Jason Burgos
A new report claims that players around the NBA are losing interest in joining the Dallas Mavericks due to the style of play that has made Luka Doncic a superstar.
Heading into the NBA games today, the Mavericks are in a fight to avoid being in this year’s NBA Play-In Tournament as they currently sit in the seventh spot of the NBA standings. While it’s not where the team hoped to be at this point in the season, they remain a dangerous group in the Western Conference because they have one of the best players on the planet on the roster.
Over his first six seasons in the league, the Slovenian has emerged to become one of the faces of the NBA. No longer is he just an All-Star caliber player, but he consistently is among the players under consideration for MVP votes over the last few seasons. Considering his greatness you would assume players around the league would love to play with him. Well, it seems that’s far from the case.
Luka Doncic’s ball-dominant style turning players off from joining Mavericks
During a new edition of the “Hoop Collective” podcast, ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon spilled some tea about what many players around the league have been saying and it isn’t good for the Mavericks’ chances to bolster the roster in the future.
“As great of a player as Luka is, and we just talked about him being one of four legit MVP candidates this year, he is as ball-dominant as any player in the league, and there are guys around the league, I’m sure you guys have both talked to players, who don’t necessarily want to play with Luka because of that,” MacMahon said.
While Dallas was able to land Kyrie Irving in a trade last year he was a player many other organizations viewed as too toxic to bring to their locker rooms. The organization reportedly had a deal in place last week for Wizards star Kyle Kuzma but the forward turned down the opportunity.
The organization has also had trouble signing worthwhile free agents in recent years. It will be interesting to see how the team overcomes this apparent problem while keeping Luka Doncic happy in the future.
