{"id":36895,"date":"2025-07-04T02:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T02:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36895\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T02:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T02:23:10","slug":"luka-doncic-contract-decision-most-important-domino-in-nba-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36895\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic contract decision ‘most important’ domino in NBA offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s future is hanging over the NBA offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During an appearance on \u201cNBA Today\u201d Thursday<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst said all eyes are on the Lakers superstar, who is due for a contract extension this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost would argue the most important thing in the whole NBA this summer is Luka Don\u010di\u0107, whether he extends or not, because that frames so much of what the Lakers are going to do, and frankly, the whole league would do,\u201d Windhorst said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I don\u2019t want to put too much pressure on it, but the Lakers really need to get him locked down, even if it\u2019s for a couple of years to verify that he\u2019s bought into what they\u2019re doing,\u201d added Windhorst.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) reacts during the second half in game five of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

In early August, Doncic will become eligible to sign a four-year, $228 million extension with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

He will become an unrestricted free agent in 2026-27 if the two sides can\u2019t come to terms on a deal, setting up what could be a historic sweepstakes for Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Don\u010di\u0107 decision looms as fellow Lakers star LeBron James\u2019 name is swirling in trade rumors<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James opted into his $52.6 million deal for next season, but his agent Rich Paul hinted that he could push for a trade<\/a> if he doesn\u2019t like what he sees from Lakers GM Rob Pelinka this offseason.<\/p>\n

The Lakers have filled in their roster around Don\u010di\u0107 and James, signing center Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia to free agent deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\" Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) moves the ball against Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels (3) and center Rudy Gobert (27) during the first half in game five of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

The franchise is also facing an uncertain future with guard Austin Reaves, who declined a max extension<\/a> worth $89.2 million over the next four seasons with the team last month.<\/p>\n

On top of everything going on with the roster, the Lakers were sold for approximately $10 billion<\/a> \u2014 the largest sale ever of a U.S. pro sports franchise \u2014 to businessman Mark Walter, ending 46 years of majority ownership by the Buss family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s future is hanging over the NBA offseason.\u00a0 During an appearance on \u201cNBA Today\u201d Thursday, ESPN\u2019s Brian…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3363,3141,3365,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-36895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-lebron-james","9":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","10":"tag-luka-doncic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114792589206812975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}