Lakers Latest Move Brings In A Friend Of Luka Doncic From Mavs

The Los Angeles Lakers‘ latest move shows they are 100% all-in on Luka Doncic leading the team for the future. 

According to Marc Stein, the Lakers have hired strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Holsopple. He was previously with the Dallas Mavericks and is a friend of Doncic, meaning Los Angeles is betting on his weight loss as a long-term change.

“The Lakers are hiring Jeremy Holsopple as their new head strength and conditioning coach,” Stein wrote on X. “As Dallas’ athletic performance director, Holsopple was named as the NBA’s top strength and conditioning coach in March 2021.”

After his weight loss and contract extension with the Lakers, it is officially the ‘Summer of Luka Doncic‘ in Los Angeles. The team has made the 26-year-old their main priority, bringing in players, and now coaches, to the franchise to fit around him in hopes of the Slovenian finishing his career in La La Land. 

Lakers’ Newest Hire

Holsopple is well-known around the league, specifically for his work done with the Mavericks as their athletic performance director from 2013 to 2024.

In an in-depth story written by ESPN in April, uncovering the struggles between Doncic and Dallas in the months leading up to the blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis, Holsopple was highlighted as someone Doncic had trust in.

While Nico Harrison was ‘overhauling‘ the team’s athletic performance staff, Holsopple was one member who was fired from the team because of his increased influence in team decision-making. Along with him, Casey Smith, a 20-year employee of the Mavericks, was fired by Harrison, which was a major domino in the strained relationship between the star and the team.

“Smith’s unceremonious departure was followed by the dismissals of athletic performance director Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler in June, only days removed from Dallas’ appearance in the NBA Finals,” Tim McMahon wrote. “Smith, Holsopple and Spangler were all longtime Mavs employees who had helped Doncic, a Slovenian who spent his adolescence in Spain, make the major cultural transition after coming to Dallas as a teenager.”

Along with winning the NBA’s award for best strength and conditioning coach in 2021, Holsopple was reportedly ‘The Mavs’ point man in the union with Doncic’s body team,‘ according to McMahon. 

After being traded mid-season, Doncic played in a career-low 50 games last year on both the Mavericks and Lakers due to multiple injuries. Now with Holsopple, his presence gives Los Angeles a bit more hope that Doncic will remain healthy and in better shape for what is expected to be deep playoff runs in each of the next few years.

The Summer Of Luka Doncic

Since Doncic wasn’t directly working with Holsopple before his recent weight loss and body transformation, his move to the Lakers means he will likely be in even better shape before next season and in the future.

Along with hiring one of Doncic’s top guys from the Mavericks, the Lakers have proved he is their priority. They signed him to a three-year $165 million extension, keeping him in Los Angeles until at least the summer of 2028. After that, he has the chance to sign a deal worth more than $400 million that would keep him in Southern California for the first half of the 2030s decade. 

Whether the Lakers manage to keep LeBron James for the final years of his career after this season, as well as other key players like Austin Reaves, all they seem to care about right now is keeping Doncic happy. The latest hiring of Holsopple proves that, and regardless of James’ thoughts about not being the top star on the team, Doncic is the face of the Lakers going forward.

“We have what we need to compete for the championship,” Doncic said at his press conference, confirming his contract extension. “I’ll try to win every game no matter what, and we got some new great guys on the team, so you know we’re going to go for it.”

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka echoed that statement, saying, “I think every year we’re on an infinite cycle to try to improve this team and win championships, and we’ll stay committed to that work…The best young basketball player in the universe joins for the long-term future, the best sports franchise on the globe.”