Nba, Luka Doncic overweight: ‘After the Olympics too much relaxation’

Seeing him like this, Luka Doncic doesn’t even look like him. Big well over 104kg of his ideal weight, slowed in movements, phenomenal only at times. “He doesn’t even run, he shuffles back and forth across the field,” said Reggie Miller, the Hall of Famer commentator for TNT of last night’s Dallas-Brooklyn match. Not that the Slovenian is not able to put together interesting numbers (28 points and 9 assists in the knockout of the Mavs against the Nets), only that he does not manage to be magic as usual. And it’s becoming a problem: both for Dallas, who has lost 8 of the last 10 games, and for him, tormented by injuries.

overweight

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According to Espn, Doncic showed up at the Mavs training camp on 28 September last 14kg over his ideal weight. He was polished at the Olympics, where he dragged Slovenia up to fourth place, the last act of a very long summer in which the 22-year-old went from elimination in the first playoff round at the beginning of May to preparation for the pre-Olympic with his national team, protagonist of a sensational ride in Lithuania, at the Tokyo Games where Luka was one of the stars on the field and one of the most requested athletes at the Olympic Village. A tour de force that, after returning to Ljubljana from Japan as a national hero to sign the contract renewal for 5 years and 207 million with Dallas, forced Luka to take a vacation. “I had a very long summer and I relaxed a little bit – admitted Doncic via Zoom after the defeat against Brooklyn -. After the Olympics I took 3 weeks off: maybe I relaxed a little too much. I have to get back on track, I know I can do better ”.

condition

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Luka is visibly bigger than he has ever been. And the fact that in two months of preparation and season he was unable to get back in full shape triggered some alarm bells in the Mavs house. He is traveling at 25.5 points per game, two less than last season, shooting 44.4% from the field (it was 47.9% in 2020-21) and 32.5% from three. Compared to last year, Doncic takes fewer rebounds, serves slightly fewer assists but loses more balls and commits more fouls. The way he and Kristaps Porzingis slowed in the second half is one of the reasons Dallas lost to Brooklyn despite building a 17-point lead. The weight is not helping Doncic to recover from his injuries: he is struggling with discomfort in his knee and left ankle, to which he has added a sprained thumb. “I’m still in pain, but I’m trying to play anyway,” said Luka.

nervousness

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To the problems with the scales are also added those with the referees. Doncic on the pitch is perpetually nervous, engaged in constant bickering with the referees who have also irritated coach Jason Kidd, who has already publicly curried him asking him to limit the protests. Also in Tokyo Luka was at constant war with the referees, a recorder broken after every call against his Slovenia. On the floor of the Games, however, his class and results overshadowed everything. In this first part of the NBA season, with the Mavs going slower than expected as he himself, the problems have emerged all together. The class is still the same as always, the talent that of a predestined who has everything to be one of the best players of all time. Doncic, however, has one more opponent to fight: the balance. “I have to get back on track, but we are still at the beginning of the season”. The sooner it does, the sooner it will go back to being Luka magic. And to make his Mavs fly.