{"id":195122,"date":"2025-10-07T09:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195122\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:37:07","slug":"he-wants-full-control-of-the-game-at-all-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195122\/","title":{"rendered":"He Wants Full Control Of The Game At All Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Luka Doncic<\/a> are two of the very best basketball players in the world today, and former NBA player Vlatko Cancar has had the fortune of playing with both of them. Cancar was Jokic\u2019s teammate on the Denver Nuggets<\/a> for six years and has played alongside Doncic for the Slovenian national team.<\/p>\n

With that being the case, Cancar was asked to compare the two European superstars on the X&O\u2019s Chat<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuka, I think, compared to Nikola, he wants full control of the game at all times,\u201d Cancar said. \u201cEverything needs to run through him and he makes that clear. He\u2019s running pick and rolls, you\u2019ve got to be in the corner ready to shoot\u2026 He can be a harda*** if you\u2019re not ready\u2026 He\u2019ll get on you. It\u2019s not going to slide easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas Nikola is more reserved,\u201d Cancar continued. \u201cHe holds it in for a while, but once he\u2019s full, he blows up\u2026 Maybe Nikola\u2019s more efficient just because he plays closer to the rim. He\u2019s a lot bigger, and honestly, there aren\u2019t many centers who can really guard him one-on-one.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right there at the rim, and if you don\u2019t double-team him\u2026 well, once you do start doubling, that ball starts flying around,\u201d Cancar added. \u201cAnd he\u2019s much closer to the hoop. Luka, on the other hand, often has to start his attack from the three-point line. That takes more energy, more effort, and it\u2019s tougher overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Host Edin Avdic wondered how Doncic is able to pull that off despite not being the fastest and not having insane ball-handling abilities. Cancar, who now plays for Olimpia Milano, had a simple explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis change of direction,\u201d Cancar stated. \u201cHe\u2019s just as slow, but he\u2019s fast as a player. That stop-and-go move; when he stops and then bursts off, that\u2019s how he gets you. And yeah, we all wait for the step-back, but he\u2019s got one main move, and then he\u2019s got a counter to it. So first he goes for the step-back, but if he sees you biting on it, he\u2019ll go between the legs or drive right at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe catches you off guard all the time,\u201d Cancar added. \u201cThat change of direction of his is incredibly tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

What also helps Doncic is that while he is slow, he is stronger than you might think. He once spoke about how powerful his legs are<\/a>\u00a0and how they give him an advantage on both the offensive and defensive ends.<\/p>\n

Doncic has also stated that he is athletic in different ways that people don\u2019t see<\/a>. The five-time All-Star made it clear that athleticism is not just about jumping and running fast.<\/p>\n

Both Doncic and Jokic have shown for years now that you don\u2019t necessarily need to be the fastest or jump the highest to dominate in the NBA. If your basketball IQ is off the charts and you are extremely skilled, you\u2019ll be able to put on a show on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n

Jokic has won MVP in three of the last five seasons (2021, 2022, 2024) and led the Nuggets to the NBA championship in 2023. The 30-year-old is generally regarded as the best player in the world, and it\u2019s hard to say the title is undeserved.<\/p>\n

Doncic would be hoping to snatch it from Jokic at some point. The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> guard hasn\u2019t won an MVP or championship yet, but it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if he accomplishes both of those feats in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Doncic has been backed to win MVP in 2026<\/a> by an NBA scout, and you wouldn\u2019t bet against him. He has undergone quite the physical transformation in the offseason and enters the 2025-26 campaign in the best shape that he has been in for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic are two of the very best basketball players in the world today, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}