NBA superstar-turned-TNT-analyst Shaquille O’Neal has been known to fire off a hot take or two, but this spicy jalapeno popper of a take is an absolute scorcher. Take it away, Shaq.
To recap, Shaq is of the belief Dallas needs a star to pair with Luka Doncic (seven-footer Kristaps Porzingis apparently doesn’t cut the mustard). Fair enough. But here’s what the Twitter masses are losing their minds over. Did O’Neal really just say Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook are BOTH better than Luka Doncic? Where I come from, those are fightin’ words.
Shaq must not be aware that Doncic, who doesn’t turn 22 until later this month, was a first-team All-NBA selection and led the league in triple-doubles last season (17). Through 21 games this year, the Slovenian prodigy ranks sixth in scoring (27.2 points per game) and second in assists (9.6 dimes a game). In terms of sheer offensive skill, Doncic is right up there with Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and Kevin Durant as one of the most talented players in all of basketball.
Beal and Westbrook are fine players in their own right, but to say they’re on a higher tier than Doncic is laughable. Yes, Beal leads the league in scoring, but he wasn’t even an All-Star last year and his gaudy point totals of late have been inflated by ridiculous volume as the chief offensive force on a struggling Wizards team (5-13 record) that can’t seem to get out of its own way. To wit, Beal is averaging 25.6 shot attempts per game, four more than runner-up Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics (21.5). He’s also been a major liability defensively (not that Doncic is God’s gift to defense), ranking a dismal 447th out of 454 players in defensive RPM (real plus-minus).
However, that’s still better than Westbrook, who ranks dead-last in that category. That’s right—statistically speaking, Westbrook has been the NBA’s worst defender this season. He’s also been breathtakingly inefficient, ranking 115th in PER (player efficiency rating), a metric devised by analytics expert and former Memphis Grizzlies executive John Hollinger. That’s worse than Orlando Magic center Khem Birch (whose existence I was not aware of until I sat down to research this article), ex-G-Leaguer and undrafted Lipscomb University product Garrison Mathews and aging journeyman Al Horford, who shacks up in OKC these days. All of that is to say, despite averaging nearly a triple-double (20.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 9.5 assists per game), Westbrook has not been a particularly helpful presence in the Wizards’ lineup.
This could be another case of Shaq trying to “motivate” Doncic by publicly dismissing him on national television (much the same way he criticized Donovan Mitchell last month). If that was O’Neal’s end game, the ploy appears to be working as Doncic has been on fire for the Mavs tonight, contributing 23 points on sharp 7-of-12 shooting through two quarters against the visiting Warriors.
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