{"id":54093,"date":"2025-08-08T08:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T08:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/54093\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T08:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T08:44:09","slug":"lakers-luka-doncic-tells-duke-alum-jj-redick-hes-committed-to-lebron-james-championship-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/54093\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Luka Doncic tells Duke alum JJ Redick he’s committed to LeBron James’ championship timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lakers Luka Doncic tells Duke alum JJ Redick he’s committed to LeBron James’ championship timeline<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers made one of the most stunning trades of the season when they acquired Luka Don\u010di\u0107 back in February. Despite limited assets, the Lakers appeared to fleece the Mavericks with how little they had to give up. However, the move has since created tension\u2014particularly with LeBron James, who now recognizes the organization is no longer fully building around him.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cHe’s still that good. I don’t think it’s his last year, but the fact that the Lakers did not discuss a 1-in-1, or a 2-in-1, or contracts beyond this year with him. They just let him sit back… that tells you a lot. It’s not in his control with LA,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Ramona Shelburne said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the season, James\u2019 longtime friend and former teammate Carmelo Anthony praised his energy and demeanor on The 7PM in Brooklyn podcast<\/a>\u2014especially in the context of playing alongside Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen [LeBron] as happy as he looks playing the game right now. They are a lockdown defensive team right now, with Luka [Don\u010di\u0107]\u2026 The roles [are] reversed now. [LeBron James is Anthony Davis] right now, & Luka is him,\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n

The key issue now appears to be the timeline. While the Lakers\u2019 front office wants to build for the future, James remains focused on winning now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLeBron wants to compete for a championship,” James\u2019 agent Rich Paul told ESPN.<\/a> “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Surprisingly, it turns out Don\u010di\u0107 is aligned with James on that short-term urgency. In fact, that shared mindset played a role in Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s recent contract extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u010di\u0107 being just 26 gives the Lakers a far longer timeline to build a championship-contending team, but that doesn’t mean they can slow down and take their time. Don\u010di\u0107 told Lakers president Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick in May that he’s not interested in taking the slow approach in building a contender,\u201d CBS Sports\u2019 Jasmyn Wimbish wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Don\u010di\u0107 being vocal with both his coach and GM shows he\u2019s fully on board with James’ win-now mentality. With both players among the NBA\u2019s elite, their partnership presents a matchup nightmare for opponents. Locking Don\u010di\u0107 in for three more years was a massive win\u2014especially if he\u2019s all in on helping LeBron go out on top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers Luka Doncic tells Duke alum JJ Redick he’s committed to LeBron James’ championship timeline originally appeared on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[14727,10427,49,48,17873,2327,8231,12887,459,31707,82],"class_list":["post-54093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-brooklyn","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-rob-pelinka","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}