What the Lakers' early exit tells us about their future with Luka
THE SHOT CLOCK ticked under one second, and in an attempt that would be considered outrageous for some, and audacious for even him, Luka Doncic stepped back to evade the reach of Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels' 6-foot-11 wingspan and launched a parabola toward the Crypto.com Arena ceiling.
The ball landed softly in the net, beating the shot clock and lifting the Lakers to a one-point lead with 6:30 remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 5 on Wednesday night.
"Lu-ka! Lu-ka!" chants filled the building. Doncic sneered as he backpedaled down court, wielding his patented mix of will and savvy -- even as his body was betraying him after tweaking his back during a first-half collision with Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo.
In that instant, Doncic was the brash gunslinger for which he has become known; the Los Angeles Lakers were the team with more to prove; and Laker Nation was reminded of the feeling of unlimited hope they had that late Saturday night in early February when first hearing about one of the most shocking trades in league history.
As it turns out, it was the last glimpse of glory for the Lakers' 2024-25 season.
It was the last shot Doncic made and the last lead L.A. held as Minnesota closed on a 16-8 run and the Lakers missed nine of their final 12 shots (with Doncic missing has last two).
The swift dissipation of momentum mirrored the Lakers' season -- and Doncic's. No one could relate more to a seismic turn of events than him.
The changes he endured after being traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Lakers three months ago were innumerable and all-encompassing.
The 26-year-old -- a first-team All-NBA selection in each of the past five seasons -- went from being a franchise icon and hopeful second coming to a one-team Hall-of-Famer, to being sent to a team built around LeBron James with a history of its own legendary stars.
It was a season of transformational change, warring narratives and rebirth.
It wasn't all unfamiliar. Doncic did bring his Dallas pregame ritual to Los Angeles. At the conclusion of his spot shooting around the 3-point arc, Doncic launches three half-court shots. If he makes one, several Lakers assistant coaches who rebound for him have to do pushups. If he misses all three, Doncic owes the coaches body-weight squats or pushups of his own, which he completes at the center court circle.
It's a small example of Doncic seeking comfort and routine in a season void of either. But it was a response to the whispers about him coming out of the trade -- a commitment to squeezing in extra conditioning after joining the Lakers with a strained left calf that sidelined him for 5½ weeks, sources told ESPN.
His game-day routine starts at 9 a.m. with bodywork, shots, weightlifting and a cold tub plunge, sources said. Maintaining his pregame routine, fun though it is, was a sign, one source said, of Doncic recognizing the sooner he got back to peak form with his new team, the sooner the Lakers could reach their full potential.
The vision for their potential outpaced their actual performance. Wednesday night capped a disappointing five-game, first-round loss to a Minnesota team that was bigger, deeper and younger. The Lakers, in most every way, were outplayed.
Their season was, in many ways, a race against time: Doncic trying to fast-track his recovery and integration in the Lakers' ecosystem; first-year coach JJ Redick trying to expedite his learning curve; president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka trying to revamp the roster around Doncic; and James somehow again delivering championship-level play for his team after turning 40 years old.
Time ran out to develop chemistry. Time ran out to acquire a center to both pair with Doncic and protect the rim. Time is running out on James.
"I don't know," James said after Game 5, when asked how much longer he'll play. "I don't have the answer to that."
The Lakers entered the series as the favorites to advance. They now enter the offseason much earlier than expected -- with questions and uncertainty.
Lakers star LeBron James discusses his future in the league and how much longer he will continue to play.
THE LAKERS' POSTSEASON slogan, "Unleash Joy," was supposed to invoke Doncic's demeanor in those half-court shootouts. The team even promoted it with an email, stating the motto was for their "2025 playoff run."
That run ended in 12 days. The Lakers lost Game 1 -- the first playoff opener they hosted in L.A. since James joined the team in 2018 -- by 22 points. They responded with a win in Game 2 before losing the next two straight in Minneapolis, being outscored by 20 combined over the last five minutes of both games.
L.A.'s most glaring deficiency was in the frontcourt.
Three days after trading Anthony Davis to Dallas for Doncic, the Lakers orchestrated a deal with the Charlotte Hornets to land 7-footer Mark Williams, a tantalizing but injury-prone young center who was supposed to provide Doncic a vertical threat around the rim other than Jaxson Hayes. Williams was Doncic's preferred lob partner out of a list of potential trade targets and told the team so, sources said, after Doncic had been so effective with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in Dallas.
The deal was agreed upon the night before the trade deadline, a buzzer-beater by the Lakers' front office after already successfully negotiating the Doncic deal and the acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets in late December.
Only Williams never suited up for L.A. He failed the team's physical examination, and the Lakers "just couldn't live with what they saw," a source with knowledge of the subject told ESPN.
The trade was rescinded, a rarity in the NBA, sending Williams back to Charlotte and rookie Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish and a future first-round pick back to L.A.
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— Mark Williams (@MarkWi1liams) May 1, 2025
With the deadline passed, Pelinka couldn't put together another trade with the same assets, so L.A. signed 7-footer Alex Len off the waiver wire. Len, sources said, was already waiting in an Indianapolis hotel to sign with the Pacers after being released by the Sacramento Kings but was enticed by the chance to play with James, Doncic and the Lakers and changed course.
Len joined the team but didn't crack Redick's rotation. After signing with L.A., Len played in only 10 of 31 games. Meanwhile, Williams played 21 games down the stretch for Charlotte, averaging 14.9 points per game on 62.5% shooting.
Redick played Hayes the first four minutes of Game 4 before benching him for the rest of the series.
As if depth wasn't already a strength for Minnesota, which added two rotation players for the price of one by trading Karl-Anthony Towns to New York before the season for Julius Randle and DiVincenzo to strengthen a group that reached the conference finals a year ago, it became even more pronounced as the series wore on and Redick tightened his rotation even more.
Redick inserted Finney-Smith in Hayes' place with the rest of the starters and played those five players the entire second half in Game 4 -- a widely criticized strategy that had never been done before in a playoff game in the nearly 30 years since substitution data started being tracked in 1997, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It was a high-stakes gamble in a high-stakes moment, and Redick lost.
But the first-year coach doubled down on it before Game 5, responding to a question asking whether he'd consulted his assistant coaches before playing Doncic, coming off a stomach virus that severely limited him in Game 3, and James, who was dealing with a left hip flexor and left groin issue coming into the postseason, for 24 straight minutes.
"Are you saying that because I'm inexperienced, and that was an inexperienced decision that I made?" Redick asked. "Do you think I don't talk to my assistants about substitutions every single timeout?
"That's a weird assumption," he said, before walking out of the news conference.
After the game, emotions raw, Redick acknowledged his room for growth as a coach.
"I know I can be better," he said. "I know I will get better. I don't necessarily take any satisfaction from how the year went. That's not to say I'm not proud of what the group was able to do, and how we were able to figure things out on the fly, and put ourselves in a position to have home court in the first round, but there's always ways to get better and I can get a lot better."
After Game 1, Wolves 6-9 forward Jaden McDaniels said he took advantage of the Lakers' lack of size.
"I just noticed at certain times when they had no rim protector in the game, when Jaxson Hayes wasn't on the court," he said. "If he's not on the court, I'm basically the tallest person out there. So I don't think no one could rim protect me."
McDaniels scored a team-high 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting.
In Game 5, the Lakers were outrebounded 54-37, including 18-8 on the offensive glass.
"We couldn't get rebounds," Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said. "We need someone to get rebounds."
Rudy Gobert and his 7-1 frame had nine offensive boards and 24 total, and scored 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting.
"Gobert looked like Shaq," a team source told ESPN after the game.
Sitting at the lectern after the Lakers' season-ending loss, James was asked if playing center-less ball for the final three months of the season had impacted him or the series.
"No comment," James said with a smirk. "I'd never say that. Because my guy AD said it, what he needed, and he was gone the following week."
THERE WERE HEADY moments this season that showed a compelling proof of concept, such as an eight-game winning streak in late February against a string of quality opponents including Denver, Minnesota, New York and two victories against the Clippers.
And there were head-scratching losses, including one in Brooklyn and two in six days against the Chicago Bulls. The first was an inexplicable 31-point blowout. The second, which ended with a Josh Giddey 47-foot buzzer-beater, portended some of the issues that ultimately doomed this season.
After leading by 16 coming into the fourth quarter, the Lakers faded. Up five with 12 seconds left, Bulls wing Patrick Williams hit an open 3 to make it 115-113.
On the ensuing inbounds, James threw a bad pass, which was stolen by Giddey, who passed to an open Coby White for a 26-foot 3 to give the Bulls the lead.
James, after a late-season road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, acknowledged the team remained a work in progress.
"We're just trying to rack up great habits," James said. "It's about habits. We're just trying to build our habits right now, going into the final stretch of the season."
Habits are reinforced through repetition. They are honed by trial and error.
"It was like speed dating," one team source told ESPN. "Even if it's going well, it's not like your pick-up lines are going to work on every partner. There's only so much time to put in work."
Still, the Lakers have reason for optimism. In James' first season with the Lakers, they missed the playoffs. The next season, after adding Davis, they won the title. In Doncic's first season with Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks missed the playoffs. After reshaping their supporting cast at midseason, they reached the Finals the next year.
A source close to Doncic told ESPN that the Slovenian star beat Minnesota last season with a Dallas Mavericks team "built around him." In L.A, the source said, "Luka inherited these players and these players inherited Luka."
The Lakers were trying to reframe their offensive and defensive systems -- already new to begin with after Redick took over for the fired Darvin Ham -- and cater them to Doncic's strengths, while trying to mask his weaknesses.
Whereas Nico Harrison, Mavericks president of basketball operations and general manager, decided the warts outweighed Doncic's wizardry, the Lakers relish the task of unlocking the ultimate version of the star guard.
"It's incredibly exciting to have the promise of him in our next decade of Laker basketball with being able to build a team around him and him being at the center of our franchise," Pelinka said Thursday, speaking to reporters during an end-of-season news conference.
Luka Doncic reflects on his time with the Lakers since being traded and is still processing after Los Angeles' first-round exit.
AFTER THE EARLY exit, Doncic will finally get to exhale. One source close to him says this season was "the most unexpected year of Luka's life."
He will spend the summer playing for the Slovenian men's national basketball team at EuroBasket, sources said. 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.
Redick, joining Pelinka for Thursday's news conference, laid out his offseason expectations for the team. Delivering a message seemingly aimed at Doncic, Redick said: "We have to get in championship shape."
On Aug. 2, the Lakers can offer Doncic a four-year, $229 million extension. Doncic could also opt to sign a three-year, $165 million extension with a player option in 2028, according to ESPN NBA front office insider Bobby Marks, which would then allow him to sign a max deal in 2028 that would give him 35% of the salary cap for five seasons.
Sources close to Doncic say he will take his time with his decision, even though he told ESPN's Malika Andrews before the playoffs that he wants to stay in Los Angeles.
Doncic was publicly and privately heartbroken by the trade to the Lakers. He'd said he wanted to retire in Dallas. But there is a silver lining to be found, a balm to heal the wounds of a defeat that raises more questions than answers.
"For Luka," a source close to Doncic told ESPN, "he's kind of like, 'I'm wanted here.'"
James made a concerted effort to empower Doncic since he arrived in L.A., sources said, and will not try to sway his teammate's decision.
"No, that ain't my job," James told ESPN. "I think ... I don't think, I know, Luka knows how I feel about him. And ultimately, that trade happened for the future. That's not for me. Luka has to decide what he has to do with his future. He's [26] years old, I'm 40, so he can't be basing his career off me. That's just real.
"But I hope, obviously, [he stays long term]. Laker fans f---ing love him here. L.A. has accepted him. We love him as a teammate, as a brother. But ultimately, he's got to make a decision for him. S---, I ain't going to be around much longer."
The Lakers have made it clear they want to invest in Doncic for the long term.
"I think Luka Doncic joining forces with the Los Angeles Lakers is a seismic event in NBA history," Pelinka said at his introductory news conference.
But until that day in August comes, the team will be tasked with selling its vision and showing Doncic that this year's first-round loss was an aberration, a bumpy start to what they hope is a long and fruitful journey together.
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