Gary Payton believes Luka Doncic must do some serious reflection if he wants to become a better defensive player.
Luka Doncic is, without a doubt, one of the most impressive offensive players in the NBA today. The Los Angeles Lakers guard is nearly unstoppable.
But there is one glaring weakness to his game – his defense. As good as Doncic is on the offensive end, he is just as poor on the defensive end, if not more so.
Doncic picked up basketball at a very young age, so in theory, his fundamentals should be strong on both ends. But after all these years of playing professionally, Luka still isn’t up to the mark as a defender.
What does he need to change in his game? Gary Payton, arguably the greatest defensive point guard in NBA history, gave quite an interesting answer.
Speaking at the BudXNBA House press conference in Mumbai, Gary Payton explained what Luka Doncic can do to become a better defender.
The Glove believes that Doncic cannot improve at all without putting in the effort. He must be motivated and want to improve, so that he can prove people wrong and become an excellent defender.
“Like I said, today is different from when I played because I could put my hands on them and hand-check. We’ll talk about Luka. You have to be dedicated to playing defense.”
“Maybe it’s not good for him; he’s a scorer. If he puts his mind to it, I tell every kid that I do camps with, it’s a mindset to play defense. You can’t just want to play defense because it’s a mindset.”
“You have to have great hands and feet to do that. You have to be able to move. It takes sacrifice to do that. That’s just the way it goes. I don’t think Luka is a defensive player; he’s a scorer. But now. If he wants to, yes.”
“But does he want to do it? That’s up to him, not up to us. He’s an athlete. He’s got great ability, but now does he want to go change it and prove people wrong that he can play defense. If I were him…”
Luka Doncic had a defensive rating of 111.6 last season. It was a slight improvement on his 2024 defensive rating of 112.5, but still shy of his career-best 106.5 rating from the 2021-22 season.
Ultimately, Luka Doncic’s defensive performance is tied to his fitness and weight management. If he is lighter and better conditioned, he will play better.
Perhaps this is why fans were thrilled to see Doncic looking leaner at a Real Madrid game. But not everyone seems to agree about the correlation between Doncic’s fitness and his defense.
Paul Pierce, a former teammate of Gary Payton, had earlier raised similar points and claimed Doncic must be motivated to play defense, and not simply get in better shape.
Luka Doncic has the whole summer to prepare himself. Perhaps he can try playing some intense defense for the Slovenian national team at the upcoming EuroBasket tournament.
