Luka Doncic loves to punish defenders in the post

At its core, sports fandom is about enjoying watching your favorite team or player do well. Much of this summer of Dallas Mavericks fandom has revolved around discussing the loss of Jalen Brunson, the addition of Christian Wood and where those moves leave the Mavericks going forward. The rest of the discussion has been centered around Luka Doncic’s fitness.

All of those things are important for the Mavericks going forward but they do not get to the heart of current Mavericks fandom, watching Doncic be absolutely amazing. Doncic does many things at a truly elite level. He is perhaps the best pick and roll orchestrator in the world. He is an elite three level scorer who has proved nigh unstoppable at the highest levels of playoff basketball, with career playoff averages of 32.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game.

All of those things are fun to watch, but perhaps the most fun thing to watch Doncic do is to punish people of all shapes and sizes in the post. Our own Ben Zajdel recently wrote a post referring to the best Mavericks players in pickup games. Doncic would clearly be the best player for pickup. More importantly, a certain aspect of his game fits directly into a common pick up archetype.

Anyone who has played much pickup has played against an older man who has “dad strength” and perfect footwork in the post. These players are commonly nicknamed “old school” and they are impossible to defend. Doncic does to NBA players what these guys do to random people at the park.

PandaHank41 made a video highlighting Doncic being an absolute menace in the post. He dominates players of all sizes with a combination of strength and skill. He overpowers multiple small guards, he works his way around and through like-size wings and he even beats centers such as Nikola Jokic and Deandre Ayton. During the dog days of the basketball offseason, there is very little better for a Mavericks fan than to enjoy Doncic destroying everyone in the post.