02-13-2023, 03:14 PM
(02-13-2023, 02:57 PM)Smitty Wrote: I’m not sure I understand the argument. Luka plays the same amount of minutes as the top 15 or so players in the NBA do. The same amount as 38 year old Lebron James and less than his new teammate, 30 years young, Kyrie Irving. It’s a nothing-burger.
Yeah, there's a lot of truth to this.
I think the opposing viewpoint is probably like "look how much worse he plays when he's worn down" which I kind of agree with.
But to your point, learning how to play those minutes kind of IS the superstar's job. So, in a way, that's kind of like saying "he's not quite good enough at this level yet." I think Kamm and others rail on his conditioning a bit too much, and there's certainly a version of his career where the solution is to play him less, but that's not the version that Luka is hoping to have play out. He WANTS to be a superstar, and WANTS to play those big minutes. It's just that doing so is difficult in a way we here probably can't fully appreciate. NBA stars, including some that we as fans don't fully appreciate make those kind of minutes look easy. I wouldn't say Luka is quiiiiiiite there yet with that, specific challenge.