With the hangover from the 17th ring still present, Lakers fans are already looking to the future. It’s what the winning teams have. So do journalists, who These days they are working out the possible guidelines for the Los Angeles team for the next few years to stay in the elite of the league. That was the reason for the talk that led to the ESPN show First Take a Magic Johnson.
The legend of the Lakers, who not long ago was in command of sports operations (LeBron James came under him) believes that the team of his life has a lot of rope left and that they should be favorites to win next yearAs long as Anthony Davis remains on the team. The power forward has the option to go on the market and negotiate with any franchise, but Magic sees no option other than the Lakers:
“Anthony Davis is now known around the world because of the platform the Lakers provide him and he and LeBron can repeat success next season perfectly. He won’t want to leave here and not have a guy like LeBron James playing by your side because the same thing that happened to him in New Orleans would happen to him again. They improve each other. And last but not least, when LeBron retires they’ll just say, ‘Anthony Davis, it’s your team now, go take the Lakers to the next five or six championships“.
At that moment the journalist Max Kellerman interrupted him to say “just in time for Luka to be here”, to which Magic, somewhat confused at first, replied that at the moment they are not worried about the Dallas Mavericks. Kellerman clarified that what he was referring to was Doncic going to the Lakers to replace LeBron, an idea with which the former baseman was very much in agreement: “Yes, it’s true. Luka to the Lakers … I like him”.
Doncic’s contract
A Doncic you still have two years left on your contract rookie with the Mavs, who can unilaterally expand another four (paying him much more money than he is charging now), something that seems clear is going to happen. Therefore, it is almost certain that the Slovenian will have a contract with your current team until at least 2026. Another thing is that it complies. That will depend on how the franchise evolves in sport and if the results on the court convince its star that he is in a place where he can fight for the title. If not, Doncic could try to get out before the summer of 2026 and the clearest windows to do so would be July 2025 or February 2026, when the case came that he did not want to renew his franchise again, he was forced to transfer him to get something in return before he left free at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.
Hopefully by then LeBron James has already retired. The King has two years left on his contract, the second of them optional. If he meets them, he would do it with 37 years in the summer of 2022 And, as much as it lengthens it again, it seems difficult that it will remain active (at least at this level) in February 2025, the possible first window in which Doncic could change of scene. LeBron would then be 40 years old and Doncic 25, gradually approaching the prime of his career.
