TORONTO – Luguentz Dort’s star just keeps on rising.
After going undrafted in 2019, despite a stellar single season at Arizona State where he was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and Second-team All-Pac-12, he was signed to a two-way contract by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He impressed so much during his two-way contract it was converted into a four-year, $5.4-million full deal that, as things have turned out, is looking like one of the best bargains in the NBA right now.
It started during what was something of a surprise post-season appearance from the Thunder in 2020. Dort showed out and introduced himself in a sense to the greater basketball world by managing to hold then-Houston Rockets superstar James Harden to dreadful 31.3 per cent shooting from three-point range over the course of the Thunder and Rockets’ seven-game series.
Harden did end up averaging 29.7 points per game in the series, but he had to fight for every bit of it with Dort hounding him every which way -- Dort’s Game 7 performance against Harden, in particular, stood out as he held Harden to just 17 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
That moment then and there is when Dort’s reputation as one of the NBA’s premier defenders was firmly established. In his second season in the NBA, it’s only grown thanks to standout defensive stands he’s taken against some of the of the game’s best and brightest such as a famous Feb. 10 game when a clip of him making LeBron James shoot an air ball with absolutely suffocating perimeter defence went viral.
Listed at six-foot-three and built like a brick house, weighing 215 pounds while blessed with incredible athleticism, strength and lateral quickness, Dort has all the physical tools required for a great perimeter defender, but if physical attributes are all that are required to be a strong defender then nearly everyone in the NBA would be just as good as a defender as him. Yet, we know that isn’t the case.
No, in order to be a great defender there needs to be both desire and willpower to get into stance and do the dirty work, not to mention just plain skill and anticipation that comes from extensive study of opponents’ tendencies.
“I think you cover a good portion of it with your effort, desire, toughness, anticipation,” said Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, when speaking about what makes Dort so great as a perimeter defender. “Before a pass is even thrown or a ball is even dribbled, he’s got that. Then I would say there is some physical strength that always plays a role. If you can move your feet and use your body and forearms and things like that to physically control the situation, that always helps too. And he can certainly do that.
“I think some of these guys eventually get into doing deep-dive film work against the really great players. We have seen that over the years, right? Guys studying and trying to get people off their sweet spots and all the stuff they have talked about. I think that probably becomes a factor but it’s probably a small factor in the overall pie, I guess. If we’re cutting up a pie of what makes a good defensive player then desire, will, toughness, anticipation, readiness. Those things take up most of that pie.”
Though a hip strain has Dort listed as questionable to play in Sunday's game against the Raptors, a match which can be seen live at 7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet ONE, there's no questioning the respect and admiration Nurse has for what Dort can do defensively.
This, of course, makes a lot of sense given the fact Nurse not only does his homework abreast with how the rest of the league is performing but also because, as head coach of Canada’s men’s national team, keeping tabs on a player he might be looking to rely upon as his team’s top defensive stopper this summer is just plain common sense.
Sunday night’s game against the Thunder could’ve been a two-for-one special for Nurse as Team Canada’s coach as Canadian star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the feature man on Oklahoma City but, unfortunately, he’ll miss the contest as he’s dealing with Plantar Fasciitis in his right foot.
So, Nurse the Team Canada coach won't have a chance to check him out up close on Sunday – not that Nurse the Raptors coach will be complaining much.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the Thunder’s leading scorer (averaging 23.7 points per game), top assist man (5.9 per game) and is Oklahoma City’s best overall player, so not having to deal with him is to the Raptors’ benefit, especially as they sit just a half-game back of a tie for 10th place in the Eastern Conference – where the final play-in tournament spot is.
Even without Gilgeous-Alexander, as bad as the Thunder have looked with a 20-36 record and having lost nine-straight coming into Sunday’s game, they still have weapons on their team -- with Dort chief among them.
Though known rightfully for his awesome defensive exploits, Dort, at times, has shown flashes of a great offensive game as well such as in that Game 7 against Houston last year when he exploded for 30 points, joining the likes of Kobe Bryant and James as the only players 21 years of younger to score 25 or more in a Game 7. Or just this past Tuesday when he erupted for a career-high 42 points against the Utah Jazz. In that game he went 16-for-31 from the field and was a scorching 7-for-11 from three-point range.
So there are certainly signs of a great offensive player there for Dort, he just hasn’t put it together consistently. And oddly enough, this is very similar to the Raptors’ OG Anunoby, who also is known as a strong defensive stopper with merely a budding offensive game.
“It probably applies to both of them, actually, Lu and OG,” said Nurse. “But listen, here’s where OG’s at right now: He’s super hungry. He’s super motivated to be a really good player at both ends of the floor. He’s working. He’s studying. His conditioning is amazing. His care for his body is amazing. He wants it really badly. So he’s getting better. He’s progressing. It makes me happy. It probably makes everybody happy.
“I’m glad that he’s at this point. It’s a beautiful thing to see, a guy that’s been given all this physical ability go to work — go to work on his skills, work on his shooting, study his shooting, work on his footwork, do the fundamental stuff, do it over and over and over again, have a super high motivation to get back in the gym and yet, continue to go out there and go, ‘No, no, no, I’m gonna guard him,’ or ‘Coach, put me on him late in the game.’ He also wants to show that he has the capability to be a really, really great defender. He’s on a path to being really, really good.”
As Nurse said, his compliments of Anunoby could just as well apply to Dort, too.
Defence is what put Dort on the map and looks to always be his calling card, but with an ever-improving offensive game who knows how high his star may end up rising?
