Welcome to our annualLakers season in review series, where we’ll look back at each player on the team’s roster this season and evaluate if they should be part of the future of the franchise. Today, we finish our look at the players with Luka Dončić.
In what was probably the most disruptive year of his life and surely the most of his NBA career, Luka Dončić began the 2024-25 season looking to rebound from an NBA Finals defeat and take his Mavericks one step further to hang a banner for the organization that drafted him to being traded in the middle of the night to the Lakers in a monumental swap.
It was the type of trade people didn’t believe in the moment and could still barely grasp weeks later, with every picture or clip of Luka in a Lakers uniform still feeling like the photoshop fantasies of a fanbase whose penchant for placing opposing teams’ stars into those forum blue and gold jerseys is unrivaled across the entire league.
New Orleans Pelicans v Los Angeles Lakers Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images
And if the trade wasn’t enough, Dončić lost over six weeks (22 games total) to a strained calf suffered on Christmas day — the longest injury absence of his career — leaving him sidelined not only for the final weeks he’d have been able to play with the Mavs but his first week with the Lakers. This all came also while dealing with the very public, but somehow still very anonymous, bashing on his way out of Dallas, questioning his conditioning and commitment to his body as the reasons for shipping him out.
When he finally did return, he was clearly not himself physically and was obviously still dealing with the mental effects of a life-altering trade. Through it all, as has been the case for his entire career, Luka wore his heart on his sleeve, showing everyone when he was happy, frustrated, or still a bit solemn after the deal as he worked his way back into shape — both mentally and physically — to the point where he began to resemble the player that’d been named to FirstTeam All-NBA the previous five seasons.
Of course, as this all happened, he came to a team that was trying to rework their identity on the fly to account for Dončić joining a team with two other primary ball handlers who just happened to be one of the best players ever in LeBron James and a rising Austin Reaves, whose own growth and development as a primary offensive player was being prioritized in new ways.
In the moment, there was understandable excitement. But hindsight, particularly after a first round playoff exist, also tells a story of why these first few months of Luka on the Lakers were both growing pains and the start of what many are hoping will be a long and even more fruitful partnership that will bring the banners Dončić was hoping to hang in Dallas to Los Angeles instead.
How did he play?
One way you know you have a superstar on your team is when, even when that player isn’t as productive as you’d hope or isn’t very efficient or has too many turnovers or misses what are totally makable shots, they still find a way to impact the game at a high level, make one or two mind-blowing plays, or both.
And, in a nutshell, that was Luka Dončić for the Lakers.
Don’t get me wrong, Luka had some amazingly productive, highly efficient games where he not only looked like the best player on the floor, but one of the best in the world, too. His 31-point, eight-rebound, and seven-assist night in a win at Denver was a masterclass in playing against the at-the-level and drop coverages the Nuggets deploy.
And then at OKC, his 30-point, seven-rebound, and six-assist game was all encompassing, controlling the action against the Thunder’s defense by using his size and strength against their guards and creating space against their bigs to get off his jumper from deep and work the mid-range.
And then, of course, there was his return to Dallas where, while being serenaded by his former home crowd, Luka went crazy to the tune of 45 points to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. He absolutely torched his former team, bombing threes against every type of defensive coverage while also getting to and scoring at the rim consistently.
It was the exact type of game you’d come to expect from Dončić when he has an axe to grind and a point to prove.
In the playoffs, Luka offered a baseline of production that proved how good he could be, but an illness in Game 3 sunk his chances at an efficient night while a combination of nagging bumps and bruises, big minutes, and a slew of athletic and long defenders challenged his game and his ability to hold up physically as the series progressed.
The result was Luka showing an ability to rack up numbers and impact the game, but not to the degree needed to turn the series in the Lakers favor. Combine this with struggles from Austin and a LeBron series that was also good, but not series altering, and the team went home in five games vs. a team that ultimately made the conference finals.
What is his contract situation moving forward?
Dončić is under contract for two more seasons at the max, but has a player option next summer that would make him an unrestricted free agent should he decide to opt out.
Luka is extension eligible beginning this Aug. 2, however. And with his ability to become a free agent a year from now, the Lakers will surely initiate conversations with him on committing future seasons to the team by offering him whatever kind of contract he wants in order to consummate that long-term partnership.
And, ultimately, that is the larger point here. Whatever contract Luka wants from the Lakers, he will get. If that’s a full four-year extension, great. If it’s a three-year deal with a player option that could get him to unrestricted free agency with 10 years of service in order to sign a huge deal with a starting salary that could be in the $70 million range, the Lakers will happily agree.
The smart play would be for Doncic to sign a three-year extension this summer with a player option in 2028-29.
That would allow him to reach 10 years of service and recoup most if not all from the missed opportunity to sign the super max this offseason.
Starting salary in… https://t.co/ZxxUk4Bd57
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) February 2, 2025
Remember, the Lakers are in the business of acquiring, and then keeping, transcendent superstar players. In sending out Anthony Davis, they got Dončić in house. Now, it’s no doubt they will do everything in their power to hold on to him for as long as possible.
Should he be back?
Absolutely, unequivocally yes.
Dončić was not consistently the player he’d previously been in Dallas after his trade to the Lakers, but in a lot of ways, it was probably unfair to expect him to be. Coming off an injury and having his life uprooted in ways that blindsided him is a combination even the most masterful compartmentalizers would have issues navigating.
But even under those conditions, he flashed the brilliance that has him universally regarded as one of the very best players on the planet. And when you account for the fact that he’s still just 26 years old, the prospect that his best is yet to come is very much a strong possibility.
The Lakers, then, will simply sit back and hope to be the beneficiary of another all-timer falling into their laps and reap the rewards that come with it.
You can follow Darius on BlueSky at@forumbluegold.