The Los Angeles Lakers agreed to a contract extension with Luka Doncic that will pay him $165 million over three years, but number 77 was eligible for a five-year $345 million supermax extension if he had stayed with the Mavericks. Nico Harrison trading him away in the dead of night without his knowledge cost Doncic millions.
The Athletic reported that the Mavericks weren’t going to offer Luka (subscription required) that extension. If a trade didn’t materialize with the Lakers, Dallas would have been foolish not to. Doncic has been first-team All-NBA five times. Nearly every other team in the league would have been eager to give him a max contract.
The supermax was designed to keep players with the teams that drafted them. It allows the franchise to offer the full 35 percent of the salary cap max before they reach 10 years of service. The trade and Luka’s service time only allowed the Lakers to give him 30 percent of the cap in year one.
Luka Doncic lost a staggering amount of money in the trade to the Lakers
Luka was clearly motivated by the setback. Fans have seen his new commitment to his body. He wanted to spend his entire career in Dallas. Doncic was building a home at the time of the trade, but Nico Harrison ruined that. That was all the motivation one of the best players in the world needed to take his game to another level.
Luka would have made $57.9 million in his first season of a new supermax contract if he stayed with the Mavericks. He lost out on nearly $8.3 million in the 2026-27 season alone. Luka will eventually earn the 35 percent max when he gets to 10 years of service, but it will have already cost him millions of dollars.
Over the three seasons of his new extension, Luka missed out on millions of dollars because he was traded without his consent. The cap figures are projections, so there no set number. Doncic will make some back in his next contract, but will never get the roughly $16 million lost over the next three years.
Doncic’s extension is massive money, but it is not $345 million that he could have earned in Dallas. He lost millions no matter how his contracts go from here. The Lakers' superstar did not ask for a trade. That money was taken from him by Nico Harrison and the Mavericks.
Los Angeles Lakers fans will see the best version of Luka Doncic this season. He has a fresh contract, but is still fuming from the trade uprooting his life. Expect number 77 to be fully locked in and set on proving his doubters wrong. He has already been a top-three player in the world and led his team to the NBA Finals. The rest of the league should be on notice. Doncic alone may have the Lakers in title contention, and no team wants to face that Luka.