Luka Doncic is too busy winning championships for your silly NBA Draft workouts

Matt Ellentuck has a great piece questioning whether Luka Doncic’s draft stock has slipped simply because he’s not in the United States meeting with teams and working out for them.

Doncic is busy, you know, winning championships right now. Sorry he can’t come post up a folding chair and do a shooting workout.

Consider Doncic’s accomplishments. Last summer, he helped lead Slovenia to the EuroBasket championship, making the all-tournament team at the age of 18. This season he won EuroLeague MVP, EuroLeague Final Four MVP, EuroLeague Player of the Week four times, first-team All-League, EuroLeague Player of the Month once, and the EuroLeague Rising Star award as he led his team to championship.

Right now, he’s leading Real Madrid in the finals of the Spanish ACB, having won MVP in that league, too. Real can clinch the title on Tuesday, which would give Doncic just enough time to get to New York for Thursday’s NBA Draft.

He’s literally too busy winning championships to do the typical boring NBA Draft workout circuit. That’s a hint, people! Pick him!

Welcome to the club

I wrote about the totality of the summer coaching carousel, particularly about how all of the nine new head coaches hired in the offseason came from a very particular pool: former NBA head coaches or NBA assistant coaches. There were no “outsider” hires this year from college, Europe, TV, or front offices.

Many would celebrate this. Many more will shrug. This is the norm as it tends to exist, which makes the “outsider” candidates “outsiders.” It’s especially interesting to see so many coaches who were head coaches last year end up as head coaches on new teams this year. One franchise’s trash is another’s treasure, I suppose.

With so many changes, we could possibly have a stable season — there aren’t many candidates for in-season turnover heading into next year. There is always the chance for a shocker bad team to make a move, or for someone disappointing to cut bait. But heavy turnover in the summer usually stabilizes the market for the next regular season. We’ll see.

Links galore

Puma signed Deandre Ayton, too! And hired Jay-Z! [Kenny Smith voice] Puma is back!

The NBA is auctioning off J.R. Smith’s jersey from Game 1. Someone in Cleveland needs to buy it and burn it, just to be safe.

Shams Charania talked to Doncic about his NBA future.

A beautiful REWINDER episode tracing the factors that went into Ray Allen’s famous title-winning corner three.

Is Devin Booker the best young shooting guard in the NBA?

There’s an arrest warrant for Enes Kanter’s father in Turkey, where he’s been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Enes believes the sentence came down as a result of Enes’ own opposition to the Turkish government.

Warriors fans break down Kevin Durant’s admission that he’s not obsessed with winning championships.

Mirin Fader on Nate Robinson’s career and future.

Great look from Bill Oram at what happened for Brandon Ingram after he became a late-season sensation for the Lakers.

The Phoenix Mercury are on fire! (Get it?)

Rudy Gay is opting out to become a free agent.

The Raptors are reportedly trying hard to land a top-10 pick, apparently for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Kofie Yeboah explains why basketball video games have such trouble with passing.

Bomani and Pablo on the 6’10 12-year-old from France.

And finally: Meet Deandre Ayton’s personality characters, brought to you by ... the Green Goblin?

Be excellent to each other.