The Los Angeles Lakers’ latest (hoped-for) legend, five-time All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic, 26, faces a wide-open future now.
Despite boasting homecourt advantage in their first round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers fell in five games.
The closeout contest, a 103-96 Minnesota victory at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday, wouldn’t have been nearly as close as that final margin suggests it was, had the Timberwolves connected on more than seven of their 47 triple tries.
Three-time All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards, a 39.5 percent long range sniper on 10.3 attempts this year, whiffed on all 11 of his 3-point heaves in Game 5.
In the losing effort, Doncic scored 28 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor and 12-of-15 shooting from the foul line, grabbed nine dimes, pulled down seven boards, and swiped a steal. For the series, he averaged 30.2 points while slashing .452/.348/.891, 7.0 boards, 5.8 dishes, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 rejections a night.
Still, he couldn’t stay in front of anyone on the perimeter defensively, and despite that decent assist average had games where he barely looked to pass.
Doncic faces a contract decision this summer. On August 2, he could agree to a four-year, $229 extension deal, or a three-year, $165 million extension with a player option on the last season of the deal. He could also opt to play out his contract. Doncic has a player option for 2026-27, meaning he could enter unrestricted free agency as soon as next summer.
In the meantime, Doncic will be busying himself with other obligations this offseason, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN details.
“He will spend the summer playing for the Slovenian men’s national basketball team at EuroBasket,” sources told McMenamin. “He’ll be accompanied by members of his ‘body team’ — Slovenian national team strength coach Anže Maček and physiotherapist Javier Barrio Calvo — throughout the offseason.”
