Luka Dončić is going to get into action soon for the Mavericks.
It may or may not be in Wednesday’s season-opener at San Antonio. Nobody in the Mavericks’ camp was saying anything definitive on Tuesday.
But either way, he’s trending upward. And that’s Luka’s analysis, by the way.
“Better,” he said when asked how his strained left calf was responding. “We don’t know yet (about playing on Wednesday). But I’ve been practicing for two days now and I feel pretty good. But we’ll see how it feels (Wednesday) morning.
“I did everything (in practices). I feel great. But we’ll see. Two days of practice is different than two weeks of just lifting.”
Dončić officially is listed as questionable for the opener against the Spurs and No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama.
Whenever he returns, Dončić will have a slightly tweaked role waiting for him, both he and his coach said. The Mavericks’ desire to play faster this season will dovetail nicely with the goal of minimizing wear and tear on Luka by giving a certain amount of the ballhandling chores to Kyrie Irving.
“I talked with Kai about it,” Dončić said. “We’re going to exchange handling the ball. Say, for example, if it’s a free throw maybe I get the ball. But when it’s like not stoppage (a missed shot), he’s going to take it.”
It’s not a completely new scheme for Luka, who said he played much the same way when he was with Real Madrid and they had multiple players capable of handling and pushing the ball upcourt.
For Jason Kidd, he’s hoping this is an opportunity to spare his superstar point guard from some excess workload and keep him fresher for later in games and later in the season.
“When you play fast, hopefully that takes a lot of the wear and tear and the hits or the muggings that Luka goes through in a game,” Kidd said. “If he plays 40 minutes and they’re just hanging on him for those 40 minutes – we’re trying to get bodies off of him and I think playing fast is one of the ways.”
Kidd said the Mavericks also are hoping to bail out Luka on the boards. He’s been the Mavericks’ leading rebounder in each of the last two seasons. The hope is that newcomers like rookie Dereck Lively II, Derrick Jones Jr. and Dante Exum will be able to ease the rebounding burden on Luka.
But the first order of business is to get him healthy. By all accounts, he’s trending in that direction. Maybe the best news is that this calf issue has been defined as not as serious as the one that kept him out of the first three games of the playoffs in 2022.
“This is something less,” he said. “It was less than the first one. The calf is fine. But they said go through two full practices and see how it feels (Wednesday).
“It’s off and on. It’s a weird thing. I don’t really know how to explain it. But it is better than it was, for sure. I feel way better than I was on the trip (to Europe).”
No stranger to the hype: The Mavericks’ opener also will be the NBA debut of Wembanyama, the 7-4 Frenchman who was the No. 1 pick in the July draft.
Dončić is no stranger to hype. He had plenty of it when he joined the Mavericks as a teenaged phenom. Was his buildup similar to Wemby’s hysteria?
“Not even close,” he said. “I don’t think I was even close.”
But he did have distractions and he said he could only offer logical advice to the Spurs’ newcomer.
“My advice is always to have fun with the game,” he said. “Obviously, you’re going to have a lot of pressure. He’s probably one of the best if not the best {prospects) to come into the NBA. But he showed he can play. I don’t think he should be worried about anything.”
However, Dončić did say that he believes the hype is justified.
“Everybody knows Wemby, right?” he said. “I saw some video, it’s pretty crazy what he does on the court. Plus, he’s 7-4? The things he does for that length, it’s unbelievable, the way he moves, the way he handles the ball, shoots the ball and obviously the blocks. I’ve been watching him. And he’s an amazing player.”
Kidd agreed and came up with a pretty good comparison to who Wembanyama plays like.
“He’s in a class of his own, 7-5, can put it on the floor, can shoot it, can block shots, block jumpers,” Kidd said. “So maybe a combination of Giannis and I don’t know who else. That’s the closest person I can think of that I’ve worked with that can put it on the floor, athletic, defensively will block shots and can shoot the three. You have to be aware of where he’s at on both sides of the court at all times.
“He could be like Ralph (Sampson). I’m not that old, but Ralph was pretty special. So maybe a Ralph-Giannis combination.”
More health issues: Jaden Hardy (ankle) went through practice on Tuesday, but Dwight Powell (illness) did not, although he was scheduled to rejoin the team for the flight to San Antonio.
Like Luka, Hardy and Powell are listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game.
Big Rangers fan: Count Dončić as one of the biggest new fans of the World Series-bound Texas Rangers.
He said he watched the Game 7 clincher against the Houston Astros on Monday night with Dirk Nowitzki. And, just as Americans don’t always grasp the subtleties of soccer or cricket, Luka said he’s slowly learning about baseball.
“It’s like American football,” he said. “Once I came to the U.S., obviously the first one (to learn about) was American football. Before I didn’t know anything about it. But lately, I’ve been watching the Rangers. Yesterday, I watched it with Dirk, so it was a really fun game. We’ll probably go on Saturday for sure.”
That would be Game 2 of the World Series on the first of two days in between games for the Mavericks.
By the way, Luka said his favorite Ranger is Adolis Garcia.
Kidd on Green: Josh Green earned a lot of green on Monday when he signed his three-year contract extension, which is widely reported to be worth about $41-million.
“Well-deserved,” Kidd said. “So now it’s move forward. Nothing really changes for him in a sense with the things he’s done for us in the past. Ballhandler, making open shots, being an athlete and the guy who comes up with the loose balls. That’s pretty much what we’re looking for.”
Jelling on the fly: The Mavericks didn’t have a lot of time in training camp to put all the pieces together into a well-oiled machine, but the season waits for nobody.
“That’s just what it is,” Kidd said. “We’re not going to complain about it. We’re going to be pros about it and figure out a way to win. But also, we got a lot of different combinations of getting new guys involved and understanding what they can do, too. There’s a lot in the first 10 games to figure out. But we’re in a good spot. If we can be healthy going into tomorrow and Friday, that’s a good thing.”
One thing Kidd isn’t worried about is Kyrie Irving. He had a terrific finish to the preseason in the win over Detroit last week and Kidd said he’s excited about Irving’s development with the team after a full training camp.
“Kai’s in a great spot,” he said. “Physically and mentally, he’s ready to go. You saw that the last preseason game. He played 24, 25 minutes and almost had a triple-double. So I think he’s ready to go. And if you ask him, I think he’s going to say the same thing.”
Projected lineup: While it is strictly tentative, the Mavericks’ season-opening game notes list the starting five as: Derrick Jones Jr., Grant Williams, Dereck Lively II, Irving and Dončić.
On Jones, Kidd said: “He’s a guy that gives us versatility, when you talk about guarding, he can guard one through five. He can start. He can come off the bench. He’s a pro. When you look at him and (Dante) Exum, those are guys we’re going to lean on early in the season.
X: @ESefko
Share and comment