Report: It’s not a guarantee that Luka Doncic signs 5-year extension with Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers star guard Luka Doncic hasn’t even played a single game with his new team, and there’s already speculation relating to his future in Los Angeles.

Doncic will be eligible for a five-year contract extension with the Lakers this summer, but he isn’t eligible for a supermax extension now that he is no longer a member of the Dallas Mavericks organization.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst mentioned all of the money Doncic is losing out on compared to had he remained in Dallas when he reported that it’s not set in stone at this time that Doncic will ink a long-term extension with the storied Lakers franchise in July.

“LeBron [James] and Luka are not set contractually,” Windhorst said of perhaps the Lakers’ top two players. “Luka has one year left on his contract, and we all assumed that Luka was gonna re-sign in Dallas. It’s never once been brought up in my life about Luka’s contract. But now he’s traded to the Lakers. He has one year left, and they don’t get the supermax privilege. They can’t give him that $350 million. They can offer him $100 million less. So I would say to you, it’s not a guarantee for sure that Luka’s gonna rip off a five-year deal in July. He may wanna see how things play out. He may take a shorter deal because he no longer has the financial incentive to do it.

“So, the Lakers have to do some work over the next few months to convince him he wants to get locked in. Additionally, LeBron has an option in his contract for next season. I have no belief that LeBron wants anything more than just to be a Laker, but LeBron’s contract status is not settled. So, let’s see how everything goes. I know that everybody wants to know exactly how it’s gonna go in this next five seconds, but we just have to watch and see how it all plays out.”

The Lakers had to part with quite a lot in order to acquire a player of Doncic’s skill level. Namely, the team traded one of the more talented big men ever to suit up for Los Angeles in Anthony Davis. Davis earned several All-Star nods during his five-plus seasons with the Lakers and finished second in the league in the Defensive Player of the Year voting for the 2019-20 campaign.

Furthermore, Los Angeles gave up promising young shooting guard Max Christie in the three-team trade that included the Utah Jazz. Christie was seemingly starting to come into his own in his third NBA season and wrapped up his Lakers tenure with some impressive scoring performances. He reached double digits in points in each of his last two games with the team.

It seems unlikely that the Lakers traded for Doncic without the goal of keeping him in Los Angeles for the long haul. After all, Doncic is only 25 years old, and it’s possible he has yet to play his best basketball at the NBA level.

Doncic also gives the Lakers a player to build around after James is retired from the league. Lakers fans should expect the forward to call it quits sooner rather than later, as he’s 40 years old right now and has logged more than 20 seasons in the NBA at this point. Granted, James is still among the top players in the NBA at his advanced age, as he’s averaging 24.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game this season.