Scottie Pippen Thinks Luka Doncic Will Never Lead A Team To The NBA Finals Again

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic is one of the best players in the NBA today, but Scottie Pippen thinks his style of play won't lead to success. Pippen expressed doubt when asked if Doncic is capable of leading the Lakers to a championship during an interview with Marca and stated that his run in 2024 was an anomaly.

"His style of play took him to the Finals, but I'm not sure he can do it again," Pippen said. "It was a one-off feat, but when they got to the Finals, they didn't have much else."

Pippen, who won six titles with the Chicago Bulls, isn't the first to raise concerns about Doncic's ball-dominant playstyle, and he won't be the last. You'd have thought that the five-time All-Star leading the Dallas Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals would have put all this talk to bed, but it hasn't.

As Pippen pointed out, Doncic and the Mavericks didn't put up much resistance when they faced off against the Boston Celtics on the big stage. The Celtics easily won the Finals in five games, but that defeat wasn't on the Slovenian.

Sure, Doncic struggled defensively, but the Mavericks lost because no one apart from him could get going offensively. Kyrie Irving shot 41.4% from the field against the Celtics, while P.J. Washington was at 40.9%. When a team's second and third best players play that poorly, they won't be beating anyone noteworthy.

Going back in time a bit further, we saw Doncic lead the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals in 2022. The 26-year-old has led his teams on a couple of deep playoff runs by now, so dismissing his chances of getting back to the big stage might not be wise.

Doncic's first playoff run with the Lakers ended a lot sooner than he'd have liked, though, as the Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated them in five games in the first round of the 2025 playoffs. His defense and conditioning were once again big talking points after the series, and he has worked on the latter.

Doncic has undergone a physical transformation this offseason and looks to be in terrific shape. He was extremely impressive at EuroBasket 2025, averaging 34.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.7 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game. He made it to the tournament's All-Star Five, and you'd expect him to dominate in the 2025-26 season.

Can Doncic lead the Lakers to the title in 2026, though? It's possible but not very likely as things stand. The Lakers appear weak from a defensive standpoint, and they need to make a trade to address that issue.

Getting back to Pippen, this wasn't the only comment he made about Doncic in this interview that raised eyebrows. He stated he had doubts about whether the Lakers' star and Nikola Jokic could dominate in the NBA in the 1980s and 1990s.

It was a different game back then, but the truly great players would dominate in any era, and Doncic and Jokic certainly fall into that category. This is a bit of a lazy comparison to make, but if Larry Bird was able to dominate in that era, then these two would have figured out a way as well.