Notorious Luka Doncic hater gives him backhanded compliment before 2024-25 season

Luka Doncic is one of the most loved players in Dallas Mavericks history, and he is just scratching the surface of the NBA.

Doncic has only played six seasons in Dallas but he has already proved that he is one of the greatest Mavericks ever along with Dirk Nowitzki. He is coming off the best season of his career as he was third in MVP voting and made the NBA Finals for the first time in his career, but he is no stranger to slack and criticism from the outside.

Doncic was flamed for his defense during the Finals and some have questioned his impact on winning due to his heliocentric playstyle.

Young offers Doncic a backhanded compliment before 2024-25 season

Former NBA wing Nick Young has been someone to flame Doncic in the past for different parts of his game and doesn't seem to be a big fan overall, but he recently made a statement about Doncic's game that may have seemed like a compliment but was backhanded.

Young started his statement by calling Doncic "a real hooper," but then proceeded to make different assumptions about him and how he handles himself off the court. He took digs at Doncic's diet, defense, and lifting, but complimented his offensive game and how he can nonchalantly go off at any time.

First off, Doncic's strength is one of the biggest things that makes him so hard to stop on offense. Doncic is a walking mismatch, and smaller players struggle to defend him because he'll just back them down. His scoring around the bucket is so excellent due to how strong he is, but some will immediately try to downplay this and say he's out of shape.

Doncic's diet and conditioning have been one of his biggest knocks since entering the league, but that doesn't seem like it is going to be a problem this year. He has been training hard in Slovenia before the start of training camp and he even hired a nutritionist before last season.

Doncic's defense is also much better than anyone realizes, but due to his struggles late in the playoffs due to injury, this is the biggest area of criticism for his game. He isn't a great defender by any means, but this season will be telling of how competitive he can be on that end for a full season. When Doncic is fully locked in, he can be solid.

On the other side of the ball, Young's take is somewhat correct. Doncic is a cold-blooded killer and makes the game look easy. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't put in the work to be as skilled as he is. Being one of the greatest basketball players in the world doesn't come without hard work, and his improvement as a shooter last season is a testament to that.

Doncic went from being a 34 percent 3-point shooter in the 2022-23 season to shooting 38 percent from downtown last season, and he had to have been grinding all summer long to get right. He also looked much more confident as a shooter off the catch, and this improvement helped make his game much more complete and fit better next to Kyrie Irving.

The haters will always be coming when you're as good as Doncic and an MVP or Finals win would silence all of this.