<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) acknowledges the fans that were chanting his first name in the closing minutes of their win over the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, April 9, 2025.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The elegies for\u00a0LeBron James\u2019 reign were still piling up around the City of Angels when Rob Pelinka, Nico Harrison\u2019s former co-conspirator<\/a>, put his stuff out on the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n The King is dead, at least to the Lakers.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Long live the new king.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Lakers are officially Luka Doncic\u2019s<\/a> team, which, even after all these months, is hard to type. Pelinka didn\u2019t even wait 24 hours to make the Lakers\u2019 over into Luka\u2019s image. Maybe not so coincidentally, it looks a lot like the one the Mavs had before Nico wiped it off the NBA map.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pelinka, who got a franchise cornerstone on the cheap from the Mavs<\/a>, paid nearly twice as much Wednesday for a center who\u2019s started 125 games in four seasons. Even so, Walker Kessler should give Luka the lob threat and defense that Daniel Gafford\/Dereck Lively II provided him here. Three free agent signings\u00a0\u2014 highlighted by Quentin Grimes, another Nico blunder\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 plus the addition of Kessler, give the Lakers a leg up on the two-way players necessary to augment the playmaking of Luka and Austin Reaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the way: When a Lakers fan ripped Pelinka on X for waiting until now to acquire the kind of center Anthony Davis always wanted to play next to, the latter responded with a string of laughing emojis.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019re not laughing here, AD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now, the 7-2 Kessler notwithstanding, I\u2019m not saying Pelinka is on to something big. His reputation as a bungler persists despite the Luka heist. He\u2019s also painted himself into a corner with the new owner, Mark Walter. He has to win now, because he doesn\u2019t have much flexibility going forward. Just as Nico did in Dallas, Pelinka has exhausted the Lakers\u2019 cache of first-round picks in an attempt to build a contender around Luka. From here on out, it\u2019s pretty much Finals or bust.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, despite what Masai Ujiri and Dusty May said at the latter\u2019s introductory presser the other day<\/a>, the Mavs appear to be playing the long game. As May put it, they want to win \u201csooner than later,\u201d even if that\u2019s not what their actions say.\u00a0<\/p>\n The big news this week is whether LeBron will join the Greek Freak in Miami or Steph Curry at Golden State while lesser stars crisscross the horizon like a midsummer meteor shower.\u00a0<\/p>\n Santi Aldama,<\/a> I suppose.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Look, he’s 7-foot, which would be nice in the face of Victor Wembanyama, and he\u00a0shoots an occasional 3, which neither Gafford nor Lively do. Also makes you think Gafford could be the next to go. The Mavs also appear to be getting Marcus Sasser, a Red Oak kid whose uncles, Jeryl and Jason, starred at SMU and Texas Tech, respectively. Great bloodlines. Marcus can also shoot, and the Mavs need shooters around Cooper Flagg<\/a>.<\/p>\n The question is, what\u2019s next?\u00a0<\/p>\n And will this be a quick rebuild or a long, painful one?\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not eager to put a clock on Ujiri to show his hand. The last time I did so\u00a0\u2014 writing they should hire a head coach before the draft so he\u2019d have some say in the pick\u00a0\u2014 they hired the new guy 24 hours before they went on the clock, then took one of his own players.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n A couple of team officials were still laughing about it when I saw them at May\u2019s presser.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Like I told the boss, at least they\u2019re reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, the point of this column in case you were wondering is we\u2019re 17 months out from one of the most mind-boggling trades in NBA history, one that both sides figured would better their futures, and one has already abandoned all hope. And rightfully so. Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi didn\u2019t last long as co-GMs, but they did the franchise a solid by trading AD to the Wizards. Even if it didn\u2019t bring much in the way of a player or prospect return, it rid them of Davis\u2019 cap-strapping contract, not to mention the constant reminder of the worst trade in Dallas sports history.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers still have hope because of Luka, who, alongside Kyrie Irving, led a flawed Mavs team to the Finals. Once again, they lost to the Celtics not because they couldn\u2019t guard them, but because they couldn\u2019t keep up with them. We\u2019ll soon see if Pelinka can do a better job building around Luka than Nico did.\u00a0<\/p>\n No matter what happens with the Lakers, though, at least we\u2019ve got a pretty good idea of who they are and where they\u2019re headed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Ujiri says all their decisions will be centered around Flagg, which is as it should be. He\u2019s the consolation prize of all the Mavs\u2019 recent misery, and a spectacular one, at that. For starters, he checked one of May\u2019s boxes for leaving Michigan in the first place<\/a>. The other reasons? D-FW Airport, a hub that will allow his wife, Anna, to visit their three sons, and the fact that Texas has no state income tax.\u00a0<\/p>\n Good to know the new guy\u2019s practical. My guess is he\u2019ll need to keep it that way as he embarks on a new career in Dallas. Could be a while before anyone much notices, whereas the story of the Lakers in the\u00a0post-LeBron era will occupy headlines for years. Can Luka measure up to such a luminous legacy? Hard to say. But I like his chances at least as much as Flagg\u2019s odds in Luka\u2019s wake.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n