Column: Luka Doncic joins Lakers with bad baggage … and that’s a good thing
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He’s fat. He’s lazy. He can’t stay healthy.
“It’s a motive,” said Luka Doncic. “I know it’s not true. I know. But it’s a motive … it’s a big motive for a long run here.”
He can’t play defense. He’s a bad investment. He’ll never reach his potential.
“That’s their decision so I have no comment on that,” said Doncic. “They made a decision. I don’t know why. So, but, that’s their decision so I can’t do nothing about it.”
You could hear the hurt. You could see the pain. When the Lakers newest superstar showed up in El Segundo Tuesday morning, the handshakes and hugs could not mask a scowl and a chip.
Doncic arrives clearly wounded. He arrives staggered under heaps of awkward baggage. He arrives unlike any incoming Lakers star in franchise history — he is only here because his former team pushed him out.
While All-NBA star Luka Doncic was shocked by the trade, he then realized “This is the Lakers. It’s one of the best clubs in history. So I’m excited to be here.”
Think about that. He was only traded here for Anthony Davis because the Dallas Mavericks didn’t think he was worth the trouble. The team that employed him for his seven-year NBA career, the people that knew him best, didn’t want him anymore.
There were whispers of conditioning concerns, durability issues and the worry that he wouldn’t be worth the giant contract he was eligible to sign this summer. But no matter what the reasoning, the messaging was undeniable.
Bottom line: The Mavericks kicked Luka Doncic to the curb.
And as much as general manager Rob Pelinka tried to make Doncic feel wanted during the kid’s initial Lakers news conference, Doncic still showed up as damaged goods, one of the league’s five best players toting an obliterated ego and a dazed stare.
“You can imagine how surprised I was,” Doncic said of the trade. “I was almost asleep, so when I got a call, I had to check if it was April 1st. I didn’t really believe it at first and it was a big shock. It was a hard moment for me. It was home. It was really hard moments for me.”
Big shock? Hard moments? You know what?
Good.
This is tough on Doncic but perfect for the Lakers, who have been suddenly provided an atmosphere of humility and urgency for their child prodigy.
They don’t want Doncic to feel entitled, and maybe now he won’t. He has too much to prove.
“I have everything left to prove,” he said.
They don’t want Doncic to butt heads with LeBron James, and maybe now he won’t. Given the vast difference in their conditioning and championship reputation, here’s guessing Doncic will at least listen to James.
“It’s just like a dream come true, I always look up to him, there’s so many things I could learn from him,” said Doncic. “And I’m just excited, just to learn everything and now I get to play with him. So it’s an amazing feeling.”
They need Doncic to play like a man on a mission, and maybe now he will, because is there a more fervent mission than that of a jilted lover trying to prove their worth?
And make no mistake, Doncic’s mission is now the Lakers’ mission. During Tuesday’s 30-minute news conference the team barely mentioned James. The ownership of the Lakers has seemingly been transferred. The place now belongs to Luka.
“I can’t think of a more amazing starting point to build a roster for the next decade,” said Pelinka of Doncic. “And I know he has the drive to win that we have here. Our fans are going to see that every night on the court. I know up here he might seem calm and casual and quiet, but we know the alter ego comes out.”
There is plenty to learn about the new Lakers star and his coach, a former teammate who spoke highly then of the player who is now the team’s future leader.
At present, that alter ego is teeming with anger, even though Doncic won’t admit it. He didn’t have to admit it. His father, Sasa Doncic, did it for him.
In an interview with the Slovenian media network Arena Sport 1 earlier this week, Sasa ripped the Mavericks for the way they treated his son.
“[Luka’s conditioning] wasn’t even a problem last year since, I am saying again, one individual said he’s not fit enough,” Sasa told the network. “That he played, I don’t know, 100 games — practically 40 minutes with two or three players constantly on him.”
He added, “That he was beaten, and you say such things about him — I feel that this is very unfair from certain individuals. You traded him, stand by your actions, but don’t look for excuses or alibis, that’s it.”
To be fair, the Mavericks had a good point about Doncic’s conditioning. This season he had reportedly ballooned to 270 pounds on his 6-foot-6 frame, and the extra weight has hampered his comeback from a calf injury that has sidelined him since Christmas. Last spring, in a very public message about the Mavericks’ conditioning concerns, a team official was caught on video taking a beer out of Doncic’s hands during a postgame celebration.
The weight fears are real. But so are his five straight seasons on the All-NBA first team and last season’s amazing playoff run that led the Mavericks into the NBA Finals against the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
After Doncic answered local journalist Mark Medina’s question about conditioning with the motivation quote, Pelinka jumped in and basically said that the Lakers were going to work with Doncic on getting him in the best possible shape.
“I think greatness is an evolution and a process,” said Pelinka. “And I think if you’re striving for perfection as we are as an organization or as a player, you’re going to have challenges to make yourself better until you don’t play anymore. So I think that’s just something to keep in mind.”
Doncic said that his defense was part of that evolution.
“I think this year, I really stepped it up … honestly, It’s just being more active, more vocal and I think I did a step ahead this year,” he said. “But I need to do more steps ahead. So that’s what I’m planning on.”
He ended the news conference with a smile. But it took a while, and didn’t last long. Doncic knows this is serious business. His Lakers career begins with him needing Mavericks’ closure. It begins with him seeking Mavericks revenge.
It begins with him addressing the question: Who exactly is Luka Doncic?
Since witnessing such a stunningly one-sided trade, the basketball world has been asking, did Dallas really know something nobody else knew?
We’re about to find out.
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