Shams: Luka Doncic to the Lakers

[danfantastk32]

So why not swing for the fences? We should still be at least in the 1st round of playoffs this year, while focusing further GM actions on retooling and preparing for Luka-centric era.

I'm not so sure the Luka-centric era is gonna prove to be very fruitful. We watched 15 years of this with Harden. There's a "live by the sword, die by the sword" sorta ethos that comes with these complete ball dominators. It can be done. He did reach the Finals last year. And I suppose many would argue that Kobe fit this mold, and when surrounded correctly, it was dominant. Ironically, it would be a beta-male like AD....not another ball heavy player like Lebron, that would work best. At least Lebron is able to adapt like nobody else...his tool box is that full. Sad that he's 40. Even a Mid-30's Lebron would have been intriguing to see with Luka.

I'm not thrilled about this move at all. But I'll give it some time to play out. The Lakers now need to go find that Pau, or AD player to be the 2nd-fiddle / defender / board crasher.

I dunno....if nothing else, its a new day. We're not just circling in our holding pattern anymore. That's nice...for sure. Super happy about that. It's gonna depend now, on how they build around this guy. We're short on picks moving forward. But we will have cap space when Lebron leaves, and Luka is a "young star"....so that's more attractive than trying to build around a 31-32 year old big, with an injury history.

[Ball so hard]

I know some of you wanted a rebuild and to trade AD ... ARe you all happy with this one?

*that was trade AD for PICKS, btw...not just trade. We've gone back and forth for over 6 months...surely you got that*



Well, I'd hate to disappoint by being happy....so I'll take the negative.

Firstly....nice to see the Lakers actually do SOMETHING. I'm not sure I'd call this a swing for the fence, but it's definitely out of the box...I'll give them that. Secondly.....we traded away a 31 year old big for a 25 year old. This is good for "star power", and if you think this is great move, and Luca will attract other stars..then I guess it's good.

Personally: Not the biggest Luca fan. He's a great shooter....but we just got Harden 2.0 Total crap defense. And your gonna live by Luca's shots, and die by Luca's shots. And his flopping is embarrassing. This move, if anything, just made us a worse team (short term). Maybe more moves...so I'll withhold judgement for a bit.

I see we gave away a first round pick. Not into that.

Personally, I woulda rather gone the true rebuild route.....gotten a bunch of picks. Curious to see if Cuban does exactly that: move AD for a bunch of picks...and does a rebuild of his own (I can't be the only one noticing what OKC and Houston have done, and where they are at). I don't think this does much for the Lakers, except kick the "we need to sign a star" can down the road. The FO managed to avoid having to rebuild, and you know....show their talent as a FO....but in the end, we lost the (currently) better player, and gave a 1st round pick away. Kudos to them for getting a young star, and thus avoiding their eventual fate. Well played. But we're a worse team now. I don't think that's debatable.

Far be it from Cuban to ever do the Lakers something close to what would be considered a favor. I'm curious to see what Cuban now does. He's a fool to keep AD, and make any long-term plans. Does he think he can swing a title with those 3 this year? I'll give him that keeping AD for the season and making a push would be reasonable. But if he moves AD this offseason, and gets 3-4 picks (plus the one he got from us)...then we just got played.

So no...I think this sucks. But....maybe there's more. So I'll chill for a few days, and let them do what they gonna do.

Take the win bruh! This is a big time win for us.

[danfantastk32]

Take the win bruh! This is a big time win for us.

We'll see. I agree Luka is a better star to build around that AD - age being the difference. I would rather build around a 25 year old AD personally. I get that Luka is exciting....and like I just posted above...it's nice to have a new day, and not be circling the toilet year after year anymore. But I'm not sure this was the steal of the century. These super ball-dominant guys come with their own set of issues.

[AGAVE]

I’m ok with this trade; albeit losing Christie is painful.
Anyone know if Luka had any issues with Kidd’s coaching or anything?
Just curious.
Now he gets a new young head coach in JJ.
Maybe the change in scenery is helpful.
Hoping the best for all.

[SweetTouch]

Already heard the plan is to get Zion in a couple years , lakers are thinking about the future 3-4 years from now

[danfantastk32]

Already heard the plan is to get Zion in a couple years , lakers are thinking about the future 3-4 years from now

Zion?? God I hope not

[Pointgod]

Our focus should be on preserving cap space for 2027 when Giannis can opt out. Here’s a list of bigs that don’t hurt our cap flexibility. We should not trade our remaining first for a non allstar big, that’s just malpractice. We need to build fill in the roster around Luka.

Rob Williams, Jonas Valancunius, Dayron Sharpe, Isiah Stewart, Goga Bitazde, Andre Drummond, Kevin Looney, Naz Reid, Jusuf Nurkic.

Apart from Naz Reid non of these guys should command a first round pick but you can plug them in for 20-25 minutes at C and they’re passable. Really with Luka we’ll be doing Center by committee so here’s a case where quantity can make up for quality.

[AmusingFiddle]

I feel like throwing up. Excited to have Luka but feel like we betrayed AD and LeBron.

Am still in shock...

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[stan francisco]

i woildn’t be surprised if LBJ opts out and demands a trade out of here after this bs.

Prima Dončić better not show up fat and get injured and, he’d better play team defense as intense as Max Christie(!), and he’d better NOT be a crybaby with the refs and he’d better not have his own training staff. We need to control his fitness regimen or he’ll be fat and injured.

If he can adjust all that diva stuff, I could get with this idiotic signing. Yeah, right, like he would. Luka gets injured more than AD, and he needs the ball in his hands to be effective.

I’m in loud protest of this deal. It sells jerseys for the next ten years. AD doesn’t. Defense doesn’t. Rings do, though.

For us fans it means no more rings for a while. Until Luka starts playing defense. Keeping my fingers crossed that I’m wrong.

We need a real big man!

[AmusingFiddle]

If Kyrie bolts in the off-season, Mavs fans will lose their collective minds. Especially if it's to the Lakers.

I know salary cap etc...but Kyrie is crazy. Both LeBron/Kyrie may take a paycut.

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[MAMBAEMD]

Luka is going to be Luka .
He’s not going to be less of a crybaby just because he’s next to LBJ. He’s a generational talent that you just can’t pass up on when available.
I will miss AD a lot. Rebounding, shot blocking , great individual and team defense, and potent on offense both from outside and inside .
But let’s face it though. On offense , which is the way the league is going, very few people are as talented as Luka. He can create his own shot under any circumstance.
And as far as LBJ asking for a trade to GSW, I don’t see why he’d prefer to play with Steph that much more than to play with Luka. And Luka is 25!

The Lakers will need to get a defensive minded big that is not a huge liability on offense, and ideally do so without giving up Rui or DFS.
They will not trade AR unless the return is someone like Giannis and that won’t happen.

Let’s go Lakers

[Danny Darko]

Our focus should be on preserving cap space for 2027 when Giannis can opt out. Here’s a list of bigs that don’t hurt our cap flexibility. We should not trade our remaining first for a non allstar big, that’s just malpractice. We need to build fill in the roster around Luka.

Rob Williams, Jonas Valancunius, Dayron Sharpe, Isiah Stewart, Goga Bitazde, Andre Drummond, Kevin Looney, Naz Reid, Jusuf Nurkic.

Apart from Naz Reid non of these guys should command a first round pick but you can plug them in for 20-25 minutes at C and they’re passable. Really with Luka we’ll be doing Center by committee so here’s a case where quantity can make up for quality.

Naz would be be a great fit.
Nurkic could be a foul dummy absorbing punishment
Jonas would be useful
Looney is too small for playoff 5
Myles Turner would be exciting

[JKiddy]

This is insane. I feel like we are all living in an alternate reality. This trade would not have even been allowed in 2K. You guys just got saved. Praise the higher one, as the Basketball Gods just blessed you.

[Danny Darko]

hahah

Read on Twitter

[Danny Darko]

was thinking about this after seeing it when we got DFS

Read on Twitter

[Pointgod]

Our focus should be on preserving cap space for 2027 when Giannis can opt out. Here’s a list of bigs that don’t hurt our cap flexibility. We should not trade our remaining first for a non allstar big, that’s just malpractice. We need to build fill in the roster around Luka.

Rob Williams, Jonas Valancunius, Dayron Sharpe, Isiah Stewart, Goga Bitazde, Andre Drummond, Kevin Looney, Naz Reid, Jusuf Nurkic.

Apart from Naz Reid non of these guys should command a first round pick but you can plug them in for 20-25 minutes at C and they’re passable. Really with Luka we’ll be doing Center by committee so here’s a case where quantity can make up for quality.

Naz would be be a great fit.
Nurkic could be a foul dummy absorbing punishment
Jonas would be useful
Looney is too small for playoff 5
Myles Turner would be exciting

I love Myles Turner’s fit but not sure he’s worth giving up our most valuable first round pick for. I’d rather just have a platoon at center until our core is finalized than use the rest of our assets killing any flexibility

[LakersSoul]

They stole our two best defenders. We get a Luka who doesn’t play defense, and not even Lively?

I’m pissed.

Unless LBJ is traded for Wenby tomorrow, AD wins a ring in Dallas before us.

Dallas did it because defense wins championships and because of how much they hate Luka’ whining and bitching.

Luka is my least favorite player in the league. On to a different sport. This will take a decade.

Steal? They stole nothing.

We got the best player in the deal, the one that led them to the Finals last year. 6 years younger and unguardable alpha dog that we needed.

Sucks to lose a faithful player like AD and young talent like Max but he is replaceable.

Lakers future is brighter than ever.

[Landsberger]

Wow! On the surface this seems lopsided. The only negative was the comments about Davis being important to the culture on Dallas.

This is a solid beyond LeBron move. Bravo... now build a balanced team around him and not go for the 3 stars approach that's been the issue for a decade.

[TylersLakers]

Couple thoughts:

1) We have a future! The elephant in the room in all of our Lakers trade discussions was the post-LeBron era. Not a concern anymore. Once LeBron retired, we likely would’ve had to trade AD anyways. In that respect, this is a home run move.

2) If the right moves are made - we also have a chance to contend and win a title this year and next year. I was fully expecting when I saw this trade that we would’ve had another move coming within 2 hours where we trade Rui and Knecht or Austin Reaves for a big. Hasn’t happened yet and it sounds like they just took Luke and said we’ll deal with the rest later.

3) I hope Luka takes this personally. Learn from LeBron, get in the best shape of your life, give a crap defensively.

4) I was really starting to love this group of guys. Outside of the Philly game where they just didn’t show up, I was so impressed with the Washington and Knicks games. So impressed about the Celtics game a couple weeks ago. I figured with one or two more minor moves, we’d have a real chance to get to the Finals and win one more title with LeBron and AD.

5) I will miss the hell out of AD. When he sprinted back in transition and was on it with his effort, he was so damn fun. He was starting to shoot 3’s again and knock them down at a reasonable clip. It’s sad that I won’t see him in a Lakers jersey again.

Let’s see what happens. Myles Turner would be a dream.

[BEazy]

I had to come back and say YOU MF ROB PELINKA! LUKA DONCIC? LETS GOOOOO!!!!