![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2209830876-e1756038911656.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Katelyn Mulcahy\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic, Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic<\/a> is gearing up for his first full season in a Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> uniform. The Lakers front office has been busy retooling the roster around Doncic all summer.<\/p>\n In return, Doncic has signed a three-year $165 million contract extension<\/a> with the franchise. Furthermore, he looks to be in the best shape of his career so far. All signs are pointing toward a big year, both for Doncic individually and the Lakers roster as a whole.<\/p>\n It would appear that ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith agrees. On Friday, August 22, Smith listed Doncic among his \u201ctop five players to watch\u201d in the upcoming season. Doncic sat second behind former Laker Anthony Davis<\/a>, who is now with the Dallas Mavericks.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe was in Dallas, got moved to LA,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey get bounced out in five games in the first round by Minnesota. But a bad year for this dude was averaging 28, 8, and 7. That\u2019s Luka out of shape. Now we get to fantasize about what he\u2019ll be in shape in Tinseltown, Hollywood, the bright light, big city, Southern California. Beautiful weather. This is what we\u2019re talking about here. Luka, if he brings an elevated level of play to his game, and dare I say, shows that he\u2019s willing to play some defense. Oh my Lord, have mercy! Who knows what\u2019ll happen?\u201d<\/p>\n Doncic will undoubtedly be the leading star for the Lakers next season. He will have all the tools he needs to help get the franchise back in the championship race. Therefore, Smith is probably right; Doncic is going to be box office in the upcoming season, and likely for the next 5-to 10 years.<\/p>\n Lakers Unlikely to Trade LeBron James<\/p>\n LeBron James<\/a> will be on hand to help Doncic achieve his goal of contending for a championship in the upcoming season. The veteran superstar has been linked with a trade away from Los Angeles in recent months. However, Lakers insider Jovan Buha believes all of those rumors are coming from camps outside of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cI would assume this (latest rumor) came out from the Warriors side,\u201d Buha said. \u201c\u2026They\u2019ve had a rough summer. They have not been able to make any moves because of this Kuminga situation. It\u2019s been drama-filled, but also stagnant at the same time\u2026But it also benefits the Warriors to make their front office, their organization, look like they\u2019re trying to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n Buha continued.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t make much of it, to be completely honest. I think it\u2019s status quo, and until LeBron asks out and specifically asks out to the Warriors or to a subset of teams, then I don\u2019t make much of this,\u201d Buha added.<\/p>\n Lakers Could Contend For A Championship<\/p>\n This summer, Rob Pelinka has added Marcus Smart<\/a>, Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Jake LaRavia<\/a> to contracts. Suddenly, the Lakers have a rotation capable of covering some of Doncic\u2019s biggest flaws and accentuating his countless strengths.<\/p>\n When you factor in LeBron\u2019s impact, along with Austin Reaves<\/a>\u2018 continued tenure on the roster, it\u2019s hard to envision a down year for the Lakers.<\/p>\n If everyone can stay healthy, this could be a big year for the Purple and Gold and potentially act as a jumping-off point for the years to come.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Taylor<\/a> is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns for Heavy. He has also written for CelticsBlog, USA Today, Yardbarker and FanSided. Adam has a bachelor\u2019s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy\/Getty Images Luka Doncic, Los Angeles Lakers Luka Doncic is gearing up for his first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-92867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}