Dallas Basketball

Bulls' Vucevic Names Best European Starting 5; Mavs' Luka on List?

Chicago Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic was asked who he'd put in his 'best European starting five,' and Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic made the list.

Dalton Trigg

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The FIBA World Cup is about to get underway, and national teams are going through their final preparations before taking the court on Friday.

During a recent media session, Chicago Bulls and Montenegro big man Nikola Vucevic was presented with an interesting question: Who is in his starting five for active European players?

"[I'd probably put Luka Doncic at the point guard," Vucevic said. "Shooting guard, Bogdan Bogdanovic. At the three, I'd probably put Lauri Markkanen. [At the] four, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and five, Nikola Jokic."

There is a lot of mutual respect between all of those NBA players who also share the court in international play, and it was a nice tip of the hat from Vucevic to include Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic on his list without hesitation.

Vucevic has faced off against Doncic many times in his career, but his most recent match happened just two weeks ago, as Doncic put up a triple-double to power Slovenia past Montenegro, 104-100, in a friendly exhibition match. Doncic finished the game with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists, including some huge, clutch shots down the stretch of the fourth quarter.

"If I don't point him out, it looks like it's a normal thing," Slovenian national team coach Aleksander Sekulic said of Doncic. "It's not a normal thing what he does on the court. We took it for granted, but it's not. This is really a big thing, not only because he achieved it, but also because he makes his teammates better."

Slovenia and Montenegro aren't in the same group for the first round of play at the FIBA World Cup, but they could end up playing each other again at some points in the tournament. Slovenia is No. 8 in the pre-tournament power rankings, and Montenegro is No. 17.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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