Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks have been on an absolute heater as of late, as the team has used an NBA-best seven game winning streak to catapult all the way up to fifth in the vaunted Western Conference playoff picture, with the potential to possibly move up even higher as the regular season winds down. Doncic remains the NBA’s leading scorer this season by a country mile and continues to put up mammoth stat lines on a nightly basis for a Mavericks team that has greatly improved since the acquisitions they made at the trade deadline.
Recently, sports media personality Colin Cowherd took to The Herd to give Doncic an interesting historical NBA comparison that might confuse some Dallas fans.
“He’s sort of Carmelo Anthony with a more refined game, better range,” said Cowherd, per NBACentral on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “I don’t know if I’m getting anything on the other end. I don’t know if his teams will succeed in the playoffs. I don’t know if he’s the greatest teammate, but buckets? This is Melo with a three-point shot. Like, you’re just going to get a lot of points.”
Cowherd also went on to explain why he has some reservations about how successful the Mavericks will be come playoff time.
“I have my doubts,” said Cowherd. “When people fell in love with James Harden, I’m like, ‘you can’t have the ball that much in your hands.’ He’s got to find somebody where he can be off ball much more. Maybe it is Kyrie and he’s got to be talked into it.”
A crucial postseason for the Mavericks
The Mavericks are currently gearing up for a postseason in which a first-round exit will feel like a major failure. As Cowherd mentioned, a major criticism leveled at Doncic over the years has been his unwillingness to conform to team basketball. A common rebuttal to this has been the perceived lack of talent that Dallas has put around him, but a look at previous Mavericks rosters reveals that Doncic was surrounded with All-Star talent like Kristaps Porzingis and Jalen Brunson, both of whom immediately saw their production vastly improve after leaving Dallas.
Now, Kyrie Irving has been asked at times to take a backseat to Doncic, although in recent weeks, the team has shown some ability to incorporate the two stars playing off of one another as opposed to canceling each other out. Although their playstyles are vastly different, perhaps there are some similarities between Doncic and Anthony in that they both have been accused of compiling “empty calorie” stats during the regular season without much playoff success to show for it.
Of course, Doncic only recently turned 25 years old and will have plenty of opportunities to change that narrative, including in this upcoming postseason, where Dallas is currently in the driver’s seat to avoid the dreaded Play-In round and secure themselves a top six seed.
The Mavericks will next take the floor on Wednesday evening vs the Golden State Warriors.
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