Luka Doncic made his Los Angeles Lakers debut tonight in their victory against the Utah Jazz. He managed to get 14 points on the board, which, as you know, is nowhere close to his usual numbers. However, he did impress reporter Mike Bresnahan. So much so that he ended up firing shots at a beloved NFL star while praising Doncic. Let me explain.

Tonight, Luka, in a somewhat limited display, showed us a glimpse of what the Lakers’ future may look like. He made a couple of beautiful passes to help his teammates score. One of these plays came off a defensive rebound which fell to Luka. Without missing a beat, he found LeBron James on the other side of the court, who was never going to miss such an easy layup.

The entire sequence just showed Luka’s basketball IQ, and Bresnahan couldn’t help but show his appreciation. But maybe he went a little too far in his praise. “Luka got the rebound, found LeBron all the way down at the end of the court. That’s another thing to look for – both these guys like to take the defensive rebound and immediately look downcourt. Like they’re [Patrick] Mahomes. Oops, Jalen Hurts,” Bresnahan cheekily remarked.

Bresnahan obviously made this “correction” because Jalen Hurts’ Philadelphia Eagles beat Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in the Super Bowl last weekend. With many questioning Mahomes’ top-dog status in the NFL after this loss, these comments from Bresnahan will only serve as an insult to injury for the star quarterback.

Although … Patrick Mahomes will have bigger things on his plate to worry about, so we doubt he’ll lose too much sleep over these comments.

But coming back to Doncic, he did look good tonight, especially for a player back after weeks of inactivity. And passes like the one to LeBron are his bread and butter. However, his teammates, except the ‘King,’ looked a little lost when receiving Doncic’s iconic no-look passes. Why, though?

The Lakers head coach had some thoughts on the matter.

JJ Redick is “sure” that the Lakers squad will adapt to Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic aka ‘Luka Magic’ has his own way of playing the game of basketball. He doesn’t really care for traditional offense as his passes, chock-full of flair, end up confusing defenders to no end. However, the same happens to his teammates when they’re not accustomed to receiving such passes. And this is exactly what happened during Luka’s debut tonight.

Even though his passing wasn’t the best tonight, it was still abundantly clear that some of his teammates simply couldn’t keep up. And coach Redick addressed it in the post-game presser. “Some of them [passes] weren’t on target, let’s be clear on that…Rui had one in the second half that he bobbled, and I said to him at the time, ‘You just got to be ready.’ And he’s like, ‘I know, I know, I’m just not used to it’,” revealed JJ.

The Lakers head coach continued, “I think with our three guys who are going to be our primary creators, they all did it really well, and I think our guys will get accustomed to the Luka passes for sure.” So there we have it! JJ Redick is confident that it won’t be long before his squad gets accustomed to the next face of the franchise. 

Redick’s honesty in his assessment of Luka’s performance is exactly what he needs to gel with the Lakers team. There’s a learning curve when it comes to playing with Luka Doncic. That much is clear! And fans of the Purple and Gold will hope their team manages to work out these kinks before the playoffs are upon us.