Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) dribbles the ball down court during the second half against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic had an excellent 2025-26 season, but it was cut short by a hamstring injury. Doncic missed the end of the regular season and then the entire playoffs, and The Ringer’s Zach Lowe pointed out on The Zach Lowe Show that this is what the Dallas Mavericks were worried about.
“Are we a year removed from the Men’s Health cover of Luka?” Lowe asked. “That was a monumental moment in Luka history, and he was in better shape last year, and he still missed time with leg injuries, including in the playoffs… This was obviously the Mavericks’ fear when they made an objectively insane trade.”
Doncic had appeared on the cover of Men’s Health back on July 28, 2025. That was when the whole basketball world was talking about the Slovenian’s offseason transformation after all that had been reported about him in the months prior.
The Mavericks, of course, shocked the basketball world by trading Doncic to the Lakers in February 2025 for an injury-prone Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. They were widely criticized for willingly parting ways with a generational talent.
Now, it was reported after the trade that the Mavericks were concerned Doncic would end up like the oft-injured Joel Embiid due to his poor conditioning. Embiid won MVP in 2023 and earned a three-year, $188 million extension in 2024. It quickly became viewed as one of the worst contracts in the NBA because he hasn’t been able to stay healthy.
Staying on the subject of contracts, then-Mavericks GM Nico Harrison did not want to give Doncic a five-year, $345 million max extension. One of Harrison’s concerns was that Doncic would not be able to stay healthy as he grew older because he wouldn’t improve his commitment to conditioning and his off-court dietary discipline.
All of this gave Doncic additional motivation to change his ways. It was revealed in that Men’s Health story that he had completely changed his diet. To go with that, Doncic also underwent special indoor training, and he looked to be a man on a mission. It was said he had dropped 31 pounds that summer.
Now, despite doing all this, Doncic still suffered a grade 2 left hamstring strain on April 2, 2026. The Lakers managed to get to the Western Conference Semifinals without the 28-year-old, but he still wasn’t close to returning, which speaks to the severity of the injury.
While that wasn’t ideal, you should only start getting worried about Doncic, who put up 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2025-26, if this happens again next season. This was really the first major hamstring issue the six-time All-Star had dealt with.
It was calf issues that raised concerns during Doncic’s time with the Mavericks, so this could prove to be a one-off. We’ll just have to wait and see.
As for the Mavericks side of things, even if Doncic’s body completely breaks down in a few years, they still are going to get bashed for that trade. Why? Well, they had injury concerns about Doncic and got Davis, of all people, for him. Embiid might have been the only big man with a worse injury history at that point.
Davis would end up playing just 29 games for the Mavericks in the one year that he spent with the team. He just couldn’t stay healthy, and they decided to cut ties in February 2026.
The Mavericks sent Davis to the Washington Wizards for a pretty underwhelming return. It was, in a way, an admission that they had indeed gotten it all wrong. The reported driving force behind the Doncic trade was already long gone by then, with the Mavericks firing Harrison in November 2025.