{"id":45525,"date":"2025-07-29T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/45525\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:01:08","slug":"lakers-suddenly-have-perfect-path-to-landing-a-new-doncic-co-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/45525\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers suddenly have perfect path to landing a new Doncic co-star"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a questionable start to free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers have surged back to have a strong summer. They have superstar Luka Doncic to thank<\/a>. He has worked behind the scenes to help turn their offseason around by convincing Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart to join the Lakers. <\/p>\n

That is an unforeseen but not entirely unexpected development. Doncic recruiting players could be a huge plus for the Lakers, especially with them hoping to have max cap space next summer.<\/p>\n

The one-two punch of Doncic’s recruiting and the appeal of playing in L.A. for a storied franchise could be an alluring one. In fact, it could make the Lakers a free agency destination once again. LeBron James was really the last star that was lured to sign with Los Angeles, but with Doncic, likely not the last. The problem is that they may not have as many free agent targets as they once did. <\/p>\n

Luka Doncic is the Lakers’ secret recruitment weapon<\/p>\n

After all, with favorable contract extension rules, star players now often sign new deals prior to hitting free agency. Still, with up to $96 million in cap space, they can get creative. <\/p>\n

That would likely mean a trade for a star. A few trade targets that come to mind could be De’Aaron Fox of the San Antonio Spurs, Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz, Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans, Julius Randle of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Mikal Bridges of the New York Knicks. <\/p>\n

Fox may be the odd man out in San Antonio after they drafted Dylan Harper. Markkanen is already 28 and nearly 10 years older than their new lottery pick, Ace Bailey, and may not fit their timeline, while Williamson may be on his last leg in New Orleans. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Randle, a former Laker, could be expendable if the Wolves fail to make the NBA Finals next season. Lastly, Bridges may not get a max extension in New York after not quite living up to expectations. Those would be good options for the Lakers, but of course, the best option would be Giannis Antetokounmpo. <\/p>\n

The Lakers could have their pick of stars with Doncic’s help<\/p>\n

Giannis in L.A. might not be such a pipe dream as it may seem at first. If the Bucks struggle next season, then Giannis may demand a trade. And if Doncic can work his recruitment magic, Giannis could force his way to L.A.<\/p>\n

If the Lakers were to somehow pair Giannis with Doncic, that would be as good of a one-two punch as any in NBA history. They would have to retool their roster around those two superstars but could have the money to do so, even with both Doncic and Giannis potentially combining to make $100+ million a season. <\/p>\n

All in all, the Lakers have Doncic to thank for helping salvage their summer by recruiting Ayton and Smart to L.A. If he can do that with high-caliber players next summer when L.A. is set to have major cap space, then the Lakers could quickly retool around Donic after next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a questionable start to free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers have surged back to have a strong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-45525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}