Why Lakers, Luka Doncic are running out of time already amid playoff exit
The clock is ticking in LA.
Why Lakers, Luka Doncic are running out of time already amid playoff exit originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . For Luka Doncic, "running it back" in the 2026-27 NBA season isn't an option.
Upon the Los Angeles Lakers ' playoff elimination, Doncic now expects team management to live up to reported "promises" it made him before he signed a three-year, $165 million extension nine months ago. Doncic did not play a single minute of playoff basketball after he suffered a hamstring strain against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2. Six weeks later, that same Thunder team swept the Lakers out of the playoffs with a 115-110 win on Monday night.
MORE : Lakers predicted to cut ties with Austin Reaves, acquire $175 million Bucks 10-time All-Star The second-round sweep obviously brings a myriad of questions about LeBron James' future with the Lakers. But Los Angeles also has to worry about satisfying Doncic's ambition to win a championship. According to Sam Amick and Dan Woke of The Athletic , Doncic expects the Lakers to retain Austin Reaves as just the start of a significant retool this summer.
That retool sounds like it's going to cost Los Angeles a lot of money -- and it will shuffle a lot of players in and out of the Lakers' locker room. "The promises made to Dončić and his representatives before he signed an extension with the Lakers weren’t to have one good month. And they weren’t to undertake a slow build, to count on marginal improvements built by continuity and internal growth.