It’s easy to overlook what Luka Dončić is doing.
He’s so good it’s almost hard to see it.
He has been putting up video game numbers for so long that we’re almost inured to them in the same way our olfactory senses stop responding to a constant smell.
But Giannis Antetokounmpo slapped us out of our slumber following Dončić’s fourth 40-point performance in five days in the Lakers’ 138-117 win over the Heat on Monday.
“Obviously he’s one of the best scorers to ever play this game, if not the best,” Antetokounmpo said. “Not right now. Of all time. I feel like some people are scared to say that. But it’s got to be out there.”
Dončić has led the league in scoring twice and is on pace to do so a third time. He’s averaging a blistering 38.3 points per game, 8.3 points more than second-place Stephen Curry. Here are the points Dončić has put up in the last five games: 42, 45, 37, 41, 52.
Yet somehow we’ve never thought of Dončić as an all-time scorer.
That needs to change.
While Curry is the consensus greatest shooter ever, different players have been thrown into the conversation for all-time greatest scorer, including Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and even Kevin Durant, the latter of whom is a beacon of consistency but isn’t going to regularly explode for 50-plus points.
Dončić deserves to be in that club.
He has a career scoring average of 29.32 points, trailing only Jordan (30.12) and Chamberlain (30.07).
And Dončić is only 27 years old. He’s still in his prime. He’s only getting better.
Before JJ Redick became the Lakers’ coach in June 2024, he said Dončić “has the best brakes in the fu–king world” on his former podcast, “The Old Man & The Three.”
“What he does is there’s a constant change of pace,” Redick said. “He’s on-balance. He’s trying to get you off-balance. Once you’re off-balance, he’s still on-balance, he changes his pace.”
In layman’s terms: Dončić is impossible to guard.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra knows that all too well. When asked about defending Dončić ahead of Monday’s game, he pretty much intimated that it’s a fool’s errand.
“It’s not going to be two defenders on him or even three,” Spoelstra said. “You’re pretty much going to go through your entire roster.”
Dončić is an offensive wizard. He’s a savant. He makes scoring look easy. And it’s time for him to be considered among the all-time greats.
Against the Heat on Monday, Dončić had 24 points at halftime, becoming the first Laker to score at least 20 points in the first half in five straight games since Kobe Bryant in 2007.
He’s averaging a historical 1.07 points per minute. The only other player who surpassed 1.0 was Chamberlain, who averaged 1.04 points per minute in 1961-62.
And Dončić is scoring at an extremely efficient rate, averaging career highs in field-goal percentage (49.7) and 3-point percentage (42.7). He’s also third in the league in assists with eight per game. Heck, he’s even playing defense.
He’s having one of the best starts in NBA history, becoming the third player to score at least 225 points through his first six games, alongside Jordan (1985-86) and Chamberlain, who did it twice in 1961-62 and 1962-63.
Jordan led the league in scoring 10 seasons and is widely considered the greatest player of all time. Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game during the 1961-62 season and is the only player to score 100 points in a game.
The greatest scorer of all time is not an easy debate to enter. But in the modern NBA, does anyone compare to Dončić? And historically, Dončić is already etching his name into the record books.
What he’s doing is stunning.
Dončić belongs in a very elite club.
