The NBA season is just about two months away from beginning, meaning players are still fully enjoying their summer vacations. One player, Dillon Brooks of the Phoenix Suns, has used his summer to talk regularly about Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s already commented on the new-look roster around Doncic, and now is focusing on the Lakers star directly.
Brooks made a video appearance for the NBA’s 2K League, where he was asked a variety of questions. One of them was naming his opinion on the top three foul baiters in the NBA. Of course, he felt compelled to name-drop Doncic, along with a couple others:
Brooks begins the video by immediately naming Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. His inclusion on the list is a given, as the narrative around him has fully been about his foul-baiting efforts. However, he quickly drops Gilgeous-Alexander to the No. 2 spot when he remembers about Doncic.
He says Doncic, then quickly says that he’s actually the worst in the league at it. Of course, Doncic can do the foul-baiting game like every other superstar, but it’s hard to take Brooks’ take seriously when looking at the head-to-head data between the two players.
Doncic and Brooks have played against one another 12 times in the regular season and never in the playoffs. Doncic is 9-3 in those meetings, averaging 29.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists. The kicker is that Doncic has shot ten or more free throws exactly one time in those 12 games.
Brooks then mentions Trae Young before ultimately agreeing Joel Embiid belongs in the third spot.
Michael Cooper compares Luka Doncic to Larry Bird
Lakers great Michael Cooper spoke about Doncic and the type of player he reminds him of. He went back to the Showtime era of Lakers basketball to think of a player, comparing him to the Boston Celtics legend and all-time great, Larry Bird.
“I think a Larry Bird type of player,” Cooper said on Sports Illustrated. “Not going to jump real high, not going to be real fast, but knows how to play the game and knows how to score. And I think those are probably a good similarity. I think Larry, well, they’re both pretty good rebounders, and they both make others around. Yeah, I would say Larry Bird.”
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
