The Los Angeles Lakers improved their roster from last season with value deals in free agency.
They kept their powder dry and were still able to address their most pressing needs of center and point-of-attack and perimeter defense.
The additions of Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia only cost them a combined $19 million and a change. In short, they made do and did great with the limited budget they had heading into this offseason.
But there is still one more deal — the most important of all – that the Lakers have to make this summer, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Luka Doncic’s extension contract.
Luka Predicted to Sign Shorter Extension
GettyLos Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic is due for lucrative extension.
Doncic, the new face of the franchise, is eligible to sign a four-year, $229 million max extension beginning on Aug. 2. It’s much lower than what he was eligible to receive — a five-year, $345 million deal — from the Dallas Mavericks if they did not trade him.
“I cannot overstate how much of a disadvantage it was for the Lakers to lose the ability to give Luka the supermax,” Windhorst said on “NBA Today” on July 22. “He is completely disincentivized to extend his contract this year.”
ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks predicts Doncic will sign a shorter deal.
“More likely: a three-year, $165 million extension that includes a player option in the third year. The short-term extension allows Doncic to re-enter free agency sooner and potentially recoup the $345 million he lost when he was traded from the Mavericks,” Marks wrote in his offseason guide for the Lakers.
Lakers Are Big Winners if Luka Extends
Windhorst added that the only reason Doncic would want to is because he believes in the Lakers, a team he did not ask to be traded to.
“It would be another thing if he said, ‘Trade me to LA.’ So, from the moment that the shock wore off that Luka was a Laker, I have been focused on whether he was going to sign, and the signs point to the signing,” Windhorst continued. “I am not going to dismiss that as an important moment.”
The Lakers met with Doncic in a private dinner following their first-round exit to get on the same page.
“I never thought it was a guarantee, even though the Lakers really tried to make it seem it was no big deal,” Windhorst said of Doncic’s looming contract extension. “I think it’s a big deal, and if it happens, I think the Lakers are one of the big winners of the entire NBA this summer.”
Luka’s Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Getty Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic gives a first pump to general manager Rob Pelinka, right, before game four of the first round of the NBA playoffs between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It’s trending that way for the Lakers, with Doncic actively recruiting both Ayton and Smart.
“And that is not Luka’s natural state,” said ESPN’s Tim McMahon on Hoops Collective podcast on July 22. “The first several years of his career, he basically said, ‘Hey, I play. The front office puts the team together. I don’t want anything to do with it.’ And he didn’t grow up in the AAU culture where you’re constantly recruiting guys.”
“I believe he also had some contact with Deandre Ayton,” McMahon continued, “and I actually think that’s the most significant part of all this because it does show that he’s not only on the same page with the Lakers front office, but he is an active participant.”
Doncic is in Europe, busy preparing for Slovenia’s participation in the EuroBasket. But he still made time to help the Lakers get the players they targeted.
