Is Luka Doncic replacing LeBron James as the Lakers’ star player? | NBA Today

Is Luka Doncic replacing LeBron James as the Lakers’ star player? | NBA Today

How much pressure do you have to perform from day one? There’s no pressure. There’s no pressure at all. I’ve been getting pressure since I was 10 years old. I don’t think there’s no pressure for me because I’m doing something that I love to do and that’s play the game of basketball. Here he comes the other way. There’s your first James jam. Oh, LeBron James with no record for human life. I’m not going to guarantee no championship. I tell you that. I’m going just try to do the best I can. Oh, blocked by James. Cleveland, this is for you. Laker Nation want their respect and I want my damn respect, too. LeBron James is now the alltime leading score. This is a one of the long-term dreams I always had. To be able to be along my son has been one of the most gratifying journeys. The first fatherson duo in an NBA game to the cutting. Look out. The legend of LeBron continues to grow. Who else but the king? One thing I always say, don’t never let somebody tell you you can’t achieve something. Don’t never let nobody tell you that. 23 years in and number 23 is still going. Already the game’s all-time leading scorer. And when LeBron James plays in his 50th game this season, he will become the all-time games played leader, officially having stepped on an NBA floor more times than any of the 5,000 plus players in NBA history. But heading into the season, LeBron finds himself maybe in some unfamiliar territory. The Lakers, they spent the summer prioritizing a deal with Luca Donuch. And that makes sense. He agreed to a three-year $165 million deal with the allworld talent. And yesterday, they announced a new contract with JJ Reic after he won 50 games and secured the number three seed in the Western Conference in his first season as head coach. But the Lakers, they did not reach an extension with LeBron. Ultimately, it led to James picking up his 52.6 6 million option for the 202526 season, fueling the speculation about the superstars future with the team set to open training camp next week. So we need a little bit more information on all of that. So for that we welcome back in our senior insider Sham Shiranya. Before we dig into this just a little bit further, let’s focus on what has happened here. JJ Reick did get an extension. Shams, how did the Lakers agree to this? Mica, so I’m told the Lakers gave JJ Reic a 2-year extension. So that gives him a total of five years through 2029 2030 at $45 million. So this makes it clear JJ Reic is the coach not just now but moving forward for the long term beyond just the LeBron James era in Los Angeles. And as these coaching contracts are continuing to go up as his deal is starting to end and as as he has one year tick off, they wanted to make sure they gave him two extra years. So he’s locked in there till 2030. All right. So JJ Reic, that extension is taken care of. So now we can talk about the extension that we did not see. JJ Reic and team president Rob Pelinka spoke on LeBron James’ future. Take a listen. The first thing we want to do in terms of LeBron and his future is just give him absolute respect to choose his story with his family in terms of how many years he’s going to continue to play. um he’s earned that right and he’s the best one to talk about that in terms of how many years he’d like to play. First things first would be for him to be able to make the decisions he wants to in terms of how long he wants to play. We’re going to continue to honor and respect that and let him speak into that. was able to spend some time with him in here in LA a couple weeks ago and I came away from that thinking that he’s in a a great spot mentally and um know he’s going to give us our his absolute best. Our NBA reporter Dave McMenan was in that room yesterday. Dave, what do you take away from from JJ and Rob’s comments here? Well, I followed up with Rob after he gave his initial answer saying that he would be welcome to LeBron deciding where his future goes. And I said, “What if LeBron’s decision is in the summer of 2026, he wants to resign with the Lakers?” And Rob said, “We would love if LeBron retired as a Laker.” He didn’t discuss the option of actually extending another deal. And to me, that was, you know, notable, the fact that he spoke about the idea of LeBron retiring a Laker, not retiring in 26, 27 as a Laker, retiring as a Laker. Right. essentially after after this season is reading between those lines. So, do the decisions they’ve made this summer signal to you, Tim, that LeBron he’s going to be in the purple and gold for for multiple years beyond just this year? I I think it goes back to Dave’s questions, why it was the right thing to ask yesterday, which is what are the plans for both LeBron James and the Lakers? Like, yeah, you could say the Lakers have made things better and maybe LeBron will want to stay, but that doesn’t get back to the central question of do the Lakers want LeBron James back? And right now I think going through this season this is all going to be about you know as you look at the depth chart here that the Lakers have are both sides in this marriage beyond this season or is this a marriage of convenience for right now because there wasn’t a better option on the table and will for either side there be a better option next summer. Perhaps there won’t be a better option for either side and they come back for another year or perhaps the Lakers can get some different players that they want to have around Luca Duchic instead or perhaps LeBron James could find a place he’d rather be. But I think until we get clarity from either LeBron or the Lakers that they definitely want to be together after this year, I don’t think this question is going away. And I suspect Dave will be asking it a few more times throughout the season. LeBron James focus is really just on this season and his future beyond that is really dependent on how this team is doing and where does this team stack up, how what kind of start they get get off to. And the one request he has made that Rich Paul gave in his statement on the opt-in day right before July was he wants to see action for this team to become a title contender and compete for a championship. Outside of that, LeBron James, my understanding is he hasn’t been involved at all in Lakers operations. He’s going to report for media day training camp and we’ll see how this team looks, but there hasn’t been the inquiries from LeBron James on on what’s going on here, what’s going on there. He’s been enjoying his summer and then he’s going to report on media day and we’ll be off to the races from there. And when we talk about how this team looks, Shan, we have to think about what they have in terms of assets to make the team better if they don’t look as good as everybody wants them to be, all the stakeholders. So, what does that mean? Does it mean that they’re going to be moving on from some of the expiring contracts that they can put together to go after, you know, a player that’s out there on the market? Does it mean the 2031 or 2032 draft pick that they have available, they can trade one of them? Will they put that towards the center of the table? And will there be a tension if they don’t? Because perhaps LeBron James’ camp would say, “Are you planning for the future when we’re not here and then you’re only use it then?” Or we heard that you want to make this team as competitive as possible. If we need to pivot here, let’s put all the assets to the table. Uh Luca Dantage is going to be a huge part of the way this team looks this year, right? And I get the sense from talking to him all summer, spending time with him, not only just here, but at the Backstreet Boys. um that that this is this is his life now. This is his routine. This is just a daily commitment to to the new standard that he’s set for himself. Um his excitement level, not just in what he hopes this season will be, but his excitement level in embracing this new standard uh was very high. Whatever emotions he was going through post trade, like it had a it had an effect on him. Um, so again, it goes back to what I just said about LeBron. Um, I expect the the best version of Luca. Uh, and it’s my job as a coach to bring that out on daily basis. You could say that Luca has a a fire, one desire. Um, Luca Dodich’s 34.7 points a game at Euro Basket this summer. They were the third most at a single tournament in Eurobasket history and the most since Greece’s Nick Gallas in 1989. Uh Dave, what’s your favorite Backstreet Boy? Just kidding. We’re not going to go with the Backstreet Boy songs, but JJ Reic does expect the best version of Luca Donich. And we’ve seen glimpses of that this summer. It culminated in that contract, but what do the Lakers think that that looks like? How does it translate on the floor? Uh well, you best believe when I say that when Rob Pelinka went out to Poland this summer. Thank you. He he saw leadership from Luca Dantic, not only in the games that he was playing as part of Slovenia’s team for Euro Basket, but the way he carried himself in non-game uh situations just by setting the example of his dedication 24/7 to the role he’s playing. And obviously LA is the city of stars. It’s Hollywood. His initial audition to be the face of the franchise was okay, but his callback audition this summer was he nailed the part. And that’s the guy they want to see leading the franchise moving forward beyond LeBron James whenever the end of LeBron come. Well, and that’s the tension that we go back to with LeBron James, right? Like for the first time in the career of LeBron James. Maybe going back to when he’s 10 or 11 years old when you saw those clips we showed earlier. LeBron James is not the focal point of the team that he’s on. Luca Donuch is very clearly front and center as the guy the Lakers are focused on. And LeBron James is an ancillary piece. And that is a clear tension point going back to all the discussion about opting in this summer. the discussion about what this season is going to look like. Again, to Dave’s question, would you like to have LeBron back next year? We’d love to have him retire as a Laker. That’s not an answer to the question. And until either LeBron or the Lakers answer that question, that’s where we’re going to stay in that space. Well, it seems like on Monday, that’s where we’re going to start to get the the answers to these questions. Of course, Luca Donuch, he is entering the season with the third shortest odds to win MVP. We’re going to hear from Luca Donuch and J LeBron James on Monday at Lakers Media Day. Hey, before we head to break, we have some unfortunate news. Shams, what more can you tell us about the Memphis Grizzlies? Another injury in Memphis. Their big man, Brandon Clark, he will undergo surgery and he’s expected to be reevaluated in about 6 weeks. So, he’s going to miss time to start the season. Jiren Jackson Jr. will be missing time to start the year. Zack Edy will be out to start the season. So, another year of injuries going into the season, but they are hopeful that these three guys once they’re done with their rehabs after these respective injuries can stay on the court. It’s never good to see a Memphis Grizzlies injury update. It’s there’s a lot of them and they’re never fun. Unfortunately, they have a long list of injuries that they’re entering this preeason with. They will kick off their preseason. They’re part of the uh international games, so we will see them there. [Music]

On NBA Today, Shams Charania, Dave McMenamin, and Tim Bontemps join Malika Andrews to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers and how long LeBron James will continue to play in the NBA!

0:00 The history of LeBron James
0:59 LeBron James is making HISTORY
1:25 Laker Contracts: Luka Doncic, JJ Redick and LeBron James
2:55 Rob Pelinka & JJ Redick speak on LeBron’s contract
3:40 Thoughts on Pelinka and Redick’s comments
4:30 How long will LeBron continue to play?
6:59 Rob Pelinka & JJ Redick comment on Luka Doncic
7:40 Doncic’s performance at Eurobasket 2025 
8:10 Thoughts on Luka Doncic
9:30 MVP odds
9:48 BREAKING NEWS: Brandon Clark injury update

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