Luka Dončić is unbothered, simply observing the layout of teammates and opponents moving all around him.
He has just received an entry pass into the post on the left block, where he’s being defended by the much smaller Chris Paul. The Spurs’ defense is all scrambled, so Paul is cross-matched onto Luka while Jordan Goodwin, the teammate who tossed him the ball, is being defended by big man Bismack Biyombo on the left wing.
One pass away from Goodwin, standing above the arc right beyond the top of the key, is Austin Reaves, who is being marked by Stephon Castle, who is, with good reason, a bit distracted. The rookie guard, upon seeing his primary defensive responsibility receive the pass, instinctively takes a few steps towards the paint away from Reaves as though a tractor beam is guiding him back towards Luka.
After making that aforementioned entry pass, Goodwin waits a beat and then proceeds to cut into the lane, not only taking his defender with him — a defender who is more than willing to retreat to his comfort zone of patrolling the paint — but also clipping the contemplative Castle who is trying to both defend Reaves and help on Luka, and doing neither of them very effectively.
Luka, remaining very much unfazed by his diminutive defender and still without having taken a single dribble or even making as much as a shoulder fake, slings a simple pass out to his backcourt mate. Austin, in a single motion, steps in to receive the pass and rises into a rhythm 3-point shot that he summarily swishes.
The Lakers are in a Horns alignment, with Dončić lifted above the break on the left wing, Jaxson Hayes near the right elbow and Dorian Finney-Smith in the right corner. Austin Reaves has the ball in the middle of the floor and, while surveying the court, makes an entry pass to Luka.
After making the entry pass, Austin comes off a screen from Jaxson and heads towards DFS in the corner as though he’s going to set a wide pin-down screen for Finney-Smith. Before he gets to DFS, however, Reaves quickly veers off course and cuts back towards the paint. Right as he makes his cut, Luka throws a dart of a pass, and Reaves catches the ball and then dips under the rim for a reverse layup. Two easy points.
A possession later, with the success of the previous play still fresh on everyone’s mind, the Lakers players place themselves in the same positions, eager to run it back. Just as had happened the play before, an entry from Austin to Luka is followed by Reaves coming off the back pick, feinting towards Dorian in the corner only to flow towards the rim looking for a pass.
This time, though, the Spurs cover it all up.
With that first option cut off, DFS lifts up the sideline off a down screen from Hayes, looking for a pass he can turn into an open 3-pointer, setting up the next action in the sequence.
Only, Dorian coming off the pin-down isn’t the primary look here. Because right after Hayes sets that screen to free up his guard, Reaves returns from under the rim and sets a back pick on Hayes’ defender, freeing his big man for a roll to the rim.
Luka, just as he had a play earlier, sees his target break free and throws a pinpoint pass to his teammate. Hayes rises up, catches the lob and throws down the dunk.
The above clips highlight three of Dončić’s six assists in which he never even took a single dribble before dishing off to a teammate for a score. Yes, you read that right: six of Luka’s game-high 14 assists came while he was completely stationary and never once committed his dribble, with most of the work — if he had to do any at all — coming in the form of fending off his defender to receive the ball.
I understand this came against a struggling Spurs team that, after losing Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox, are not very good on defense. I also understand that single-game clips are not always indicative of larger trends. That said...
In the immediate aftermath of the Lakers hiring JJ Redick and through both the preseason and early months of the campaign, there were both sourced reports and direct quotes about a shift towards Anthony Davis as the “hub” of the Lakers offense.
The idea was that, while LeBron and Austin Reaves — as well as D’Angelo Russell — would still be key on-ball players and offensive initiators for the Lakers, it would be Davis who took on a heavier lift as the focal point of the team’s scheme and be positioned in the middle of the frame as a generator of offensive for the entire group. This was supposed to show up not only via points per game but also as a way to grease the wheels for the entirety of the team’s attack.
Davis, for as great as he is — and was for the Lakers this season and for all his years in Los Angeles — was always a bit miscast in this specific role.
AD, at his best, is a finisher. Yes, he’s a good — sometimes very good — passer. And, yes, he’s able to draw the type of extra defensive attention that helps facilitate good offense for his teammates. But Davis did this mostly as a dive-man in the pick-and-roll or out of deep post-ups where he’d punish defenders with his ability to finish with finesse or with force.
While AD could make double teams pay via quick skip passes or kickouts one pass away and had improved at finding teammates against the multitude of coverages teams threw at him, his primary role on offense was less a traditional “hub” and much more someone whose greatest attribute was scoring the ball himself to end possessions.
Luka, though, is one of the world’s best as both a scorer and a passer. There’s a reason he’s third all-time in per-game scoring average and 12th all-time in assists per game for the regular season. He’s the type of singular offensive engine who exemplifies what it means to be in the middle of the frame offensively while consistently creating an advantage for their team.
Luka, then, is the “hub” that Redick said he was going to try to turn AD into. And the clips above show exactly what that looks like.
It’s often said that it’s impossible to speed Luka Dončić up. Before he was his head coach, JJ Redick once said that Luka had the “best brakes in the league” when describing how effective his deceleration is on drives to the rim, allowing him to score in traffic as defenders fly by him.
But in all this talk about moving at his own pace and how great he can be when he’s slowing down, Luka is also showing how much of an impact he can make while completely stopped and at an absolute standstill.
And if you’re opposing defenses, that’s just one more thing you’ll have to worry about with Luka on the Lakers.
You can follow Darius on BlueSky at@forumbluegold.