Luka Doncic has shown his improvement as a defender with numbers as facts. However, the critics on social media platforms can often be brutally honest in their personal opinions, disregarding what the stats show. In a similar instance, one of the ‘X’ users attacked Doncic over his defensive abilities on the court. However, Detroit Pistons icon Isiah Thomas was quick enough to come to Doncic’s rescue and silence the troll.

“Respectfully you have to credit coaching from Jason Kidd, who has helped Luka improve and also defensive schemes to help him match up properly against players he can guard. Coaching matters,” Thomas stated. The series of events began with the 2x NBA champion posting a list of the top 10 best isolation defenders with at least 50 possessions.

One user, however, disagreed with the list, “respectfully this implies luka is a good defender when respectfully he is not.” This was the moment where Isiah, in his reply to the critic, highlighted Luka’s recent improvement under coach Kidd. As per the list shared by Isiah, Doncic has only given 0.79 points per possession on his 71 possessions.

It is worth mentioning Luka has always been targeted over his defensive abilities. However, things changed in 2022 itself. The Dallas Mavericks star made up his mind to improve and gradually made the numbers lean in his favor.

Luka Doncic’s development as a defender

Luka was brutally called out during the 2022 NBA playoffs for his defense. However, the Mavericks star decided to work on things. He claimed after a period of time that he improved on the defense front to a considerable extent.

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“People are not going to admit it, but I think this year I’ve really taken a big step [defensively],” Doncic told Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Notably, his steals had increased from 1.2 in the previous season to 1.4 in the 2022-23 season.

And the improvement has been gradual as even this season Doncic has 1.6 steals per game. In fact, apart from ranking 10th in isolation defenders, Luka has topped the list in terms of best post defender in the NBA with at least 25 possessions, forcing his opponents to turn the ball over a staggering 32% of the times, as shared by FlukaMagic on X.

What are your views on the defensive abilities of the Mavericks star? Let us know in the comments if you think that Luka has made a significant improvement on the defense front.

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