The Los Angeles Lakers will have to build around Luka Doncic every year he's on the team. That's an exciting prospect — Luka is, at worst, the third-most talented player in basketball, and building around him is a privilege. It's also a stressful one, though — having to build an entire team around any one player is a precarious position to be in.
Most teams in the NBA try to complement their star with talent, but few teams employ someone like Luka, whose incredible workload on offense makes it essential to surround him with a very specific type of player. In 2023-24, the Mavericks did that. They gave Luka a co-star in point guard Kyrie Irving, then about 9 athletic, 3-and-D wings, and multiple rim-running, lob-catching big men.
The Lakers will need to find a similar formula to maximize Luka's strengths and the strengths of the players around him. Austin Reaves is a great start, of course, and Deandre Ayton could be that lob-catcher, but he's on just a one-year deal and will likely need to be replaced next year.
It sounds simple — but actually finding players who fit those roles on a yearly basis is harder than it seems. Can the Lakers do it consistently for the next face of their franchise?
The Lakers will need to rebuild roster every year around Luka Doncic
We've seen it happen all around the league; in today's climate, with a CBA that punishes big-spending teams, roster turnover is more common than it's ever been. Teams are essentially forced into parting ways with vital players and then hoping to find a replacement on the open market, via trade, or in free agency. Sometimes that works — oftentimes it doesn't.
It certainly helps that, well, this is the Lakers we're talking about, and guys will always want to play alongside Luka and Austin. It won't be difficult to find players to join the Lakers, but finding the right combination still isn't easy. If that 3-and-D wing doesn't actually shoot well from deep, or the rim-running center misses time because he's injury-prone, things can fall apart quickly.
No one's going to feel bad that the Lakers have a tough task in building the perfect team around Luka every season with how often teams change in the modern NBA, because they have to keep building that same way... And they don't have Luka to do it around.