Star Luka Doncic says he’s taken a “huge step” in improving his conditioning ahead of his first full campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers following a blockbuster in-season trade from the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n
“Just visually, I would say my whole body looks better,” Doncic told Men’s Health magazine’s Andrew Heffernan and Ebenezer Samuel<\/a> in an article published Monday.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old has been working out with a trainer and physiotherapist for the past two months in Croatia while adhering to a strict gluten-free and low-sugar diet.<\/p>\n “If I stop now,” Doncic said about offseason efforts to enhance his health and conditioning, “it was all for nothing.”<\/p>\n A calf injury and other minor setbacks limited Doncic to 50 games between the Lakers and Mavericks in 2024-25 – his first season playing fewer than 60 contests across his seven-year NBA career.<\/p>\n Doncic’s conditioning reportedly<\/a> factored into general manager Nico Harrison and the Mavericks’ decision to move the five-time All-NBA first-team selection. Lakers coach JJ Redick also said<\/a> after L.A.’s first-round playoff exit against the Minnesota Timberwolves that the roster needed to get into “championship shape” over the offseason.<\/p>\n “Every summer I try my best to work on different things,” Doncic told Men’s Health. “Obviously, I’m very competitive. This summer was just a little bit different, you know. It kind of motivated me to be even better.”<\/p>\n Doncic added, “This year, with my team, I think we did a huge step. But this is just the start, you know. I need to keep going.”<\/p>\n The five-time All-Star said he drew inspiration from Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant for his offseason workouts, pointing out how the legendary pair “sacrificed a lot.”<\/p>\n Doncic, the 2018 third overall pick and a former Rookie of the Year, admitted there’s been a learning curve in understanding what’s required to reach the game’s upper echelon.<\/p>\n “When I came to the NBA, I was 18,” Doncic said. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect those first four or five years. Then I said, ‘I need to do this.'”<\/p>\n Entering his eighth season, Doncic added that he hasn’t felt this good in years, saying: “My sleeping, my body, my everything … I felt more rested.”<\/p>\n Doncic, who has a $48.9-million player option for 2026-27, is eligible to sign an extension with the Lakers on Aug. 2. Although he can’t receive a super-max contract following the trade from Dallas, Doncic could agree to a short-term extension and position himself for a significant raise when he reaches 10 years of service time and qualifies for a higher maximum salary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Star Luka Doncic says he’s taken a “huge step” in improving his conditioning ahead of his first full…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-99924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114932066779575760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99924","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=99924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}