Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is one of the most ball-dominant players in entire league. He has one of the NBA’s highest usage percentages this season at 37.1 percent.
His team relies on him for so many things, and Miami Heat wing Max Strus recently explained why that might make it hard for some people to play with Doncic.
“I just think Luka just has the ball in his hands the whole time, and it’s tougher for guys to get in a rhythm, get in a flow,” said Strus while appearing on the “Road Trippin'” podcast alongside Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Allie Clifton. “But as a teammate and being on his team, I think to take a team to a championship, it’s tougher to get in a rhythm and a flow as a teammate of Luka’s.”
While Doncic does have the ball in his hands most of the time for the Mavericks, he does a good job of facilitating the rock. He’s averaging 8.6 assists per game alongside the 33.4 points per contest he’s currently putting up.
The three-time All-Star and the Mavericks have gone through plenty of ups and downs early on in the season. They currently have an 11-11 record, good enough for 10th place in the Western Conference.
As for Strus and the Heat, they are 11-12 and in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. Strus is having a decent individual season so far. After getting tons of run as a starter, he returned to a reserve role for the Heat’s win on Friday against the Boston Celtics.
The 26-year-old is averaging 15.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest on 42.6 percent shooting from the field and 35.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Curiously enough, he had one of his worst games of the season on Friday. It was his first game off the bench since the Heat’s Nov. 1 home win against the Golden Warriors.
Strus likely isn’t worried about whether or not he starts games and is probably more focused on helping the Heat climb the standings. His next chance to do that will come on Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies as the Heat finish their current road trip.
Miami won’t face off against Dallas until Jan. 20. Maybe Doncic and Strus will engage in some friendly trash talk in that matchup.