Los Angeles Lakers fans were over the moon when LA acquired Luka Doncic less than a calendar year ago in a trade that people are still writing about. On paper, the idea of Luka teaming up with LeBron James screamed "superteam", but the reality of the situation has been different.
Luka's offensive arsenal hasn't become any less dangerous in a purple and gold uniform, but Lakers fans have become uncomfortably acquainted with his defensive shortcomings. Furthermore, the LeBron-Luka timeline being way off is more of an inconvenience than fans initially considered.
Combine this with LA's other issues, and you begin to realize something that The Ringer's Zach Lowe talked about in a recent podcast: The Lakers aren't going to be a contender right away in the Luka era.
Lakers fans realizing Luka Doncic's arrival didn't immediately activate a title window
Lowe spent a portion of The Zach Lowe Show discussing LA's awful defense and the general malaise surrounding the team this year. In diagnosing the Lakers' issues, Lowe reminded us that Luka was acquired less than a year ago in a situation that the Lakers weren't exactly prepared for.
Lowe discussed how, no matter the spin on the genius of the trade, Doncic fell into the Lakers' lap. They were not ready for him.
"They lucked into a player who didn't have a team designed optimally around him," Lowe said. "And eventually, they'll have to retool, and retool, and retool, but it was always gonna take more than a calendar year to do that.”
General manager Rob Pelinka made decent changes to the roster this offseason in an effort to make the team better suited to Luka's strengths. Pelinka went out and snagged 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart to help offset Luka's bad defense. Pelinka also added a lob threat and big body to help clog the paint defensively in Deandre Ayton.
Smart has been more or less what the Lakers expected, while Ayton has underwhelmed. With LeBron and Austin Reaves missing some time this season, second-year head coach JJ Redick has struggled to keep any sort of momentum rolling just as much as he's struggled to motivate the Lakers to play hard. It's been an up-and-down rollercoaster of a season that looks nothing like a championship path.
The Lakers aren't a contender right now, and they're unlikely to be when the playoffs begin. Retooling around Luka was always going to be a two or three-year process (at minimum), even if the most hopeful fans expected immediate contention.
If every Pelinka move was perfect, if LeBron were four or five years younger, if JJ Redick were an experienced coach, and if the Lakers were facing a more flexible cap situation, maybe things would be sunnier in LA.
But none of that is realistic. The truth is, Luka entered a far from perfect situation when he joined the Lakers.