Anze Macek, the kinesiologist who has been working with Doncic for the past two years, gave some insight about the regime change the Slovenian wunderkind took this offseason.
“Shortly after the end of the season, he contacted me and said that he wanted to start fitness training immediately. Together with Goran Dragic, they worked for three weeks,” Macek told SportKlub Slovenija. “The national team action followed. When he went on vacation, he asked me for a work plan.”
“He remains active,” he said. “I am in contact with him almost on a daily basis. He keeps his shape. He will improve everything during the national team practices where he will prepare with maximum effort.”
The comments about his body have no real impact on Luka, Macek says. On the contrary, they drive him forward, the Slovenian team fitness coach is certain.
Live look at an in-shape Luka Doncic:
Ask anyone on the planet who the best age 25 and under player is currently in the NBA, you’re going to get one answer.
Luka Doncic.
That’s not even remotely a hot take in my opinion. He’s incredible. From the very second he stepped foot on an NBA floor, he dominated everyone in his path. You could go the box score/stat production route
You could go the route of the fact that he has 3 All Star appearances and 3 All NBA First Team appearances in his first 4 seasons. Or maybe you prefer the eye test
What’s crazy about everything Luka has done to start his career is the fact that he’s pretty much never been in shape. I think that’s why watching him is so fun. He looks like a regular dude, only you legitimately can’t stop him. He’s a little doughy, his face and body gets super red whenever he runs and every summer we get more pictures of him relaxing and partying than we do of him in the gym. Each season people get on him for not being in shape and talk about how if he wants to take another leap (especially defensively) he has to get his body right.
So, if we’re to believe these reports that has now finally happened. Do you know how terrifying that is? An in shape Luka? What does an even more dominant Luka even look like? My guess is someone who will have the legs late in games to improve his three point shooting. That’s maybe one area where you could say Luka needs to keep growing. He’s a career 33.7% three point shooter but did shoot 35% in each of the last two seasons. If that number gets up to let’s say 38% or 39% because now he’s in shape? He’s going to have a scoring title. Mark my words. I also don’t think you should underestimate what literally any type of improvement on the defensive end will do not just for Luka, but the Mavs as a team. Given how much of the offensive load he has to carry, I imagine that’s pretty tiring. As a result, he sort of doesn’t really give a shit about defense. I imagine being in better shape will help him on that end which is what every Mavs fan should be praying for right now.
The good news is we’ll be able to get a look at this new and improved slimmed down Luka during the EuroBasket 2022 which is slated to start in early September. Slovenia will play Lithuania (Domantas Sabonis/Jonas Valanciunas) on September 1st which is less than a month away. Knowing how dominant Luka has been as a guy who is maybe not in the best shape, I can only imagine what this new version will look like.
Probably pretty decent if I had to guess.