Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is one of the greatest players in the NBA right now. After posting historical numbers in the 2023-24 season and leading his team to the NBA Finals, just about everyone agrees he’s one of the two or three best players in the league. But not everyone.
Michael Cooper, a Hall of Famer who won five championships and a Defensive Player of the Year with the Los Angeles Lakers, hosts a podcast and does the classic Start, Bench, Cut game on his most recent episode. The three players he was choosing between included two Mavericks stars: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard. If you thought he’d start Doncic, as most people would, you thought wrong.
Cooper started Lillard, benched Doncic, and cut Irving. His reasoning? He thinks Doncic is lazy on defense. “Luka gives you that triple-double almost any night, but he’s too slow for me. If he wasn’t a scorer, I would cut him. He can score, you gotta give the guy credit, but to me, he’s lazy. Doesn’t hustle back on defense.”
He started Lillard because he values speed and athleticism, but cut Irving because he and Lillard are similar players. This is a horrendous take no matter which way you spin it.
Cooper’s co-host correctly started Luka Doncic, benched Kyrie Irving, and cut Damian Lillard. When you look at last year’s statistics, it’s a no-brainer. Doncic isn’t a great defender but Lillard is historically one of the worst in the NBA.
In the 2023-24 season when comparing Doncic and Lillard only on the defensive end, Doncic had more blocks, more steals, a better defensive rating, more defensive win shares, and a higher defensive box plus/minus. There is not a single defensive metric that favors Lillard over Doncic.
The same goes for Kyrie Irving. While the defensive analytics are closer between Irving and Lillard, every category still favors Irving. Pair that with better offense on better efficiency for Irving, Lillard was clearly the worst player of the three last season.