After years of building their team around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, this summer has shown fully that the Lakers are Luka Dončić’s team.
The Lakers have made decisions with Luka in mind and, more importantly, he’s been an active part of their free agency. Despite being in Europe preparing for EuroBasket later this summer, Luka played a big role in recruiting Marcus Smart to LA, keeping him away from Western Conference foe Phoenix.
On Tuesday, Smart was introduced as a Laker and spoke about Luka’s
role in him coming to LA.
When asked about his decision to sign with the Lakers, Marcus Smart mentioned the opportunity to play alongside LeBron James and Luka Dončić – with Dončić making multiple calls to recruit Smart to L.A.: pic.twitter.com/PnWKqwFGtm
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) July 22, 2025
Here’s a full transcript of Smart’s quote:
There’s a lot of reasons but the main one, being able to play with Luka and LeBron, two of the best to do it in this game, two greats with greatest basketball IQs that I’ve ever seen in this era. And when you get a guy like Luka. Calling, referencing, checking on you, trying to see where you at to see if you want to come and, join something special that he’s trying to cook up over here. And for him to say that he can really use my help, that meant a lot. Played against Luka a lot. Been on a lot of opposing ends of Luka magic. And to be able to come out and be on his side at this time, it means a lot.
It doesn’t take much reading of the tea leaves to paint this as not just a good thing for the Lakers’ present, but future as well. If Luka is recruiting players to LA, then it spells good things for his future with the franchise, too.
Luka can sign his extension at the beginning of August and, while the exact path he chooses to remain in LA is up in the air, all signs and indications are that he’s going to do exactly that.
Heavily recruiting Smart is the latest example that Luka is invested in the future of the franchise, which is nothing but a great sign for the Lakers.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
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