Luka Doncic picked up a pair of honors at today’s EuroLeague Awards Gala, relays Nicola Lupo of Sportando. The 19-year-old, who is expected to be taken early in next month’s NBA draft, was named both MVP and Rising Star. The MVP is determined by a vote of the media and fans, while the coaches choose the Rising Star.
Doncic, who became the youngest MVP in league history, put up a 14.5/5.2/4.7 line this year in helping Real Madrid reach the league final, which will be played tomorrow. He declared for the draft in March, but indicated this week that he might play another season or two in Europe, depending on the circumstances.
“It’s amazing. It’s like a dream come true,” Doncic said in a video tweeted by the EuroLeague. “Still we have one more game to go, which would make me so much happier. But thank you to all the media, all the fans and all the coaches. Especially to my coaches, my teammates and all my team. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible.”
The All-EuroLeague First Team is filled with names that are familiar to NBA fans, as Doncic is joined by Nick Calathes, Nando De Colo and Jan Vesely. Calathes spent two seasons with the Grizzlies, DeColo played for the Spurs and Raptors and Vesely played three NBA seasons after being drafted sixth overall by the Wizards in 2011.
The fifth member of the First Team is Tornike Shengelia, who was taken by the Sixers in the second round of the 2012 draft. His NBA career consisted of 36 games with the Nets and nine with the Bulls.
The Defensive Player of the Year is Kyle Hines, who played at North Carolina Greensboro and went undrafted in 2008.
The other “NBA” names on that list tell you everything you need to know about Doncic game. He’s playing in what I would equate to Top Notch college conference. He’s worthy of a top 20 NBA pick somewhere in the teens. Just my opinion.
Any team taking him in the top eight is going to be very very disappointed.
No disrespect to you but the consensus from the experts, professionals, you know….the ones drawing a salary because they have some sort of assessment skills, think he’s, at minimum, a top 3 selection. If you had said he’s not worthy of being a #1 or #2 but you felt he was at least a top 5 then I would say your opinion had merit. Yes, he can always be the next Darko Milicic, but I think he’s better than a top 20 talent.
Yes you’re totally 100% correct. But they’ve made mistakes before. Look up Jan vesely number 6 pick and out of the league in 3 years.
Is Doncic a good kid? Yes definitely. Is he better than Grayson Allen? Yeah maybe. Will he be similar to teodosic of the Clippers? Teo is 28 years old and had time to develop. We shall see.
Milos is 31. 3 disparaging comments already for 19 year old kid…
Not so much knocking the kid he’s a heck of a player, one of the best in the world. I’m knocking the guys that want to pick him number 2 overall
Who likes front offices anyway? And both the Suns and the Kings are among the worst. But i can’t see any better prospect than Luka right now. You can say that he is slow and he lacks of defensive instinct, but who doesn’t except Jaren Jackson and Mo Bamba? Ayton, Bagley, Porter and Young are awful defenders.
Draft night will be a lot of fun we’ll see how it plays out and see how these guys develop over the next two to five years.
Sometimes it takes a guy 10 years to become good. My Warriors picked Marco Belinelli number 17 -18 so and it wasn’t until recently that Marco became a very very good player on a playoff team. Juri Welsh didn’t fare so well also drafted 17 or 18 or so by my Warriors but he was out of the league in 3 or 4 years.
The international game is much different now. The guys today and the pool of talent is way better than even 10 years ago.
Oh yeah, draft night is the right night. I’ll leave here three low drafted international names with great value. Marc Gasol (48th pick), Giannis (15th pick), Jocker (41st pick). All stars? Honorable mentions, Dennis Schroder (17th pick), Goran Dragic (45th pick), Bogdan Bogdanovic (27th pick), Rudy Gobert (27th pick) and many more. I mean no GM wants to lose his sleep again ;>
Wow first team all-league !!
What an incredible accomplishment.
He’s an All-Star… um.., with Jan vesely and Nick Calathas. Oops.
Jan might not have made in the NBA but I guarantee you he would absolutely dominate if he was playing against NCAA competition.
Euroleague MVP is a huge accomplishment for a 19 year old, much more impressive than NCAA player of the year.
Jan Vesley nn American college would have looked a lot like Moritz Wagner, and I’ll go out on a limb and say Wagner is better at 19 then Vesley. I actually like Wagner and I think he should be rated a lot higher. I think he’s got toughness can hit the top of the key 3 has a good offensive feel. All the rankings I’ve seen have him in the 2nd round. Am I missing something on Wagner?
Automatic BUST cuz he plays for Real Madrid lmao
Automatic bust because they’re picking a real Madrid guy number 2. Pick him number 11 or 14 and everyone’s happy.
They gave him the award because he is a top 2 pick everybody who watched Euroleague knows shved deserved the MVP award. Kid isn’t going to be a bust but picking him before bomba, young, MPG, jjj etc is going to get a GM fired.
You feel that strong about Bomba? Is that purely off of his defensive value or do you think he will develop an offensive game? I think anyone picking him in the top 3 might be disappointed.
Yes I agree on bamba. He’s just not strong enough which not only hurts him on the offensive and but on defense as well. Length isn’t everything. Bamba is also someone I wouldn’t pick until the teens.
I never saw Bamba and I hate those highlight videos that are all just dunking. But if he’s like some other stretched-out centers recently he has no lateral movement which means no rebounding.
About Doncic, if Euros ever make it, and he’s the best, then he will probably make it. He would best go to a team that can build around him, but I bet he doesn’t like the town that drafts him.
Why no one ever gives credit to euro players? I really don’t know Doncic, though playing for Madrid is never a good sign. But look at Nowitzki is one of the very best players ever to play NBA, imho better than Duncan or C-Web, to mention a couple PF that played at the same time than him. Then there are the Gasol bros., Schrempf, Parker & so on… Also now there is Jokic, what this guy does is from another world, he can be a generational talent, absolutely amazing, & maybe you could count KP6, well maybe before the injury, in any case he never was at Jokic’s level & after injury who knows, but he really had great potential, you know euro guys can ball too.
Excellent points yes they can ball. Remember where most of those guys were drafted. Not number two. Phil was laughed at picking KP number four. He wound up being right and good for him and good for KP.
Most of the successful euros are big men. And you’ve mentioned that above. Aside from Tony Parker. Even Toni kukoc was 6-10.
I think this kid will be a fine player but wow I think it’s just a stretch to take him second overall… there’s so many talented big men available. And there’s no knock on this young man he seems humble great attitude and a benefit to any Walker room. It’s just my opinion that I wouldn’t take him in the top 10.
As a Knick fan, I can only hope that there are 8 GMs are as clueless as some posters here and actually believe Doncic isn’t a top 8 pick. Ayton’s physical gifts make it difficult to pass on him up at #1, but Doncic is the most complete perimeter player coming into the draft since LeBron. If Sacto has other ideas at #2, then some team should swoop in.
The Euro league he played in is not the NBA, but it’s much closer in level of play to the NBA than it is to that of any college conference.