Yes but he will be 32 and is not as good as Luka. Luka is doing this in his early 20's too. I expect Dame to do great next year. Just not Luka great.
Disagree on that take of being not as good. Dude carried this team every bit as much as the donkey has for Dallas.
It's not comparable. Sorry. Luka did it when Dame was still a baby in the league age wise. Same at that time had Aldridge too. Who did Luka have last year? How many All NBA first team nods does Dame have compared to Luka?
I think once everything is said and done, we'll sit back in awe of what Dame did in the bubble and the regular season games prior. He played 66 of 74 games that year. Scored 40+ eleven times! Scored 50+ six times! Scored 60+ three times! We're not gonna see this shit again from anyone else.
There are various awards for individual achievement. IMHO, the MVP award should go to the most important player on a successful team. As a great individual on a non-contender, Dame doesn't qualify. I'll be somewhat surprised if Luka does either.
The NBA is pretty inconsistent with how they view awards. All-Star selections for example, I do not believe should factor in the team record at all. It's supposed to be the biggest collection of stars for that season. Having role players make the team because they have the best record in the league is ridiculous.
Luka won games in the WCF at the age of 22....something Dame has yet to do by age 32. Luka has yet to have anyone as good as Aldridge or even CJ. On the court, edge to Luka. Much of Dame's "best Blazer ever", requires stuff off the court.
True but Dame never had a team as good as Clyde. I'd also contend that Luke benefits from being a freak for his size AND getting an insane amount of love from the refs.
That's 1 more than Dame, with a worse supporting cast at the age of 22. Luka > Dame unless he gets a career ending injury or something. He will be rated higher than Dame on the Top 100 list in 25 years.
I'm not arguing that Luka isn't better. He's 6'7, Dame is 6'2, and the basket is still 10' off the floor I just thought that using the gauge of WCF wins was kind of weird. And I don't agree, at all, that Dame had the better supporting cast. Luka had a much better balanced roster, especially for playoff basketball. The 6'6-6'9 wings of Dallas averaged 70 points a game (76 if you count Kleber). That's where offense needs to come from if you want playoff success. Blazers have sucked at wing except for the couple of seasons of Matthews and Batum. The last time Portland was in the playoffs, their 6'6-6'9 wings averaged 23 points, and 12 of that was Melo.
Cj Mccollum was better than anyone Luka had, even if the fit wasn't great. Kleber played center for them. That's how bad they were at center for the WCF. Enes Kanter or Meyers Leonard may have been their best big. Blazers used Hood and Harkless mostly, at the wings during their WCF run. Mixed in with Evan Turner and Aminu. Dallas had Dorian Finney Smith and Reggie Bullock. That's not an outrageous upgrade. Both teams had a big injury to their team in Nurkic and Hardaway Jr. The Warriors in 2022 may have been more talented in the WCF than in 2019 where they were missing Kevin Durant when they played us.
the fit was terrible and everybody knows that...."wasn't great"...haha. Getting run over by a bus isn't great either. and it was such a stupid terrible fit for so long that olshey decided the correction was to add a 6'3 SF to go with a 6'3 SG and a 6'7 PF. Great minds
