Let’s take a journey back in time a little bit. Back when Nico Harrison’s true intentions with Luka Doncic’s exit were revealed, the world went bonkers. Yes, he might have his weight problems. Yes, he might have his attitude problems. But did that stop him from being a future top-20 player? No. And the transpiring events for the Mavericks and Lakers both have been evidence of that. There were a billion different ways to handle his situation. But Clippers legend Blake Griffin knows the correct one.

“When you’re a guy like Luka, he can just be like, I’m good. I’m not going to talk to your assessment people. I mean, he would talk to them, but he could just be like, no. From a distance. Yeah, I’m OK,” said the former Clippers and Celtics forward. He knows the happenings from the inside, and his experience speaks for itself. You don’t have to follow the status quo to reach unexpected heights. Blake himself knows of a few exceptions to that case. “I had a teammate who like never touched weights and he played for a long, long time. And he’s really, really good. And like some guys don’t, some guys do, and like the team has to kind of figure out how to like, best work with the guys’ preferences or routines.”

But there’s no guarantee it will work out. There’s an equal chance his habits of drinking beers and smoking hookas turn out for the worse. That’s just a chance that Nico didn’t wanna take. But now that Lakers GM Rob Pelinka has decided to take a shot at it, Griffin advices him on exactly how to deal with it.

“Then you have a talk… We need to have you do this, or you need to be in better shape, or you need to get more work in here, like that. And so that’s what I mean when you’re a GM, you use kind of all those services that teams provide… And if Luka comes to the Lakers and they’re like, all right, we’d like to get him at this body fat percentage, or we’d like to get him- his cardio a little bit better, they could try.” But there’s an adverse effect to milking that horse.

The NBA season is gruelling. For someone like Luka Doncic, he’ll be aiming to play all 82 season games, and then the playoffs too. Overworking him will only 360 the whole situation. “So maybe in the off season they put together a program, maybe they send a guy out with them when he goes back home, something like that. But in the season, like, guy is playing 38 minutes a night, you want them to get extra cardio in on the off days? It’s not realistic. And it’s also not really reasonable for his game as well,” said Blake.

Maybe Nico’s hindsight should’ve been better. Nikola Jokic is the prime example of a player who’s not the fittest, but still sets the world on fire with his game. And a little bit of persistence and loyalty could’ve brought the Mavs championship success with the Don as the spearhead.

Nikola Jokic is what Luka Doncic would’ve been if not for Nico Harrison’s impulse

Nikola Jokic is one of the first names you’ll hear if you start following the NBA today. He’s what you’d call exhibit A of ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. He might look like a Scandinavian oaf from the outside, or as he likes to call it, ‘fat boy’. But on the court, he might be one of the unique all round players to ever take the stage. And Blake Griffin learned this the hard way.

“For Jokic, like when Jokic came in, to now or like especially like championship season, like he’s in good shape. But he doesn’t have the kind of body that looks like he’s in shape. But you can tell as someone who’s had to guard him or been guarded by him like one of these things like where you’re out of breath and you’re like, he’s in pretty good shape. Oh no guys, you guys are actually all wrong. This guy’s running circles around me,” said Blake on From the Blocks Podcast with Neal Brennan.

Most of the league wonders daily if Jokic should look for a team that can cement his legendary status, much like Luka Doncic. But his loyalty speaks for itself. Denver stuck by him, and now they’re flying. Maybe not like their mile-high status in their 2023 championship-winning run. But the Joker’s living proof that patience is key, and that key can unlock you championship success.

You never really know what could’ve happened if Luka stayed in Dallas. It might’ve been more than just the weight concerns that were made public. We know how secretive Nico Harrison is. But now that he’s at the Lakers, Blake Griffin has given Rob Pelinka the perfect recipe to turn the Don into a Nikola Jokic 2.0.