Dallas Mavericks Film: In appreciation of Luka Doncic, bully

The greatest players in NBA history have all had one thing in common—as their career progresses, they constantly add new dimensions to their game. Luka Doncic has done that this season, adding a wicked post game to his repertoire. Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball had a great video detailing it earlier this year:

Our own Matthew Phillips wrote about the Dallas Mavericks using Doncic in the post more, and how the great the results have been. But I’m not here to talk about his technique, or how efficient the Mavericks are when he’s posting up.

No, I’m here to talk about Luka Doncic bullying the NBA in the post.

For a lot of rookies, especially those who come into the league as teenagers, it takes years to develop the type of body that cannot only stand up to the rigors of a long NBA season, much less be able to deal out punishment of their own. Not so with Doncic.

Take this example from the first round of the 2020 NBA playoffs. The Mavericks ended up losing to the Los Angeles Clippers, but not before we got to see the beginning of Luka Doncic, bully.

That’s Doncic at age 20, clearing space against Kawhi Leonard by simply shoulder-checking him out of the way. That’s patently absurd. Leonard is one of the strongest players in the NBA at the time, and Doncic just moves Leonard with his body.

Doncic hasn’t even reached his physical peak yet. Besides that, what is the league going to do when Doncic develops certified Old Man Strength? When Doncic is 33 years old, he might just throw guys around like a wrestler, then hit a fadeaway just for fun.

Check out this clip from Lerner’s video. Doncic decides to post up 7’2” Bol Bol, and once again, just shoves the bigger player out of the way. Despite Bol’s length, Doncic scores easily.

It’s pretty incredible that Doncic has added such a physical aspect to his game at such a young age. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James all added post up games to their bag of skills. The difference is they did it at a much older age, when they weren’t as athletic. Doncic is still years away from his athletic peak.

It will be interesting to see what other tricks Doncic adds to his repertoire as he gets older. For now, bullying the NBA at a young age is fun enough to watch. If you can’t get enough, check out our guy Panda Hank’s highlight reel of Doncic posting up everyone.