While it may be early to declare Luka Doncic this season’s Rookie of the Year, the guide is nonetheless remarkable given the strength of this freshman course.
The 20-year-old is already keeping historic firm. Now, if the campaign closed, he’d join Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson since the only two rookies to average 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. He ignored projections regarding his NBA-ready abilities out of the water. The Dallas Mavericks did not stop at one unicorn. They rolled the dice on another ahead of this deadline, landing 7’3″ shot-blocker and three-point sniper Kristaps Porzingis. Sure, he is coming off an ACL tear and will not play with this year, but he had been doing things.
Porzingis and pairing Doncic gives Dallas its long-awaited blueprint for its post-Dirk Nowitzki era, and the ceiling is high enough to turn that strategy.
“Dallas now has two gamers under the age of 25 who are the best two players on a championship team,” The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks wrote. “Just about every team in the league would kill for that chance.”
The Mavs also created spending money for this summer, and their pick could be kept by a bounce of a couple of balls from the Hawks. While factoring in the dangers together with Porzingis, who can become a restricted free agent this offseason, Dallas’ future seems blindingly bright.
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