Even though it’s already been more than three weeks since the Luka Doncic trade shocked the hoops world, Saturday night felt like the official debut of the Luka Lakers. After a few awkward games in his new uniform, Doncic clicked into vintage form with his first purple-and-gold masterpiece: 32 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, four steals, and a win over the Nuggets. In a game that also featured LeBron James and Nikola Jokic, L.A.’s new star was the best dude on the floor.
For the Lakers, the victory was especially symbolic. Denver has tormented L.A. for years, winning 13 of their previous 14 matchups before Saturday—including eight of nine playoff games—and sending the Lakers packing two postseasons in a row. But in their latest bout with Luka in uniform, the Lakers never trailed. It was their first victory in Colorado since April 2022.
A new era of Lakers lore is here. The franchise that has been defined by a procession of all-time greats has somehow landed another. Doncic is the latest in a long and storied lineage that includes Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, and so many more.
Watching Luka carve up the Nuggets on national TV raised the obvious, weeks-old question of why the hell anyone would want to trade this guy. But it also raised another question that might be the most intriguing subplot of what’s left of the 2024-25 NBA season: Just how good are these Lakers? At 34-21, tied for fourth in the West and heading into a huge matchup against Doncic’s former team, is L.A. a legit contender right now?
In a passionate locker room pep talk after the Denver game, head coach JJ Redick gassed up his group: “Pregame, I’m laying on the floor doing my breathing exercises, I’m envisioning what our team is gonna play like, and you guys went even higher,” he said. After acknowledging great bench play, Redick turned his attention to his new star. “Luka, it’s good to have you fucking back! It’s good to have you back.”
Meet the New Guy
In Doncic, the Lakers have the best young scorer in basketball, a 2020s portrait of bucket-getting excellence. Through seven seasons, the 25-year-old Slovenian has the third-highest scoring average (28.6 points per game) in NBA history, behind Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. With five first-team All-NBA nods already, Luka is one of the most accomplished young players ever. Last season, he won the scoring title at age 24 by averaging 33.9 points per game. His shot chart reveals a thoroughly modern player who thrives beyond the arc and in the paint.
Doncic’s 3-point prowess has become central to his game. En route to the 2023-24 scoring crown, he logged 11.1 points per game in the paint, 12.3 per game from 3-point range, and 6.8 per game at the line. Only Stephen Curry made more 3s last season than Doncic, who arrives in Los Angeles with his patented stepback 3—a move so reliable and efficient that it has the potential to become the most iconic scoring move in Lakerland since Kareem’s Skyhook.
Like Abdul-Jabbar, Doncic combines immense size, tremendous feel for the game, and elite coordination to create his own scoring opportunities. Unlike Abdul-Jabbar, Doncic doesn’t set up shop on the low blocks; instead, he works downtown, creating hundreds of his own shots per season from distances that would’ve been considered ludicrous just 10 years ago.
Nobody in the association attempts as many self-created triples as Doncic, and it’s not close. Last year, Curry—the greatest shooter ever—ranked second in the NBA with 397 unassisted 3-point tries. Doncic tried 549.
Doncic loves to break down perimeter defenders off the dribble, reading and reacting to their balance with each bounce of the ball. His skill as a driver means that his defenders must respect a potential forward attack, and that’s key. Last season, Doncic ranked third in the league in total drives and first in efficiency among the NBA’s most active drivers.
That threat sets the stage for the choreography that defines Doncic’s signature move. Just ask Christian Braun, who found out the hard way on Saturday night. Near the end of the first half, Doncic had the ball in his happy place, deep along the left wing. He crouched into form, head up, pounding the rock into the Ball Arena decal and reading Braun’s balance like a prizefighter. All it took was a little right-footed jab step to get Braun to open up his stance; as soon as Doncic saw that, it was over.
He pulled the ball back and sank a 28-footer in Braun’s face. On the call on ABC, Mike Breen captured the moment, “Doncic, stepback 3 … it’s good … Doncic dancin’ on the floor tonight.”
When you map out Doncic’s most common shot locations, there are two hot spots: one near the rim and another deep along the left wing. This perimeter hot spot is where he got Braun on Saturday night—it’s also the epicenter for Doncic’s favorite dance.
Call it Mount Doncic. The threat of a right-handed drive from here is terrifying enough that defenders can’t overplay the stepback, but the stepback is deadly enough that defenders must try to limit it as well. Nobody can do both. Doncic knows this, and his footwork and dribbling sequences are designed to force his defender to pick their poison. Overplay the stepback, and he’ll blow by. Overplay the drive, and he’ll drill a 3.
If there’s one major development that fueled Doncic’s rise to scoring champ, it’s the improvements in his long-range shooting. Last year, he set career highs in both 3-point attempts and 3-point percentage, converting 38.2 percent of 744 total 3s.
That would be a respectable percentage for any volume shooter, but it’s especially impressive for a player who leans so heavily into the stepback 3, which has a much higher degree of difficulty than a catch-and-shoot attempt. NBA shooters convert just 34.1 percent of their stepback 3s; Doncic made more than 39 percent of his last year. As he enters his prime, there’s a good chance that number will climb even higher, which spells trouble for the rest of the league.
And like James, Doncic is more than just a scorer—he’s one of the best at creating shots with the pass, too. Last season, his assists led to another 25 points per game for the Mavs, including 10.4 points per game on assisted 3s.
Two Queens on the Chessboard
There’s no question that Doncic is the best young scorer in the world, but there are questions about whether or not this Lakers team is good enough to get him back to the Finals for a second straight year. In Dallas, Jason Kidd designed the Mavs’ entire system around Doncic’s singular ability, surrounding him with spot-up shooters, rim runners, and strong defenders. In Los Angeles, Redick already has LeBron, the very prototype for a ball-dominant forward in the Luka mold.
It’s no wonder that Doncic identified LeBron as his basketball idol way back in 2018. Luka leverages his scoring and passing vision to elevate his entire team in the same way James did when his squads perennially ranked in the top five in offense. There’s an undeniable symmetry in Doncic succeeding LeBron as the NBA’s point forward du jour, but what about their fit together on this year’s Lakers? Both players rank in the top six in touches per game this decade for a simple reason: They have both been the bus drivers of their offenses. And now, the Lakers have two bus drivers, but only one bus. (Well, multiple Busses, if we count Jeanie and her brothers.)
This isn’t Malone and Stockton. James and Doncic love the same places on the dance floor. Both guys favor the deep left wing and driving to the cup.
But while it’s tempting to see this geographic overlap as a potential problem, it’d be silly to expect any offense that features James and Doncic to be clumsy.
These are two of the best offensive players ever. They are both among the smartest, most competitive, and most creative, too. At James’s apex in Miami, he found ways to fit alongside Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade en route to four straight Finals runs. He effectively teamed up with Kyrie Irving in Cleveland to topple a 73-win Golden State juggernaut, years before Luka and Kyrie also teamed up to great effect on the West-winning 2024 Mavs. It turns out that the NBA’s all-time leading scorer is a pretty versatile player. He’s also 40, and Doncic represents a respite—a chance for LeBron to play off the ball more and perhaps devote more energy to defense and rebounding.
There are already signs that Luka and LeBron are starting to figure out their partnership. Luka, in particular, looks like Cavs-era Kevin Love because of the way he’s slinging outlet passes to a streaking LeBron in transition. In the half court, LeBron is finding himself on the receiving end of passes that only he and a few others can make.
If LeBron, Luka, and the Lakers continue to play like they did on Saturday in Colorado, blending high-quality shots with few turnovers, then they’ll be contenders. But that remains a big “if” for a team that must find a new identity on the fly within the context of a brutal Western Conference playoff picture.
The Luka Lakers Are Dark Horse Contenders
The offense will be fine. Forty-eight minutes of Luka and/or LeBron will mean great scoring efficiency, period. The larger question is on the other end of the floor. Can a Lakers defense built around Doncic, James, Austin Reaves, and a paper-thin center rotation get enough stops to win multiple playoff series?
Recent numbers are better than you might expect. Without Anthony Davis, who was injured even before L.A. traded him, the Lakers defense is tied for third in efficiency since the start of February. That’s a striking reminder that Doncic isn’t the only new piece of the Lakers rotation. The defense is now bolstered by Dorian Finney-Smith (another trade acquisition) and Jarred Vanderbilt (who made his season debut on January 25).
The Lakers defensive corps did a great job defending Jokic over the weekend—fronting him, denying him the ball, using the low man to cut off his rolls, and daring him to trust his shooters on the edges. It worked. The Lakers’ swarming defense held the reigning MVP to only 12 points while forcing six turnovers. It was one of Jokic’s worst performances of the year and a huge reason Denver managed only 100 points, its fourth-lowest output of the entire season.
The victory felt like a possible harbinger of things to come. If the Lakers can play that well, that hard, and with that much discipline, the ceiling is a title. It’s that simple.
In his fiery postgame victory speech that night, Redick closed with this: “If we play that hard for the rest of the season, we’re gonna be just fine. That should build your belief. It built my belief in what we can accomplish.”
Kirk Goldsberry
Kirk Goldsberry is the New York Times–bestselling author of ‘Sprawlball.’ He previously served as the vice president of strategic research for the San Antonio Spurs and as the lead analyst of Team USA Basketball. He’s also the executive director of the Business of Sports Institute at the University of Texas. He lives in Austin.
