One of the main storylines of the offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers was the physical transformation that Luka Doncic went through. After being criticized for being fat and out of shape, he dropped a good amount of weight and got into terrific shape over the summer.

Late in the summer, he played outstanding basketball at EuroBasket 2025, averaging 34.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 2.7 steals a game. Fans are expecting him to start playing the best basketball of his career once the new NBA regular season officially begins on Oct. 21.

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On a recent episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast, teammate LeBron James talked about one extra benefit that Doncic’s new physique will bring.

“I watched a lot of the EuroBasket this summer too. I watched his team a lot, obviously, him being my teammate and him seeing how he can carry a Slovenian team to whatever heights he did. He was right there with Germany in the semis. He just looks, obviously, a little bit quicker, a little bit more functional. But I think more importantly, I think what a lot of people will not see is the recovery now. I think when your body is in top tier shape and you feel so much better, it’s not the actual game. It’s not like Luka’s game is gonna change. It’s not like he’s not gonna get 30-40, 15 and 10-12 that’s not gonna change. But I think for him personally, I think what’s gonna change for him, he’s gonna see how he wakes up the next day after three in four nights, he’s gonna be like ’Oh man.’ Because you’ve built this up, you’ve built this body up and now it’s gonna be so beneficial to you and your recovery process and your energy. So I’m super duper proud of him, obviously he don’t need to hear it from me it’s what he wanted to do for himself and that’s the only thing that matters. But I need to get on his regiment a little bit now, I’m gonna take some tips from him.”

Presumably because he played in EuroBasket 2025 for part of the summer, Doncic was held out of the Lakers’ first two preseason games last weekend, although coach JJ Redick said he will take part in the preseason at some point.

The guard is 26 years of age, and when one considers his age and his new physique, it is likely he hasn’t even entered his prime yet, even though he already averaged 28.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists a game in seven previous NBA seasons.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: LeBron James talks about Luka Doncic’s physical transformation