Miami Heat: Why all five of these guys are key in neutralizing Luka Doncic

The Miami Heat will have their hands full on Friday as Luka Doncic brings his Mavericks to town. It will take an “all hands on deck” mentality to slow him.

As the Miami Heat get set to welcome the Dallas Mavericks to town on Friday evening, Coach Erik Spoelstra must be tossing and turning in his sleep. Not only does he have the last few horrible losses against Atlanta, then Cleveland, and Minnesota to keep him up at night, but on the backs of those defeats, he can look forward to Mavericks and Slovenian wunderkind Luka Doncic coming into the American Airlines Arena to play.

While that is a sick, cruel, and twisted joke towards any coach’s defensive gameplan, it is indeed also a reality for Spo. When thinking about that defensive gameplan though, the one that Spo and Co. have surely concocted to try and slow Cool Hand Luka down, what does it entail? While the intricate details may be somewhat hard to imagine or estimate, it should most certainly include prominent roles for at least five guys on the Heat’s roster.

Luka Doncic is a point guard in a small forward’s body, meaning he has the size, girth, and a bit of a caboose to hold off defenders. He is not only adept as a scorer (28.7 ppg average this season) but his best attribute might actually be his distribution capabilities (8.7 assists per this season), while his shooting, in general, is above average as well (32.3 percent from deep).

It is for these reasons, his versatility, his ability to win in a myriad of ways, the fact that he has the ball a ton, and the fact that he can operate from just about anywhere on the floor, that he will see a ton of different Miami Heat bodies thrown at him. These bodies will include Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala, Jimmy Butler, Derrick Jones Jr., and Bam Adebayo.