However, a few NBA players weren’t exactly sold on the merits of Doncic’s game back in 2018, when he was still a 19-year-old forward whom the Mavericks weren’t sure how to maximize yet
. One of those players was Jeff Teague, who, on the Club 520 podcast (via Sporting News), admitted that Doncic was “lazy” and that he wasn’t “doing enough” to assume one of the top places on the league’s totem pole.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s preposterous to see that Luka Doncic slipped all the way to the third overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, and the team that drafted him — the Atlanta Hawks — even decided to trade him away to the Dallas Mavericks for the picks that became Trae Young and Cam Reddish. Doncic has become one of the best players in the association, as he is as close to an unstoppable offensive creator as there is in today’s NBA.
Another player who had to see Luka Doncic dominate to believe is former Mavericks enforcer, James Johnson. Johnson, in an appearance on The OGs Show, admitted that he wasn’t too convinced by Goran Dragic (his former teammate on the Miami Heat), who was steadfast in his belief that Doncic was “going to be the best player one day”.
“I’m like, yeah, right. How tall is he? I think Rick (Carlisle) had him at the four at the time. He didn’t have any good games at the four. We were talking to (Dragic) again; I thought you said your man was nice. He said he’s just not playing the right position,” Johnson said.
Indeed, the Mavericks had to turn over primary ballhandling duties to get the most out of Luka Doncic. It didn’t take a while for Doncic to blossom into one of the most complete scorers and playmakers in the entire association, with Johnson now being all-in on the Doncic hype train.
“Boom. Once Rick [Carlisle] put him at the one, that man went wild. He had like four triple doubles in a row and 30-point games. I was like, your boy is a maestro,” Johnson recalled.
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