Commentary: What’s next for Lakers after trading for Luka Doncic?
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NEW YORK — You weren’t dreaming. You didn’t imagine it. It wasn’t some kind of strange Saturday night hallucination.
Yes, you watched the Lakers play one of their best basketball games of the season. Yes, you saw the team, maybe more than ever, look like a group that could make a run to the playoffs.
And then, yes, you read that the foundation of the Lakers’ present, and most importantly, its future, were completely altered.
The Lakers did, in fact, trade Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick for Luka Doncic minutes after the team pulled out of Madison Square Garden. In a single moment, the team officially ended questions about how much more it should pour into a team built around LeBron James and Davis. And it skipped through the ugly future everyone had accepted in the post-James aftermath, another uncomfortable rebuild likely the cost of one last push.
Well, that’s done now. The Lakers have a future — a 25-year-old star who is maybe the second-best living basketball player. And they completely upended their present plans to make it happen.
The deal happened in almost total secrecy, The Times first hearing rumors of the Lakers and the Mavericks working together on something from a rival executive on Thursday night. The only problem was that no one knew what the teams were talking about.
People in both organizations were asked about possible talks and no one even came close to mentioning the blockbuster deal, their responses ranging from “first I’ve heard of this” to “maybe it’s (Daniel) Gafford.” Davis, just two weeks ago, had publicly lobbied for the Lakers to trade for a center and the team had been canvassing the NBA for options to pair with Davis.
The Lakers acquire Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick.
Nothing, though, felt imminent on that front with people close to the situation left believing that the Lakers biggest priority had shifted to finding another offensive playmaker.
The belief, though, was that the team was headed towards a smaller move to augment their current roster. That group was playing some of its best basketball, having won eight times in the last 10 games with the NBA’s third-best net rating over that span.
In Dallas, according to reports, the Mavericks were growing frustrated with Doncic’s conditioning. He’d been out of action since suffering a calf injury on Christmas, and this summer, was headed for the kind of no-brainer max extension every player even close to his standing gets offered and signs. Except, it appears, the Mavericks weren’t comfortable with that.
According to people briefed on the trade not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, Dallas general manager Nico Harrison approached Lakers GM Rob Pelinka about the possibility, the two having a long history that goes back to Harrison’s work at Nike with Kobe Bryant, when Pelinka was his agent. In Davis, the Mavericks were going to get a game-changing frontcourt defender to pair with Kyrie Irving while reuniting the All-Star big with Jason Kidd, who was on Frank Vogel’s championship staff in 2020.
And while Davis, according to people familiar with the situation, was stunned — again, no one knew about this — the eventual end with the Lakers was probably coming at some point.
The Lakers spent a big chunk of their summer messaging to Davis that he would be the driver in their future decisions, only for the team to hire a first-time coach against his wishes while failing to aggressively overhaul the roster. And if James were to retire and the Lakers needed to head into a full rebuild, Davis would be the best tool to turbo-charge that process.
By acquiring Doncic, the Lakers’ post-James era has its first (and biggest) tent pole.
The Lakers dealt their murky present for an awe-inspiring future, and now you have to wonder, with the NBA trade deadline just four days away, are they done?
The short-term, on-court impact, though, is less clear. Rival evaluators familiar with the Lakers point to the team’s three best players now being high-usage on-ball players. In dealing Christie, the Lakers lost their best perimeter defender. In trading Davis, of course, they lost their best interior defender.
Jaxson Hayes is now the lone true center on the full-time roster, with Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison III on two-way deals.
The trade also means that getting James another run at a title in the short term is not the Lakers’ top priority, which certainly could cloud his plans for the future. He’s got a no-trade clause and can opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent this summer. He also could request a trade for the first time in his 22-season career and further accelerate the Lakers into their future plans. It’s all still too fresh, though his plans have been subject to plenty of leaguewide speculation.
The expectation is the Lakers will continue to be really active between now and Thursday’s noon PST trade deadline, desperately needing to upgrade their interior defense in both the short and long terms. The team still has a first-round pick in the 2031 NBA draft and a second-round pick in the 2025 to use in trades.
Anything between now and Thursday feels possible because late Saturday night, an impossibly shocking trade happened. The Lakers have their future face of the franchise.
And their present? More surprises could be incoming.
They’ve shown that anything, truly, is possible.
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