Getty Image / Brian Rothmuller
Luka Doncic is having an unbelievable second year in the NBA. Not to take anything away from his NBA Rookie of the Year campaign a year ago, but he’s been beyond phenomenal this season.
It’s a pretty common theme for players to take a step back in year two, or at least not take a giant leap forward, after such impressive rookie campaigns, but that simply hasn’t been the case for the 20-year-old.
He’s even surprising Dirk Nowitzki with his play. The Mavericks legend admitted that he thought Doncic would have a tougher transition into year two of his NBA career.
“I’ve got to be honest, I thought he would have a tougher transition here in year two,” said Nowitzki, who received a video tribute at Staples Center on Sunday, according to USA TODAY. “Just because he was so phenomenal last year with all the triple-doubles, I thought people were really going to hone in on him. But he seemed to have gotten even better.”
“I guess I was wrong,” Nowitzki said, chuckling. “Even the experts can be wrong. He’s looking fantastic.”
Doncic averaged 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and six assists during his rookie year ago while shooting 42.7% from the field.
While those numbers are certainly impressive, this season he’s shooting a whopping 48.3% from the field with 30.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 9.6 assists per night. He’s quite literally, almost, a walking triple-double statistically and has seven triple-doubles in 19 games with each of those triple-doubles coming with at least 30 points in the game.
Doncic is proving all of his one-hit-wonder haters wrong and has even proved one of the greatest to ever do it, Nowitzki, wrong along the way so far this season.
The Slovenian is fresh off of a 27 point, 10 assists nine rebound outing against LeBron James and the Lakers as the Mavs put on a show in Los Angeles grabbing a 114-100 win.