From James to Doncic, how should the Lakers win?

For the Lakers in the offseason, their operations are still a bit wonderful. Recalling the beginning of the offseason market, the Lakers let Finney Smith go. Behind this move, most media interpreted it as the team making way for future cap space, but from the moment, the Lakers' future plans seem to have taken another big turn:

According to senior NBA reporter Marc Stein, the Lakers are more open to taking over the contract after taking over the 2025-26 season.

Looking back at the Lakers' original intention, it is actually not difficult to understand. Especially before Doncic signs a maximum salary renewal in August, if James determines to retire after the end of the season or chooses to enter the free market to leave the team, the Lakers will have considerable maximum salary space.

As planned, they can temporarily retain Rivers and then spend most of the space on signing a new top free agent and re-sign Rivers after they exceed the salary cap.

But the problem now is that this model seems to be gradually losing its appeal, especially from expectations, the free agent market in 2026 seems to be getting colder.

In recent months, not only Doncic has signed a maximum salary contract renewal, but stable rotations such as Alexander, Fox, Mikal Bridges, Jaren Jackson, P.J. Washington have chosen to stay in the original team, not to mention most other potential top restricted free agents, such as Paul Banchero, Homgren, Javier, Jabarry Smith, etc., have chosen to renew their contracts in advance and have not entered the free market.

This directly means that the Lakers' plan to use large-scale investment to introduce top stars is gradually becoming miscarriage. And in the next month, this trend is likely to continue. The deadline for the first round rookie contract renewal in 2022 is October 20. There are still a large number of players who may choose to sign, such as Dyson Daniels, Keegan Murray, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Durham, Benedit Mathering, Sheden Sharp, Tari Ethan, etc. Some of them do not rule out that they may become restricted free agents next year, but whether the Lakers can successfully poach people is still unknown.

What's more serious is that the Lakers may not have focused on next year's offseason from the beginning. According to ESPN, the Lakers are actually preparing for 2027, when Antetokounmpo and Jokic may become free agents. Previously, the Lakers' operation opportunities were circulated many times. But now it seems that these two people may choose to stay in the parent team at least in the short term.

Of course, Antetokounmpo and Jokic are not the only star players that may appear in 2027. The contracts of Curry, Butler and Leonard will also expire in the same year, but the age of these three people does not match Doncic; Davis, Towns, Mitchell and others also have the opportunity to enter the free market by rejecting the player option, but when more and more top players choose to renew contracts rather than join the free market, the Lakers' bets are really a bit high.

If you lower your target a little, players such as Michael Porter Jr., Taylor Herro, Wiggins, and Cam Johnson will also become free agents in 2027. Perhaps the Lakers don’t have to be completely obsessed with chasing the maximum salary. They can completely build a sub-top lineup around Doncic and restart the Lakers’ post-James era. But now, they really shouldn't bet on their future assumptions.

It is obvious that Doncic alone is not enough to lead the Lakers to win the championship again. In the following season, the Lakers need to figure out which type of players they need to build a new lineup around Doncic. The Mavericks have made a case for the Lakers. The defensive attacking center and three-point + defensive wing should be their primary goal. However, the theoretical goal and the real plan are still two different things after all.

Doncic signed a three-year contract extension, of which the third year is the player option, which is the most in his personal interests at the moment. By then, he can choose not to execute the player option in 2028 and sign a contract that accounts for 35% of the 2028-29 season's salary cap. During this period, the Lakers will have his three-year guarantee contract, which is extremely critical for the team.

If the Lakers can build a lineup around Doncic in these three years, it will be almost inevitable that he will stay in the future. But if they pursue top players like Jokic or Antetokounmpo and end up missing some signings that lack practical feasibility, then the next few years will likely become the golden years that Doncic is wasted. It is not ruled out that Doncic may have doubts about the Lakers' execution and planning.

Since signing James in 2019, the Lakers have been in the winning mode. They almost used all their young cores in exchange for Davis that year, and then won the championship in 2020. But the team soon fell into a state of spinning on the spot. Getting Doncic should have been another opportunity before James retired, but the problem is that the Lakers seem to have been in the championship mode and can never slow down the pace of building a championship lineup. Instead, they have made many wrong operations.

From a long-term perspective, in order to convince Doncic to spend the rest of his career with the Lakers, the Lakers must make the championship the primary goal, and some long-term planning is inevitably required. After all, this may be the last visible time for the Lakers, or perhaps the most important opportunity to rebuild the championship lineup around a superstar player.

And the Lakers now don't waste much time. Giving up the uncertainty of future maximum-paying players and seizing all the opportunities to build a championship lineup around Doncic is the most realistic and pragmatic choice.

For the Lakers, no matter how much the price they need to pay, let Doncic feel at ease and stay in Los Angeles to succeed James to continue writing the legend. This is the most important mission for the team's senior management..