When Luka Doncic flew to Los Angeles to be with his new team, the plane was a de facto time machine to 2020, ‘21 and ‘22.

He went to the Lakers, but in effect he is on his old Mavericks team.

In the biggest trade in NBA history, the real loser right now is Doncic. He went from a team that reached the NBA Finals in 2024, and is now on a roster that is not that much different than the ones he carried to the playoffs.

Luka Doncic’s current predicament

The NBA playoffs are into its second round, and neither Luka’s current team nor his old one are in it. Luka leaving the Mavericks to Los Angeles pushed his timeline to win an NBA title back years.

In the immediate hours, and now days, after the Lakers were easily defeated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games from their first round playoff series, the rhetoric from Los Angeles had a distinct Mavericks vibe.

After his team lost, first-year Lakers coach J.J. Redick made a point to say that his team must be in “championship shape” for the 2025-’26 season.

“We have a ways to go as a roster," Redick said in a press conference last week. “And certainly, there are individuals that were in phenomenal shape. There’s certainly other ones that could have been in better shape.”

Put this through the Coach BS Translator and it reads: “I see now the issues the Mavericks had with Luka. I get it.”

What Redick asked of Doncic in that series, as well as the rest of his team’s starters, was coaching criminality. In one game, Redick now infamously played his starting five the entire second half without a break.

There were also multiple times in that series against the Timberwolves where Luka’s defense was not a case of fatigue but continued disinterest. As is so often with a European, his approach to defense is akin to mowing the lawn; he might do it today, but he’s more apt to hope someone else does it.

This is who he is; the bulk of his energy will be spent trying to score. All teams (and their GMs) have to stop thinking he will embrace a defensive stance like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Luka’s approach to defense is similar to Denver’s Nikola Jokic, who happens to be European.

Our memories have turned Dirk Nowitzki into Ben Wallace.

Doncic is still good enough to carry just about any NBA roster to 45 regular-season wins by himself, and into the playoffs. Whether it’s the points he scores, or the cavernous spaces he creates for others, his teams can beat nearly any NBA team once because of his offense.

In a seven-game series not so much.

It’s what he did for the Mavericks in 2020, ‘21 and ‘22.

The Los Angeles Mavericks

In ‘22, Doncic had a developed Jalen Brunson next to him in the playoffs, but the team that reached the Western Conference finals that spring was a 3-point shooting squad with zero inside presence. It’s a reason why the Warriors handled the Mavs in five games.

The following season, a team without Brunson struggled and traded for Kyrie Irving from the Nets. The fear within the Mavericks was that if they didn’t acquire a player of Irving’s talent, Luka was leaving in free agency.

Irving and Doncic together were deadly, and once the team added inside players like Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively, along with P.J. Washington, they had a Finals-caliber roster.

Luka is now on a team is playoff-caliber. Not “championship worthy.”

Doncic’s best teammate is a man who will turn 41 this year. LeBron James has stitched the best career of any player in NBA history; with the exception of Tom Brady, James defies age unlike any professional athlete in history.

The only people who believe “40 is the new 30” are 41-year-olds who are lying to themselves, and believe they haven’t aged a day.

What LeBron is doing is absurd, and what Doncic really needs is an All-Star center. A center, like, say, Anthony Davis.

Lakers GM Rob Pelinka had to give up AD to acquire Doncic, but Nico Harrison’s good friend acknowledged the swap created a massive hole in his lineup. A hole the size that Pelinka misjudged.

Until the Lakers find Luka a center or two, and a younger, competent running buddy to replace LeBron, Luka is “stuck” on another playoff team that is not good enough to win an NBA title.

There are worse things than being stuck on the beach in Los Angeles, but he’s about to discover that being Luka with the Mavericks is much different than being Luka with the Lakers. The Lakers are the one team in Southern California that brings out the “New Yorker” in Angelenos.

Laker Luka means he’s the starting shortstop for the Yankees, and the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

And a trade he did not want set his chances to win an NBA title back years.

____

©2025 Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit star-telegram.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.