A year-and-a-half into the Luka Dončić era and the Lakers, despite a pair of 50-win seasons, have been far from title contention.
It’s not entirely inexcusable as acquiring a franchise-altering superstar in the middle of a season is going to drastically change the outlook of a team. After being built around someone they viewed as the center of the future in Anthony Davis, the Lakers have had to change their identity on the fly over the last two seasons.
But with relatively clean books, picks to trade
and an offseason to tackle it on, the Lakers will be out of excuses after this summer. While it’s unlikely they make the leap all the way to a title in one summer, reasonable improvements need to be made, and that’s not just the opinion of the fans, but Luka himself.
This past week, Dave McMenamin of ESPN wrote a lengthy piece with plenty of reporting, including a tidbit about the expectations from Luka for the Lakers next season.
The team has kept Doncic informed as the draft and free agency approaches; there is an expectation from the six-time All-Star for the Lakers to present a near-immediate path to championship contention.
“Luka wants to be a championship team yesterday,” a source close to Doncic said. “Ever since the trade, they’ve always told us: ‘summer of ’26. We’ll show you in the summer of ’26.’ So, we are so excited that the summer of ’26 is here.”
Honestly, this is more than fair.
As understandable as it was for the Lakers to not have a competitive team around Luka the last season-and-a-half, it’s also fully understandable to expect them to have a competitive team after this summer.
Even before Luka the summer of 2026 has been circled on the Lakers’ calendars. They have focused on this summer for some time, so there should be expectations of them coming out of it a better team.
When you have a superstar in their prime, the clock is always ticking. And when you aren’t fielding a title-contending team, that ticking is going to be extremely loud.
The Lakers should be under pressure this summer to get things right. This is an extremely important summer with added emphasis through their own long-term planning. It’s imperative they get this right and take the team fully into the new era with Luka.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
