Luka Doncic has already addressed his weight, but his style of play is still apparently offensive to some.
Former NBA head coach Sam Mitchell appeared Friday on SiriusXM NBA Radio. During the appearance, Mitchell went in on the Los Angeles Lakers star Doncic over his supposedly one-dimensional play on the court.
“Luka Doncic cannot play basketball without the ball,” said Mitchell. “He don’t cut, he don’t move, he don’t set screens. He’s great with the ball. He does nothing to make his teammates better when he doesn’t have the ball.”
Mitchell also contrasted Doncic’s style with that of Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, a player who is known as an all-time great when it comes to (among other things) moving without the basketball. You can listen to Mitchell’s full remarks here.
"They don’t want to do the hard things"@SamMitchellNBA tells @GeraldBlss why he's so critical of the Lakers' big 3. pic.twitter.com/SXn21KodJA
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) December 26, 2025
Now 62, Mitchell was the NBA Coach of the Year with the Toronto Raptors in 2007 and spent six total seasons as a head coach. But while Mitchell hasn’t coached in the league since 2016, he does raise a fair point with Doncic here.
Doncic leads all qualified players in usage rate this season at a whopping 36.7 percent (even with Austin Reaves and LeBron James on his team). When Doncic doesn’t have the ball on offense though, he indeed usually spends his time as a passive observer rather than as an active off-ball fulcrum.
Of course, the easy counterargument is that Doncic is one of the very best players on the planet with the ball in his hands and should focus his attention on doing what he does best, even if that means taking it easy and conserving his energy whenever he finds himself off the ball. But with the Lakers now having lost three straight games and getting angry rants from coach JJ Redick, perhaps something needs to change with the team’s offensive identity.
