, you can't control a game. You can't control the pace of a game if you can be sped up. You can't speed Luka up. Luka's gonna get to where he wants to get to. You can't speed LeBron James up. LeBron James is gonna get to exactly where he wants to get to. Luka's 23. Obviously he can't do it at the level that LeBron does it at yet, as consistent as LeBron, because LeBron has done it for so long. He's seen every defense possible. He's like, the experience, you just can't teach experience. But Luka has that thing. He 100% has that thing, and he does it often. And, and, and so I definitely see the similarities there. Where I think they differ is LeBron will take more transition opportunities where Luka kind of doesn't unless it's just a complete run out. And I think that's where they differ a little bit. It's like some games LeBron is totally looking to play in transition. Luka isn't quite looking to play in transition as much over the course of his career. Now I've seen it at times where, you know, he see a team that he could take advantage of in transition and he gets going in transition. But that's not his game because it doesn't allow him to play at the speed that he plays at. And he's better at that speed than any other speed. He's mastered playing at the pace that he wants to play at and not being sped up. And so I think that's where it differs for me in just the pace of play. Like LeBron's pace is still much faster than Lucas. Yeah. I also think Luka, as, as, as great of a passer as he is, and he loves to pass the basketball, I think Luka looks for his shot a little bit more than LeBron. Now LeBron is uber aggressive at times, but he's more often than not pass first. Luka is pass first at times too, but he's looking to score more. Than LeBron in those, like, from a possession to possession situation. LeBron has times where he like, I'm about to score 15 points in 2 minutes and good luck, nobody's stopping it. But from a, just over a course of 48 minutes, from a possession to possession basis, I think Luka looks to score a little bit more than LeBron has. Now, in saying that, it just shows you also how great LeBron is because here I am, saying Luka looks to score a little bit more than LeBron, and LeBron's 1,300-some-odd points away from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time scoring leader. And there's this notion of LeBron James is not a scorer. Let me clear this up right now. I am not saying LeBron James is not a scorer at all. 'Cause the, the, the fact that people are even willing to say that LeBron James is not a scorer baffles me. Yeah. It really baffles me. I mean, you even get idiots like— you get idiots that play the game of basketball that's supposed to understand basketball that'll say LeBron James isn't a scorer. No, he just does everything and he scores. But to say he's not a scorer, that's just stupid and ridiculous. So I want to make it very clear that with that statement, I am not saying LeBron James is not a scorer. He's absolutely a scorer. He just passed the ball so well and see the floor so well and manipulate the game so well that you like, oh, he's doing this and he's doing that. And then you look up and like, oh, and he had 30 points. Yeah, because he can score the basketball, fool. But you know, people have their own assumptions of what's going on in the court and I can't— Hey. What you see is what you see, but stop confusing the fact that LeBron James is a scorer. He's 100% a scorer. And those that don't think so, gotta question your basketball IQ. What game are you watching if you think LeBron James is not a scorer? So that's my comparison between Luka and LeBron. There's definitely something there. They definitely have similarities. And then you look up and it all makes sense. LeBron— Luka has said over and over again LeBron's his favorite player growing up. Yeah. And then you, you're actually blessed with that size that Luka has, it all makes sense of why there are similarities there. 'Cause they're definitely there. And it feels a lot like playing against LeBron, playing against Luka every possession. And when you're playing against a guy like Luka Dončić, you need someone to take on that challenge. We've seen it for years throughout this run of Klay taking on that challenge of great guards on the other end. And last night Wiggins took on that challenge and we need him to continue to take on that challenge as it'll only get tougher. It won't get any easier with a player like Luka. He's gonna watch the film, he's gonna make the necessary adjustments, he's going to continue to be aggressive and you just gotta continue to try to make it tough on him. Like I always say, you know, you'd say he had his worst shooting game of his career, statistically speaking. And you know, some people will say, oh, he was shut down. You don't shut Luka Dončić down. Even in shutting him down, he had 20 points. Like you just, you don't stop guys like that from scoring. They're gonna score. Your job is to make it tough on 'em. And Wiggins did that last night. You just wanna make it tough on 'em and you live with the result. And that's what we did. And you know, when you're guarding a guy like that, it's a total team effort. You know, you have to know and trust that I can be aggressive into the ball and ultimately understanding that if I get beat, someone's gonna be there to help me. Jimmy's absolutely incredible. He's one of those guys, you know, I talk a lot about guys not being playoff guys. Jimmy's a playoff guy. Jimmy is 100% a playoff guy. Jimmy takes his game to another level during the playoffs. They gotta get to Jimmy earlier. If they can get to Jimmy earlier, make Jimmy take jump shots early and not layups. You give up the jump shots first and make him gain confidence there. He can still make 'em. I'm not saying he can't, but you got a much better chance as opposed to him getting layups and free throws to start the game. The rim looks wider, it looks bigger, and then all of a sudden he get the J-ball going. He tough to stop. So gotta give a lot of credit to Jimmy.
