Dallas Mavericks: Luka is outplaying his competition every night

The Dallas Mavericks are looking really good over the past few weeks and a lot of that can be attributed to rookie sensation, Luka Doncic. Just how good has Luka been this year?

Luka Doncic has been nothing short of fascinating night in and night out for the Dallas Mavericks. Aside from leading the team in scoring so far this season, he is also leading all rookies in scoring with 19.1 points per game. He is currently 4th among rookies in rebounds and 2nd in assists.

Luka has not just been outplaying the other rookies in the league, though. He has also been outplaying his opponents almost every single night. Despite being surrounded by talented defensive wings in Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes, Luka hasn’t always found himself in an easy matchup, but he has made the most of it.

Here is a list of the opponents the Mavs have seen so far this season: Phoenix, Minnesota, Chicago (x2), Atlanta, Toronto, Utah (x3), San Antonio, Los Angeles Lakers, New York, Washington, Oklahoma City, Golden State, Memphis, Brooklyn and Boston.

This puts Luka’s matchups likely as: Ryan Anderson (PHX), Josh Okogie (MIN), Justin Holiday (CHI), Vince Carter (ATL), Danny Green (TOR), Joe Ingles (UTA), Rudy Gay (SAS), Kyle Kuzma (LAL), Damyean Dotson (NYK), Markieff Morris (WAS), Terrance Ferguson (OKC), Jonas Jerebko (GSW), Kyle Anderson (MEM), Jared Dudley (BKN) and Marcus Morris (BOS).

In my mind, Luka outplayed his opposition in each of these games, except maybe Kuzma in LA. 18 games into his NBA career, it is pretty amazing that he is playing as well as or better than a number of NBA veterans and solid players around the league.

So what can make this season even better for Luka Doncic? Well, for starters, I think we will see more consistency as we move forward in the season. Luka is getting more comfortable in his role with the Mavs as time goes by, which we have seen from some improved assist numbers and some definitely improving turnover numbers.

I also think the team is learning to trust him more and more too. He is getting important looks in big moments of these close games which he has taken advantage of by leading the team in clutch scoring so far this year. That is probably going to continue to improve.

I am a big fan of Luka Doncic so far. He has been a great asset for this team and is going to be a key franchise player going forward. Some of these teams are already learning what they missed out on.