The icon LeBron James will soon get his 22nd season in the NBA underway with the Los Angeles Lakers and, at 39, remains one of the league’s most decisive players. However, the California franchise know the forward’s retirement isn’t far off and have reportedly already started making plans.
Towards the end of August, journalist Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer claimed the Lakers have set their sights on acquiring Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic as their new leader in the post-LeBron era.
O’Connor believes the two teams could come to a blockbuster trade agreement, after Doncic has signed a $346 million, five-year deal with the Mavs that is rumoured to be on the table for him in the summer of 2025. James’ retirement would free up plenty of salary cap space and the Lakers could offer Dallas a whole host of draft picks up until 2031.
“He’s too slow for me. If he wasn’t a scorer, I would cut him. I give him credit for that, but to me, he’s lazy. Doesn’t hustle back on defense.”
However, Lakers legend Michael Cooper, who won five NBA championships in 12 years with the franchise between 1978 and 1990, hopes it doesn’t happen and has criticised several aspects of Doncic’s game.
“He’s too slow for me. If he wasn’t a scorer I would cut him. I give him credit for that, but to me, he’s lazy. Doesn’t hustle back on defense,” Cooper said on his own podcast, Shotime with Coop.
Since moving to the Mavericks from Real Madrid at the age of only 19 in 2018, Doncic was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 2019, has become a five-time NBA All-Star, been named on the All-NBA team five times and was the league’s scoring champion in 2024, when Dallas lost in the championship final to the Boston Celtics.
