How Mavericks can learn from Luka Doncic’s success with Slovenia at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

While that wasn’t the finish Luka Doncic and Slovenia wanted at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing fourth in the country’s very first appearance in basketball is nothing to worry about. For two weeks, Slovenia continued to surprise everyone with one victory over Argentina, another over Spain and ended up with the opportunity to win a bronze medal after fall against France in the semi-final in the last few seconds. As each match went by, Doncic’s performance was nothing but astonishing, yet again echoing what makes him so special.

Slovenia also showed what a team best suited to Doncic’s skills can look like, which the Dallas Mavericks should certainly take note of. While the overall talent level of the Slovenian national team does not match that of the Mavericks, the approach to Olympic roster building has yielded better to Doncic’s abilities than what we have seen the Mavericks do so far. present during his three-year career. Simply put: Surround Doncic with enough consistent shooters and a few other guys who can handle the ball and watch what happens.

Every game Slovenia played there were countless possessions of Doncic attacking the rim only to then return a pass to a shooter in the corner or back down the wing for an open 3 point. It’s something we’ve seen him do countless times in Dallas, but instead of Dorian Finney-Smith standing in the corner, who shot 39.4 percent from deep last season, it was Vlatko Cancar who pierced 3s at a clip of 48%. Finney-Smith actually had the best shooting season of his career last year, but when you put him side by side with the numbers from Cancar, or anyone else in the Slovenian squad, then it just seems average.

Here’s a breakdown of Slovenia’s 3-point shots throughout the Olympics:

I had the impression that every time Slovenia tried a 3 points, they came back. Compared to the Mavericks last season, they only had one shooter attempting three or more 3s in a game that shot over 40 percent from depth: Maxi Kleber (41 percent). Dallas attempted the sixth-most 3s in the league last season (38 per game), but was ranked 18th in the league in 3-point percentage (36.2%).

The way Dallas uses Doncic compared to how Slovenia uses it isn’t much different – space the floor, set up screens, and allow Doncic to create magic by scoring or passing. The difference, however, is that Slovenia was better equipped to succeed in the Olympics. Slovenia had three infallible shooters who were going to take down a 3 with a sufficiently consistent clip, as the Mavericks’ most reliable shooter last season was Tim Hardaway Jr., and even he can be really dazzling.

So far in free agency, the Mavericks have somewhat met the need for more shooters, after agreeing to a three-year, $ 30 million contract with Reggie Bullock, who shot 41 percent from deep the last season and is a career 3-point shooter at 39.2%. . They also came out and got Sterling Brown, who shot 42.3% on a modest Houston Rockets team last season, and Dallas is counting on him to replicate that success, instead of the 32.4% he shot. in Milwaukee the previous season. This comes in addition to the re-signing of Hardaway Jr., who was arguably the Mavs’ second-best player in the playoffs and earned the sixth man of the year buzz for his game off the bench.

If these three guys can shoot consistently from the depths, it’ll solve a major problem Dallas had last season. It will also ensure that more of Doncic’s great passes are not empty and are generated in addition to assists. Last season, Doncic placed fifth in the league in potential assists per game (16.3). He already averaged 8.6 assists per game last season, but that number could easily be double digits if the guys reverse shots when Doncic puts them in position for good, if not great looks.

Getting consistent shooters to surround Doncic is the easiest part, but the part Dallas didn’t quite get is getting a secondary ball handler, or just guys with better grips to put alongside. Doncic in the starting lineup. It wasn’t that Slovenia had Doncic sharing the ball handling duties with someone else, but rather there were several guys who were able to get their own shot or find the player open for a bucket. .

The same can’t be said for the Mavericks roster, who struggled to find anyone outside of Doncic to be adequate plan makers last season. Hardaway and Jalen Brunson were perhaps the best at doing it, but Hardaway has a knack for losing control at times, resulting in turnovers, and Brunson isn’t always consistent. Everyone else, like Finney-Smith, Kleber, and Kristaps Porzingis, are primarily used as catch-and-shoot players as none of them have good ball-handling skills that justify them even dribbling the ball. ball when they get a pass.

But Slovenia showed Dallas that a secondary ball player might not be the end. Unless a deal for Goran Dragic is made for Dallas, it will be Year 3 for the Mavericks unable to find a suitable secondary playmaker to put next to Doncic. Instead, maybe Dallas should focus on getting enough guys around who not only can be wrestling and shoot players, but who, when needed, could get their own shot as well. . Slovenia had guys like Klemen Prepelic, Vlatko Cancar and Zoran Dragic who could reach the edge, and someone like Mike Tobey who could score inside and drop 3. When Doncic went to the bench, Slovenia didn’t give up on advances like the Mavericks so often did last season. They were able not only to keep leads, but to add more.

Prepelic was more than capable of leading the offense for Slovenia when Doncic was on the bench. Dragic could turn the ball up, take two dribbles and score a 3 in a row to put pressure on Germany in the dying minutes of a game. Cancar could come to the edge for a bucket if needed. Dallas doesn’t have enough players like that, and by limiting their players to standing in the corner without any movement on the ground, it creates an incredibly predictable attack around Doncic.

We’ve seen what the Dallas offense looks like when Doncic is the driving force behind it all, and in years running that’s resulted in first-round outings of the playoffs. It is not viable for Doncic to have a 35% utilization percentage, which placed second in the league last year, while not getting the help it needs to generate wins in regular season and playoffs.

Although Slovenia didn’t finish the Olympics with a medal, their national team gave Mark Cuban, Nico Harrison and the rest of the Dallas front office some advice on how to be successful with Doncic. Now it’s up to the Mavericks to take this blueprint and use it wisely.