HALLELUKA: Luka Clinches All-NBA 1st team. 4th in 5 years

[sefant]

Since the Nuggets thread got derailed, i am posting this here  



Luka kinda had a nightmare season up to this point. You could claim the season (re-) started for him with the OKC game. Wether he was out of shape or overplayed from the Olympics to start the season.


He played 21 games up to the OKC game. Tho 13 games (starting the season slow in each of the last 2 seasons), rolled his ankle. Missed 3 games, came back played 8 games on a gimpy ankle. His defense looked even more suspect than during the season start. Team decided to shut him down again. Not sure if you can even look at season numbers, when he played quite some games on an "injured" ankle. He didn't really re-injury his ankle (?), and yet they decided to shut him down again.

Recap: slow season start -> ankle injury -> playing games on a gimpy ankle -> out again with the same injury -> covid


The concept of playing yourself into BETTER shape/improving game condition/arriving to the season isn't working if you are out with injury/covid.



https://www.basketball-reference.com/pla...nced/2022/

While individual DefRtg isn't the best stat, its funny OKC/DEN games are on the top of the list this year. And DEN is 2nd in BPM despite not shooting well. Still convinced he is going to improve a lot over the next few months, unless the ankle is bothering him mid term/long term.