{"id":125922,"date":"2025-02-27T09:32:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=125922"},"modified":"2025-02-27T09:32:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:32:35","slug":"lakers-luka-doncic-skill-steal-mavs-kyrie-irving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/27\/lakers-luka-doncic-skill-steal-mavs-kyrie-irving\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers&#8217; Luka Doncic Dishes Mavs Player&#8217;s Skill He&#8217;d Steal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> were teammates for just two-plus seasons. That doesn&#8217;t seem like nearly enough time for a backcourt pairing that some considered to be the most skilled ever. Nonetheless, with the Dallas Mavericks determined to trade Doncic &#8211;whether it was to the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks or some other franchise &#8211;by this offseason, it&#8217;s about all they were going to get.<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks motivation for trading Doncic has been covered extensively. No matter what side of the aisle NBA fans are on, it&#8217;s clear that there <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/17\/mavericks-luka-doncic-super-max-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">was a storm brewing<\/a> deep in the heart of Texas. However, just because the business of the NBA can be unmerciful, it doesn&#8217;t mean that the players have to be just as cold. So, knowing that Doncic and Irving have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/26\/mavericks-kyrie-irving-defends-luka-doncic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">maintained a close friendship<\/a> after his trade is genuinely heart-warming.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers&#8217; Luka Doncic Dishes Skill He&#8217;d Steal From Mavs&#8217; Kyrie Irving<\/h2>\n<p>Prior to being traded to the Lakers, Doncic sat down with Overtime to discuss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0OwXSdBtAJI\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a wide array of topics<\/a>. Among the questions that the five-time All-Star was asked what skill or attribute he would steal from another NBA player. With little hesitation, he responded:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kyrie handles. Shotmaking. I think he\u2019s one of the best shooters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Luka Doncic speaks on what skill or attribute he\u2019d steal from another NBA player:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKyrie [Irving\u2019s] handles. Shotmaking. I think he\u2019s one of the best shooters\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(\ud83c\udfa5 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/overtime?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@overtime<\/a>; h\/t <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LukaUpdates?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@LukaUpdates<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Wjfv6Trw5s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Wjfv6Trw5s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kyrie Center (@kyriecenterig) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kyriecenterig\/status\/1894917768090394873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Asked whether the now nine-time All-Star has offered him any pointers in regards to ball-handling, the prodigious point guard could only grin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Handles, you can&#8217;t really teach that. You have to work for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because players often praise their current teammates, it&#8217;s possible that Doncic&#8217;s answer will have been different post-trade. Maybe there&#8217;s now an attribute that four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> possesses that he&#8217;d prefer to have. If he played for the Denver Nuggets, perhaps he&#8217;d name one of three-time NBA MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>&#8216;s skills.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Irving is truly a wizard with the ball in his hands. Not only is he capable of breaking down the defense off-the-dribble, he has an innate feel of how to get shots off from a variety of angles. Countless hours have gone into him mastering his ability to counter defenses off-the-dribble. Pools of sweat have been poured as he&#8217;s worked on scoring from every area of the floor.<\/p>\n<h3>Unrivaled<\/h3>\n<p>Doncic definitely has the advantage over Irving as a facilitator. Though the 2011 No. 1 pick has made strides in that area since being drafted, Doncic&#8217;s a preternatural passer. When fans or commentators talk about players having eyes in the back of their heads, he&#8217;s right in the conversation with James and Jokic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r0veeKWpPrU?si=2HBhV_KC1iPhNhux\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Doncic is an exceptional scorer himself, boasting the third-highest career average of all-time (28.5 PPG). However, if he had Irving&#8217;s ball-handling and shooting ability, he might truly be unrivaled at the offensive end.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YOd-rT-z23k?si=q_fRZOtxPjxNC_U8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Doncic knows how to get his way against tight defense but relies on his size and stepbacks a little more than a shake and bake. His touch is pretty solid in general considering the fact that he&#8217;s made 46.9 percent of his career field goal attempts. Yet, if he had Irving&#8217;s stroke, his 3-ball would fall more routinely. To that point, Doncic is a career 34.7 percent shooter from deep. Meanwhile, Irving has converted 39.5 percent of his career 3s.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving were teammates for just two-plus seasons. That doesn&#8217;t seem like nearly enough time for a backcourt pairing that some considered to be the most skilled ever. Nonetheless, with the Dallas Mavericks determined to trade Doncic &#8211;whether it was to the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks or some other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":125963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,30,62,3],"tags":[406,1133,1382],"class_list":["post-125922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-news","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125922\/revisions\/125965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}