{"id":509749,"date":"2026-02-28T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509749\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:24:08","slug":"nba-analyst-rips-luka-doncic-for-his-defense-and-complaining-believes-lakers-stars-development-has-stunted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509749\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Analyst Rips Luka Doncic For His Defense And Complaining; Believes Lakers Star’s Development Has Stunted"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ringer\u2019s Max Kellerman<\/a> is emerging as one of Luka Doncic\u2019s biggest critics, and he went at the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> superstar again on The Bill Simmons Podcast<\/a>. Kellerman claims Doncic\u2019s game hasn\u2019t developed as much as one would have imagined and criticized him for his defense and complaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuka Doncic, because he can get a high percentage shot whenever he wants, it has stunted his development as a player in a lot of respects, right?\u201d Kellerman said. \u201cBecause why wouldn\u2019t you do that? You want to score on this possession. But as a result, guys are standing around, they\u2019re not playing with energy, they\u2019re not moving without the ball, they\u2019re not touching the ball, they\u2019re not in rhythm, they can\u2019t get hot from outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then top of that, he complains on every call and doesn\u2019t play defense hardly ever,\u201d Kellerman added. \u201cMaybe one of the worst defenders in the game, even though he has the size to play some defense at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kellerman had previously roasted Doncic<\/a> by claiming his statue would be him complaining with his arms out. He is fed up with the Slovenian complaining to the officials on every single possession.<\/p>\n

Doncic\u2019s complaining is somewhat out of control. There isn\u2019t a player in the NBA who thinks they get as many calls as they deserve. They all want more, but none of them berates the officials as often as he does.<\/p>\n

Doncic\u2019s complaining has also resulted in him not always running back on defense, which hurts the Lakers, a bad defensive team as is, in transition. Sticking with the defensive end, he might not actually be as bad a defender as people make him out to be.<\/a><\/p>\n

That said, Doncic<\/a> is not a good defender. Teams often try to target him, and there aren\u2019t too many occasions where he manages to hold his own. While you can maybe ask for more effort from the six-time All-Star, he can only do so much on defense, considering his lack of athleticism.<\/p>\n

While having a superstar who struggles defensively might not be ideal, you can still build a team around them that is capable of winning a championship. The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> had done just that by surrounding Doncic with athletic defenders, and he took them to the 2024 NBA Finals. To say he doesn\u2019t have the ideal supporting cast on the Lakers might be an understatement, and Bill Simmons brought that up here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time the Lakers fans are really getting the other side of the Luka package,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cWith the whining after every call, with the just not getting back on defense. All the little stuff. The stuff that Dallas got fed up with, ironically. I don\u2019t think they should have traded him, but stuff that they were getting fed up with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe counter to all of this is Dallas almost won the Finals in \u201924 with him,\u201d Simmons continued. \u201cWith a team that was built around him. The irony of this Lakers team, it\u2019s the exact team you wouldn\u2019t want to build around him, right? Three guys who kind of need the ball. Any two of them don\u2019t really know what to do if they don\u2019t have the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic, who is averaging 32.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2025-26, has managed to lead the Lakers to a respectable 34-24 record, but it seems unlikely they\u2019ll have much success in the postseason. They were eliminated in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in 2025, and another early exit looks to be on the cards.<\/p>\n

If that does happen, Doncic will come under fire, no matter how good his numbers are. He has got a target on his back at this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ringer\u2019s Max Kellerman is emerging as one of Luka Doncic\u2019s biggest critics, and he went at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-509749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509749","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=509749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}