The Los Angeles Lakers have always had some of the brightest stars in history. No matter what era you look at, the Angelenos have always attracted big names with their glamour: Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant,Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James.
Now that the latter, at almost 40 years old, is finishing his career, the franchise has set its next target for when he is no longer there: Luka Doncic.
According to Kevin O’Connor, journalist of ‘The Ringer’, the Lakers “have their sights set on Luka for the future. We’ll see if that works out. Dallas just made the Finals and looks better than ever with their supporting cast.”
LeBron has averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists this season. Statistically, his end seems far off. He just renewed with the Lakers for two seasons and $104 million.
He will fulfill his dream of playing alongside his son Bronny, but it is unknown for how long he will do so. His contract includes a player option that he can exercise in the summer of next year, and he has already warned that he would take it one season at a time.
By all accounts, the first name on the list to replace him is Doncic. The Slovenian point guard comes from being the best scorer of the season with 33.9 points on average, to which he adds 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists.
At the age of 25 and after six seasons, he is a megastar in the NBA. He is just the player profile the Lakers have historically enjoyed.
Doncic may be the highest-paid in history
The problem is that Doncic is very involved in the Dallas Mavericks‘ project, which last season reached the finals, where they fell short against the Boston Celtics.
The point guard, after the individual recognitions he has had, is in line to receive a supermax contract next summer that will make him the highest-paid player in history: it would be for five years starting from the 26-27 season and for a total amount of $346.3 million.
In the 29-30 campaign he would be the first NBA player to exceed 70 million dollars per season, specifically 74m dollars.
There is not much confidence in the Lakers that Anthony Davis will be the man on which to build the project when LeBron is no longer around, so they will have to look for a new standard bearer.
