Luka Doncic off to uneven Lakers beginning as out of shape talk festers

Luka Doncic hasn’t had a Hollywood beginning quite yet.The Lakers are clearly looking to bring their prized new superstar along slowly as he recovers from a calf strain, as he’s played sixth-man minutes in his first two games with the team.Doncic played 24 minutes in a blowout win in his debut and 23 minutes Wednesday in a sluggish loss — both against the lowly Jazz.“Yes, he was completely out of shape, and you could see he was gassed early,” Ryen Russillo said on his podcast while speaking with ESPN’s Tim Legler, the analyst for Doncic’s Lakers debut Monday.While in Dallas this season, Doncic averaged 35.7 minutes per game, 28.1 points, 7.8 assists, and 8.1 rebounds, hitting 35.4 percent from 3 and 46.4 percent from the floor.He has not quite looked like his MVP-caliber self in two games playing next to his new running mate LeBron James.Doncic is averaging 15 points, 4.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 26.7 percent from 3-point range and 40.7 percent from the floor.ESPN’s Mavericks reporter Tim MacMahon pointed out that Doncic brought the ball up nine times in his Lakers debut, the fewest he could ever recall while in Dallas.It would be unfair to be too hard on Doncic, considering he hasn’t played in nearly two months, is in a new offens and has to fit in with one of the league’s all-time great players.There will still be plenty of time to prove those who traded him away wrong.If you ask the Dallas Mavericks—either owner Patrick Dumont or general manager Nico Harrison—Doncic is out of shape, he’s bad for team culture and he won’t fulfill the promise the general public expected of him when he entered the league.Doncic, who is recovering from a calf strain he sustained on Christmas Day, was reportedly weighing 270 pounds at one point this season, and Mavericks executives were livid with his physical conditioning after he carried the team to the NBA Finals last season....