- 22 minutes ago
Luka Doncic put up another absolute clinic with 42 points, 13 assists, and 7 boards in a 138-117 win over the Miami Heat. But while Luka is putting up historic numbers and vaulting to the top of the NBA MVP ladder, Doug McKain (D-Mac) and Bill Reiter break down the harsh reality behind the purple and gold hype.
Can JJ Redick and the Lakers actually contend with a bottom-tier defense, poor rebounding, and a 40% usage rate on their superstar?
Can JJ Redick and the Lakers actually contend with a bottom-tier defense, poor rebounding, and a 40% usage rate on their superstar?
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00:00The voice of L.A. sports, the face of L.A. sports, Doug McCain!
00:04And this guy!
00:05What?
00:06Bill Ryder!
00:07Hey!
00:07Presented!
00:08Yo!
00:09Yeah!
00:09By DTLA Log Group, accident or injury.
00:13Visit CallDowntown.com, that is CallDowntown.com, or text INJURYHELP to 40222.
00:19You can also call us, 855-975-2326, 855-975-2326!
00:31Boom!
00:31The Bears are great!
00:33Yeah, they are!
00:34Duh, Bears!
00:35You're good at that.
00:36Duh, Bears!
00:37You're better.
00:39I better be, that's my deal.
00:40We're going to get to, are the Bears the team the Rams were supposed to be in about 10 minutes?
00:45We've got a bunch of news for the front page later in the show.
00:48We've got a lot of Dodgers talk that we're going to get heading your way.
00:51It's the opening of a, sort of a weird, lackluster, uncertain free agency period for Major League Baseball
00:58because on, what, December 1st?
01:00It's all over.
01:01It's not really over, but...
01:02Lights out.
01:03There's darkness coming!
01:04Yes.
01:04All right.
01:05The cold winter in MLB.
01:06Cold winter!
01:07Even in L.A.
01:08I like it when it gets cold.
01:10I mean, let's air quote.
01:11I love it when it gets in the 50s at night here.
01:13A little chilly?
01:14Perfect, bro.
01:14A little sweater weather?
01:16I'm in the hoodie!
01:17You're in the hoodie, bro.
01:17Let's go!
01:18You're rocking it!
01:18Let's rock it!
01:19Yes!
01:20I'll have to start closing those windows pretty soon at the house!
01:22I don't know, man.
01:23It got dark yesterday.
01:24Like, 8 p.m. feels like it's 47 p.m.
01:27Like, it's crazy how dark it is.
01:28It makes me tired early.
01:29Does it?
01:30Yeah!
01:30Yeah!
01:31It does!
01:31I'm like, oh, wait!
01:32I need that sunlight!
01:33Do you know what else brought some sunlight?
01:35What's up?
01:35Some sunshine?
01:36Oh, yeah.
01:36Some warmth?
01:37Some radiance?
01:38Some life?
01:39All the good stuff?
01:40Luka Doncic?
01:41Luka Doncic, baby.
01:42That dude can ball.
01:44Last night, I can't even keep track, bro.
01:4742 points.
01:497 rebounds.
01:5013 assists.
01:52Threw in a couple steals.
01:53Because why the hell not?
01:55And against the Miami Heat team that was coming off a couple wins, right?
01:58Had some size.
01:59Made us a little nervous.
02:01It was a pretty easy, pretty thorough, the Lakers are a better basketball team moment.
02:07They won 138-117.
02:09It's yet another game.
02:11I think it's four wins in which the Dodgers have given up at least 117 points.
02:19Doesn't matter.
02:20Luka, that guy, breaking news.
02:22He's good.
02:24Luka, the best player in the world right now.
02:25The best player in the world.
02:26No argument.
02:27Absolutely the best player in the world.
02:28Hit me with your MVP stuff.
02:29Well, look, I know it's early.
02:32It is early.
02:32I'm not going to call out anyone like Draymond Green for saying this is the last year.
02:36But he did say this is the last year.
02:37So if anything, he can feel good about it because he looks like he could win MVP.
02:41I just think he's got a three- to five-year window potentially.
02:44I think you may have been right.
02:46I went after you on that one.
02:48Well, here's the thing, Bill.
02:48Looks like it now.
02:49And I heard you talking about it because, I mean, you're a former voter.
02:52You know a lot of these voters as well.
02:53You cover the league.
02:54And the question is, does it matter that he is on top of that MVP ladder right now?
03:00And to me, it feels like it matters because it's never been a question about Luka's greatness.
03:04We've seen that early on with the stats, with how effortless it feels like for him to control the offense
03:10and dominate.
03:10Just the passing.
03:11A couple of the passes he made to Walker Kessler were so fantastic.
03:15One of them went through two guys.
03:16Dude, he was throwing the needle out there.
03:18He was Neo from the Matrix.
03:20Oh, absolutely.
03:21Just absolutely finding lanes.
03:23But the reason why I think it's so important is because it was never a question of how great Luka
03:27Doncic was.
03:28It was whether the Lakers could turn that greatness into winning basketball.
03:31And now we're seeing that there's early signs of great Luka and the Lakers.
03:36Yes, not perfect.
03:37I see your facial expression.
03:38I know you're going to hit me with the best stats on earth to prove otherwise.
03:41But it just feels like there is a path to winning enough games and celebrating the greatness of Luka Doncic.
03:49And it's kind of one of those, hey, this feels like it's the year of Luka Doncic.
03:53And just from a scoring position, we always said that Kobe was the closest thing to Michael.
03:58It feels like Luka is the closest thing to Kobe as far as just an offensive machine that can control
04:03every possession.
04:04I love that.
04:05And the number, look, the numbers back it up.
04:06This year, he is averaging more than 38 points per game.
04:10He's at basically eight rebounds and eight assists.
04:13He's hitting half of his shots.
04:15He's making 43% of his three-point shots.
04:17He's almost at 90% in terms of free throws.
04:20His usage rate is 40%, according to Stats Muse, which is the highest of his career and would be the
04:29third highest in the history of a single NBA season.
04:32I mean, dude, you're right.
04:34I mean, everything points to the fact that this guy is absolutely the—you said it.
04:39He's the best player on earth.
04:42And it's not lost on any of us that he replaced fully, right?
04:45I know they overlapped.
04:46LeBron left, and now it's Luka's team.
04:49And as you said, he's the best player on the face of the earth in basketball today.
04:52And it feels to me, Bill, like, you know, like the body clocks.
04:55We're talking about how it's daylight savings time and everything kind of feels like it's later.
04:59I feel like his MVP clock is going off, right?
05:01It feels like he knows that this is an opportunity for him to win the MVP because, look, if you
05:07want to be an all-time great player,
05:08if you look at that top 20 list, that top 10 list, everyone outside of Jerry West has that award.
05:14Everyone has that award.
05:15And for Luka Doncic, it feels like just to have a seat at the table, the All-NBAs are great,
05:20the All-Star selections are great,
05:21but it's like winning the best actor for Oscar, right?
05:25You've got to have that award.
05:27You want that award badly.
05:28And it feels like he's on a mission.
05:29I feel like his team's on a mission to get in there, too.
05:31Why are you taking shots at Tom Cruise?
05:32I knew you're not wrong.
05:34You're MVP and championship.
05:38And, by the way, he became, this morning, the betting favorite to be the MVP.
05:44I will say it's really early, as I noted to you and some of the guys in the office earlier.
05:50It's Dean McEnryder here, 971 The Fan, having voted for this award.
05:53This is not official, but off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure it's half of the guys that
05:57have been the betting favorites
05:59in December, January, have not gone on to win that award.
06:02And there's obviously a long ways to go.
06:04In fact, there was a reporter, I'm told, from the California Post yesterday, who was asking Giannis,
06:08is Luka the favorite to win MVP?
06:10And Giannis' reaction, I was told in the scrum, was basically, what are you doing?
06:14We're 10 games in.
06:16Can I give you, so something hit me yesterday, a combination of your MVP take that I'm coming around to.
06:23The guy can play this well, the window can open longer, that maybe it's not just this year.
06:27A combination of your MVP take and us trying to figure out, are the Lakers any good?
06:31I know their 6-2 record says they're good.
06:33But how sustainable is this?
06:35And Luka, Post, LeBron, can I give you what I think is true?
06:38Yes.
06:38I think that in order for the Lakers to have real success this year,
06:43and I'm talking conference championship appearance or championship competition,
06:48Luka has to have an all-time season.
06:52Not Luka's best season, not an MVP season, one of the best seasons individually in the history of the NBA.
07:00And there's a lot of reasons for that, and we've hit this, but this is a team that is still
07:0321st in defensive rating.
07:05They're still 19th in rebounding percentage.
07:07They're 28th in assist percentage, which basically means they don't pass the ball.
07:12They're 27th in turnovers.
07:15In their 4 wins, in their 4 wins, 4 of their 6 wins, they gave up an average of 121
07:21points a game.
07:22That would be 26 in the NBA.
07:24And the team that they have played and the team that they have beat are largely not particularly impressive basketball
07:31teams.
07:31I mean, the Clippers are 2 of those wins.
07:33The Warriors, I don't know what to make of them.
07:35Utah, a Toronto team that didn't have Kawhi Leonard.
07:39So I'm not sure the Lakers are good.
07:40I think maybe Luka so far is historically great.
07:45And the thing is, he actually can have a historically great season.
07:49I went back.
07:50You may disagree with some of these, but I tried to sort of round.
07:52So right now, player efficiency ratings, a number that John Hollinger came up with.
07:56It's imperfect.
07:57It doesn't include defense.
07:58But it's a pretty good metric of greatness.
08:02Luka Doncic's PER right now today, a small sample size we know, would be the best in the history of
08:07the NBA.
08:08Interestingly, Steph's right now.
08:09Steph, this season, has the second best in the history of the NBA.
08:12There are, for me, six seasons that I think are the best individual seasons post sort of like Magic Bird
08:18and beyond the modern NBA.
08:19One is 87-88 Jordan, when the guy was the MVP, then the defensive player of the year and averaged
08:2535-6-6.
08:27Didn't win an NBA championship that year.
08:29The other is Steph in 15-16, when he was the unanimous MVP.
08:33Should have won an NBA championship.
08:35That's when they collapsed 3-1.
08:36The other is 90-91 Jordan.
08:38He did win an NBA championship.
08:40The fourth best season, this is just my sort of metric, is maybe Akeem in 93-94.
08:46The only player in history at the time to be the MVP, the finals MVP, and the defensive player of
08:51the year.
08:51Won an NBA championship.
08:53LeBron, I think, is a top five or six season of all time.
08:56I would go his best season is 12-13.
08:58I covered that team.
08:59I'm partial to it.
09:00But he won the MVP and the finals MVP, and he finished second defensive player of the year.
09:03And I think maybe Jokic in 21-22.
09:05But if you look at Jokic, he has five of the top nine PER seasons in history.
09:11And he's got one title because it turns out the Denver Nuggets suck.
09:13And that's the—I'm not saying the Lakers are bad.
09:16But I think those are the models.
09:17Because if you look at a lot—like, that's an early Jordan team before the defense got really good.
09:21That LeBron team was pretty good.
09:23There's a world where if Luka Doncic has one of the five or six best seasons in history—
09:29and by the way, statistically today, right now today, he's having as good or a better season than the guys
09:34that I just mentioned.
09:35He's not Defensive Player of the Year candidate, but he's playing pretty well in defense.
09:38Here's my worry, Doug, and you sort of give me optimism for this.
09:43My concern is that this is potentially not sustainable because I'm worried that J.J. Redick will make the same
09:51mistake with Luka
09:52that every single coach made with LeBron, where when they went to these levels,
09:56they just played them all the time and they played them too much.
09:58Right now, Luka has the 11th most minutes played per game in the NBA.
10:01Interestingly, 10th is Austin.
10:03So it shows us J.J. doesn't trust the bench.
10:07And I just—Luka ain't LeBron.
10:09Luka is closer to Jokic in body type.
10:11LeBron is closer to the Terminator.
10:13I just—I just don't know this is sustainable, but I think this is what is required,
10:18this historic level from Luka Doncic, if the Lakers are actually going to be a really good basketball team this
10:23year.
10:23Yeah, I agree with you on the point where it has to be a historic season, right?
10:27I mean, like, when Russ won, when he had the triple-double, even that you could make the case that
10:31James Harden could have won it over him.
10:33Or Steph or LeBron.
10:33Or LeBron, right?
10:34LeBron probably should—yeah, LeBron should probably have won it.
10:37But I think for Luka, as far as the body type and the sustainability, I think that's a big question,
10:42too, because he's dealt with injuries.
10:43I mean, before this year, he hadn't played a game since April in the regular season against Oklahoma City, right?
10:48So, I think if you're Luka Doncic, the good thing is he's not a high flyer that relies on that
10:54to be effective.
10:54He just completely dictates defenses.
10:56Rarely is he dunking or playing above the rim.
10:59So, I do think that, from a physical standpoint, it looks like this is the best shape he's been.
11:03But it's funny because I was—
11:04He looks great.
11:04He looks great.
11:05But I was going to actually mention this because you talk about Kobe's year 0-5-0-6, when he
11:09won the scoring title, he averaged 35-plus points per game.
11:12Yep.
11:12He played 80 games that season, but that Lakers team was a 7 seed.
11:15Like, they were a 45-win team.
11:17Just like Russ's team, when he won the MVP.
11:18Same thing with Russ.
11:19A 47-win team, a 7 seed.
11:21This is the other thing.
11:22I don't want to rain on the parade, but the Lakers have the best offense in the NBA right now.
11:26They're No. 1 in offensive rating, and they are second in three-point shooting percentage.
11:30And we went through this yesterday.
11:32They turn the ball over.
11:33They don't move the ball.
11:34They don't rebound very well.
11:36They're 21st in defense.
11:37They're not going to shoot 41% from three over the course—
11:43Last night, they shot 44% on their threes.
11:45Yeah.
11:45I just—it's not sustainable, but there's a world—and this will be you being right and
11:50me being wrong, and I'm here for it—where Luka Doncic is this great.
11:55And even though you've got to do it for, not 80, but, I don't know, 75 of the 82 games,
12:00Luka is at an age where he should be peaking.
12:03He is free of LeBron James.
12:05I don't mean that in a bad way.
12:05I just mean it's his team.
12:07He got to select the guys he wanted on this team.
12:10Even if they're the wrong players, maybe, they're the right players for his sort of
12:14state of mind.
12:15He seems to be over the heartbreak of Dallas betraying him.
12:18He obviously has personal things going on, but he seems like he's finding some refuge
12:22on the court.
12:23If Luka Doncic is ever going to have a historic season, it's this season because he's lost
12:28weight for all the reasons we're talking about.
12:30And so I actually think, look, we'll evaluate the Lakers every single day, and we'll break
12:34it down here on DMACC and Ryder.
12:35We will be your home for that, and that's important, and they need to improve on a lot
12:38of things.
12:39But there's a path forward to maybe the Lakers being better than we thought, than I thought,
12:43I didn't anticipate, and that's Luka having a top, whatever, 10 modern NBA season of all
12:48time, and that is something that's possible if he can stay healthy.
12:52Yeah, my hope, too, is that he stays healthy, as you point out, but also, I think there could
12:56be a very big positive in that this becomes a team mission.
12:59Like, this is a team mission where every single game, every quarter, every possession
13:03matters, and yeah, maybe the Lakers don't win the NBA championship the first year where
13:08it's Luka's team.
13:09Guess what?
13:09The year that Kobe won the MVP, he didn't win a championship that year, but it felt like
13:13Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, it felt like a team mission.
13:16I think that could be the case with Luka Doncic, where he's the clear-cut number one, and he
13:20knows, also, too, he's a number one that elevates everyone with assists.
13:2413 assists and two turnovers, Bill?
13:26And you said the assists are mad.
13:27And by the way, Jordan's first MVP was the 87-88 season.
13:30They lost in the second round to a Pistons team that they eventually beat, but that MVP
13:34for Jordan, to your exact Luka comp, all the way back in 87-88, they saw the path forward,
13:39and they didn't win a championship until two years later, when the Pistons walked off the
13:43court and wouldn't shake hands with Mike, and so there are building blocks, and that's
13:47another great point.
13:48We've talked about this Lakers team doesn't have to win a title, they have to show they're
13:51on the path.
13:52I also think if Luka shows he's on the path of being that historically amazing, that's
13:57another route to success.
13:58Either build a really good team around a great player, or have a mediocre team around one
14:03of the greatest players of all time.
14:05See the Denver Nuggets, see early days Bulls, you'll win championships.
14:09Both avenues, right now, I think are open to the Lakers.
14:118-5-5-97-LA-FAN, give us this, are you optimistic, and what's a realistic timeline the next time,
14:19maybe it's now, where the Lakers have a season where they're actually NBA championship, just
14:24contenders?
14:24Is it this year, is it next year, is it 10 years from now, 8-5-5?