The Los Angeles Lakers might have secured the future of the franchise this winter by acquiring Luka Doncic to be the franchise cornerstone going forward. However, to secure the future of the franchise, the team also needs Doncic to commit to them beyond his potential 2026 free agency.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst believes the Lakers are under immense pressure from now until August 2nd, 2025 to get Doncic’s signature on a contract extension instead of having him test free agency in 2026.
“The pressure is on the organization between now and August 2nd, to get Luka to sign that extension. That’s where the pressure is because Luka doesn’t have an incentive to sign in LA. He never said, ‘I want to be a Laker.’ There are dozens of players over the years who make it crystal clear they wanna be on the Lakers, Luka never said that.”
“This hit him out of the blue and cost him $100 million. He’s got to see how they build this team around him, what they do in June and July for when August 2nd comes. The Lakers ain’t winning a championship this year. Their big moment is whether or not Luka commits to the future or not so that they can properly do this again with a new face of the franchise.”
.@WindhorstESPN says the pressure is on the Lakers between now and August 2nd "to get Luka to sign that extension."
"He never said, 'I want to be a Laker.' … He's gotta see how they build this team around him." pic.twitter.com/wN46RX5LV3
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 20, 2025
Losing Doncic might be a catastrophic blow to the Lakers, as the team hedged on concerns about his health, habits, and conditioning being untrue and his wanting to stay with the franchise long-term. However, Doncic did intend to stay with the Dallas Mavericks for his entire career, so the Lakers have a home-field advantage in that way.
The only thing they can do is provide a better basketball situation for him, as the Lakers could easily fulfill most off-court boxes for an NBA player. Doncic can make up a lot of his lost supermax income through off-court endeavors as the face of the Lakers, especially in the post-LeBron era.
One of his minor comments about finally living near the sea again went underrated at his press conference, but it does seem like the city is one he can be a fan of. In addition, Doncic is a student of the game and knows the prestige that comes with bringing championships to the Lakers organization. A star of his caliber should shine the brightest in LA.
But if he deems the team around him to be too weak for the post-LeBron era, he could easily float himself on the free agency market to see what other opportunities are with him.
At this point, without a supermax in hand, it seems it’d be best for Doncic to not commit in the summer and potentially test free agency to pick his future destination. As Windhorst said, Luka never got the option to choose the Lakers; the choice was made for him. Now, he shouldn’t pass up on the option to make that choice, but waiting till 2026 will make the Lakers extremely anxious for the entirety of next season.
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