Colin Cowherd: Mavs’ ‘Luka Doncic is ‘A Little Carmelo Anthony!’ Our Problem With Hot Take

FS1's Colin Cowherd recently sounded off on how Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic reminds him of an early-day Carmelo Anthony, but there is a key attribute that puts a halt to that comparison.

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is a transcendent talent who has taken many parts of other stars' games and added it to his. LeBron James, James Harden and Dirk Nowitzki are the biggest three who instantly come to mind, but there are many others Doncic has studied throughout the years in order to enhance his already-spectacular God-given abilities.

On Monday, another comparison got thrown into the mix, courtesy of FS1's Colin Cowherd. During an episode of The Herd, Cowherd compared Doncic's game to an early-day Carmelo Anthony. Here was his explanation.

"I think Luka is becoming a little Carmelo Anthony, and let me compare the two. ... They're immediately great scorers [early in their careers], and they have some really nice team success early," Cowherd said.

Is Luka Doncic becoming Carmelo Anthony?

"He's not in great shape, not committed on the defensive end. He's kind of prickly and he's got his way." — @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/oKeCSvOZu2

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) April 10, 2023

"[They] don't get along with everybody, but they score. In the NBA that means you're worshiped. Their offensive games are very refined, very early, very mature. But then after like four years in the league, you do realize that Melo and Luka are never in great shape, won't play any defense, and they're kind of stuck in their ways. Both get very prickly – Carmelo and Luka – when you suggest they should evolve their games a little. But Luka does that high-screen, ball-centric, 'it's my ball, you can watch me play' offense. He's not changing."

If you want to compare Doncic and Anthony's overall scoring abilities, that's fine, but that's pretty much where the comparisons end. Doncic's overall game is much closer to LeBron James than it is to Anthony, and that's mainly due to his otherworldly passing ability.

In Anthony's 19 seasons, the most assists he averaged per game was 4.2 in 2015-16 with the New York Knicks, and he averaged just 2.7 assists in his career overall. By comparison, Doncic has averaged at least eight assists per game for each of the last four seasons, and those numbers would be even higher if the Mavs had done a better job building the roster around him over the last few years.

Anthony has a career assist total of 3,422 in nearly two decades of playing in the NBA. Doncic already has 2,631 through five season, and is likely to pass up Anthony in that career category halfway through his seventh season.

Also, when Cowherd says Doncic, is "prickly" when people suggest he should evolve his game ... what exactly is he referring to? Doncic has always accepted responsibility for his shortcomings, and although his game hasn't changed much, if any, in these last five years, that's mostly due to the inconsistency of the pieces around him more than it is him refusing to change.

If you think Doncic wants to wear himself out night in and night out by scoring 30+ points every game, go back to that first week when the Mavs traded for Kyrie Irving before this season's deadline. The guy simply couldn't stop smiling, because he knew he finally had some elite help on the offensive end to lessen the burden on his shoulders.

Albeit, that offensive help didn't do much for this year's Mavs squad because the overall defense was atrocious ... but again ... that has more to do with how the roster is constructed more than it is something Doncic is doing wrong. It's up to owner Mark Cuban and GM Nico Harrison to fill in the gaps around him to maximize his ability to share the ball.

Anthony is one of the best scorers in NBA history, but he was a much more selfish player than Doncic is, and for Cowherd to compare the two in that regard tells me a lot of these national media talking heads haven't actually watched many Mavs games. And to be fair, they didn't have many good reasons to watch this season.

The narrative that Doncic is a selfish basketball player is dumb. You don't average nearly 10 assists per game for four straight seasons being selfish. The narrative that Doncic will never change his heliocentric style of play is also dumb, in my opinion, because we haven't seen him play with a complete roster yet. 

Doncic wants to share the ball. He wants to trust his teammates. He wants to have less of a burden on his shoulders so he can retain more energy to close out games strong. But when others around him can't get the job done consistently, somebody's gotta do it, and I suppose that gives the perception of being selfish to those who don't watch closely.

Follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter.

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