Luka Doncic is one of the best players in the NBA. However, he has also been consistently viewed as a player who needs more talent surrounding him in order to compete for a championship. This upcoming season could potentially be the best team that Doncic has ever had, with a star guard beside him and some competent role players. But for the duration of his career, here is a rundown of Doncic’s three best teammates so far.
Number Three: Kyrie Irving
It is still too early to see the full potential of the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving duo. Despite this, what we have seen from Irving on the Mavericks has still been great. In 20 games with the Mavericks, Irving averaged 27.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.3 steals on 51 field goal percentage and 39.2 three point percentage. He played very well as an offensive duo alongside Doncic and the two of them even had a game during the season in which they both scored over 40 points.
Unfortunately, the Mavericks imploded following the Irving trade and they ended up missing the playoffs entirely. However, this was not the fault of Irving. The Mavericks had many issues under the surface that led to their disastrous season, such as poor rebounding and defense. But for what was expected of Irving, he performed up to his standards and showed himself to be a worthy star teammate to Doncic. Talentwise, Irving is easily the best teammate that Doncic has had in his career so far. Nevertheless, they still need more than 16 games played together to be a more formidable duo.
Number Two: Kristaps Porzingis
In 2019, the New York Knicks traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two future first-round draft picks. Porzingis was considered Doncic’s first “big name” teammate, and Dallas was expecting to build around the two for the future.
During the 2020 season, Porzingis and Doncic were playing well together, with Porzingis averaging 20.4 and 9.5 rebounds. Porzingis complemented Doncic’s skill set nicely, as he was a 7-footer who could space the floor rather well. In the 2020 playoffs, Porzingis helped Doncic push the Clippers to a surprising six games in the First Round. Unfortunately, Porzingis also suffered a knee injury and a controversial ejection in Game 1 that derailed the potential for the Mavericks to upset the Clippers. Many people to this day believe that had Porzingis been present for the entire series, the Mavericks had a great chance to win the series.
In the 2021 season, Porzingis had a quality regular season, averaging 20 points per game again. However, Porzingis notably fell off hard in the playoffs, averaging just 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in a seven game series loss against the Clippers. By the start of the 2022 season, it was clear that Porzingis was unhappy with his role in Dallas, and he was traded at the deadline. Despite this, Porzingis was a quality teammate for Doncic, but his frequent injuries along with his declining play held him back from the duo achieving their full potential.
Number One: Jalen Brunson
Thus far, Brunson has been the best teammate that Doncic has had. At the start of his career, Brunson was just an average role player for the Mavericks who did not get a ton of playing time. That changed during the 2022 season, which saw Brunson elevate into the starting lineup and become the second best player on the team following the departure of Porzingis. Brunson averaged a solid 16.3 points for the duration of the season and helped the Mavericks reach the 4th seed.
During the playoffs, the Mavericks were in great danger of losing to the Jazz after Doncic got injured. However, Brunson put the team on his back and averaged 32 points in the absence of Doncic to take a 2-1 lead on the Jazz. Brunson continued to play well throughout the remainder of the playoffs and helped Doncic upset the Suns to advance to the Conference Finals. While they did lose to the Warriors and Brunson left in free agency, he was still the best teammate alongside Doncic for his contributions as a secondary scorer to take pressure off of Doncic, as well as his great performances in the 2022 playoffs that helped Doncic to have a deepest playoff run of his young career.
As Doncic continues to grow, he will likely get more teammates that will assist him in a title run and this list could dramatically change. For all we know, it could be next season. But up to this point, these are my picks for Doncic’s three best career teammates.
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- Source: https://thegamehaus.com/nba/ranking-doncics-three-best-career-teammates/2023/08/05/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ranking-doncics-three-best-career-teammates
