Defense wins championships. Those were the words uttered by Nico Harrison following the completion of the Luka Doncic trade. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar took that one personally, and was ready to rewrite the tired narratives around his supposed troubles on that end of the court.
Doncic has never quite been the defensive liability that media narratives have painted him as. No one would mistake him for an elite perimeter stopper, but at his best, the superstar point guard has been an average to above average player on that end.
The Dallas Mavericks still managed to have a defensive rating of 110.