The Los Angeles Lakers are still celebrating their 17th NBA championship ring, but thoughts have already turned towards how they can maintain their place as the league’s dominant force for the next few years.
The first thing that will be on the Lakers’ agenda is to extend Anthony Davis’ contract, with the impressive forward refusing to guarantee that he would be a member of the Los Angeles franchise moving forward. He has the option to opt out of the final year of the contract that he initially signed whilst a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.
However, everything indicates that Davis will in fact reach an agreement to continue playing alongside LeBron James for next season, or at least that’s what Lakers legend Magic Johnson thinks.
“Anthony Davis now is known across the world because of the platform of the Lakers. Then, him and LeBron [James] next season, they could repeat [by winning the NBA championship title],” Johnson said whilst on ESPN’s TV show First Take.
“You don’t want to leave here, and not have a guy like LeBron James playing alongside of you, because the same thing that happened in New Orleans would happen to Anthony Davis again. They make each other better, and then last but not least, when LeBron retires, he just says, ‘Here Anthony Davis, it’s your team now, you go on and lead the Lakers to the next five to six championships.'”
When the discussion of James retiring cropped up, First Take journalist Max Kellerman asked Johnson if he could see Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic taking over from from the 35-year-old on the Lakers’ roster. “Aye that’s right, Luka come on to the Lakers, I like that,” Johnson said.
It seems that this will be a dream for the Lakers’ fans that, for the time being at least, will be impossible to make reality. Doncic has two years left on his rookie deal with the Mavericks, who have the possibility of unilaterally extending it for another four years. As such, it is difficult to picture Doncic in anything other than a Mavericks uniform until 2026.