Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is already one of the best players in basketball as he gets set to take on the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, but Reggie Miller thinks that a championship would put him over the top.
Miller was discussing Doncic on The Dan Patrick Show and was asked if a title would assert Doncic's position as the No. 1 player in the world, and Miller answered with a resounding yes.
“One hundred percent Daniel,” Miller told Patrick. “And if you listen to Jason Kidd he has alluded [to] and said this all along. He's like the league is actually giving you the keys to the kingdom young man. All you need to do is finish the job, and by finishing the job that's by winning a championship.”
Doncic won the NBA scoring title this season, averaging 33.9 points per game on 48.7/38.2/78.6 shooting splits. He also logged 9.8 assists, 9.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals over 37.5 minutes per game. He has already earned five All-Star appearances as well as five First-Team All-NBA selections.
Miller also thinks that the Mavericks' road to the finals is a testament to Doncic, who is also on his way to surpassing Dirk Nowitzki as the greatest player in franchise history.
“And think about the road that the Dallas Mavericks have had to take to get to the NBA Finals,” Miller said. “They beat a 50-plus win team in the Clippers, a 50-plus win team in the No. 1 seed OKC Thunder, a 50-plus win team in Minnesota. Now you're going against the juggernaut, the team that's tied with the most NBA championships in the Boston Celtics.”
Doncic is registering 28.8 points, 9.6 boards and 8.8 assists per game throughout the playoffs.
Would a championship put Mavericks' Luka Doncic above Nikola Jokic?
Right now, Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic is widely regarded as the best player in basketball, and it's not hard to see why.
Jokic has won three MVP awards over the last four years and just won a championship last June. He averages nearly a triple-double and is unquestionably one of the most skilled centers the NBA has ever seen.
Taking all of that into consideration, going with Doncic over Jokic is a tough sell.
But you know how professional sports work: it's a matter of “what have you done for me lately,” and Jokic's Nuggets were eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of the playoffs last month. The same Timberwolves team that Doncic and the Mavericks dispatched in five games.
Plus, if Dallas does beat the Celtics for the championship, Doncic will be the talk of the town. That's not to say that Jokic would be forgotten about, but recency bias is a thing.
Five or six years ago, the title for “best player in the NBA” wasn't even a discussion. It was LeBron James. But now that James has gotten older and is not quite the same player anymore, the debate has reopened. A few years ago, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo (there was also a brief period when it was Kawhi Leonard). Then it was Jokic. Now, it could be Doncic.
Someone is going to have to claim the throne, and if Doncic is able to top Boston, he may very well wear the crown.
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