The first few months of Luka Doncic with the Los Angeles Lakers have been a rollercoaster—flashes of sheer brilliance followed by intense criticism, especially after the team’s early playoff exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, NBA icons Gary Payton and Robert Horry have both highlighted a glaring weakness in the Slovenian guard’s game.
“I don’t think Luka is a defensive player,” said Payton during a conversation at the BUDX NBA House recently. “I think he’s a scorer. He’s an athlete. He’s got great ability… Now, if he wants to go and change it and prove people wrong that he can’t play defense, if that was me, I would change it.”
Still, the 1996 NBA Defensive Player of the Year emphasized that such a transformation isn’t simple. “You have to be dedicated to play defense. You have to be dedicated. Maybe that’s not for him,” Gary speculated. “There’s a mindset to play defense. Not just say you want to play defense. You can’t do that unless you have a mindset to do that.”
Later, the NBA champion with the Miami Heat in 2006 questioned whether Doncic is even willing to put in the effort to improve. “You have to be able to move. You have to be willing to take sacrifices to do things. And that’s just the way it goes,” explained Payton. “He’s not one of that. But now, if he wants to, yes, he can get his mind to it to do it. But does he want to do it? That’s left up to him. That’s not left up to us.”
Seattle SuperSonics legend Gary Payton
Just hours later, during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show, Robert Horry addressed the same topic. “I tell people all the time, if you can move your feet and get past and blow by people, that means you have some fast-twitch muscles. You can move pretty fast. So there’s no reason you cannot play better defense on the other. You just got to want to. And I think a lot of times he doesn’t want to. He’d rather just point,” said the former forward about Luka.
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“It’s so weird that people talk about his weight, but yet he’s still giving people 30 points. I tell people, I don’t care about his weight. You need to get him in a gym and teach him how to play defense,” Horry pointed out. “That’s the thing, because you can give someone 40 points, but if you’re giving up 35 on the other end, those 40 points don’t mean anything.”
The seven-time NBA champion with the Houston Rockets, the Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs then echoed Gary Payton’s comments—not questioning Doncic’s abilities, but his willingness to improve. “I think that is the key. And I think also he needs to want to play defense, because so many times he saves his energy for the offensive end,” said Robert. “It’s about wanting to.”
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