Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear about Luka Doncic’s trade to the Lakers is the sporting consequences it can have, and whether the trade really means a transfer of favoritism between Texans and Californians.
It is clear that the Mavs are making a U-turn in their project. They have spent years building a team for their star. They reached the Western Conference Finals last year and still added more pieces to the team to provide Doncic with a court of players enough to reach the championship. And everything has gone up in smoke.
The arrival of Anthony Davis may be good for the Mavs, but it remains to be seen how the change will be digested by Luka’s former teammates. If they do not reach at least the Finals, the Dallas executives will have to face a lot of bills. For the Lakers, the signing is a bombshell for this year and for the future. They will try to convince the Slovenian to be their image for the next decade. But there are more consequences than just sporting ones.
For example, the financial ones. With the transfer, Luka Doncic will no longer be able to sign an extension as a super contract with Dallas as planned for this summer, as reported by Bobby Marks of ESPN. The option was for the Slovenian to sign a new contract in the summer that would earn him 345 million over five years, making him the highest paid player in history.
This was possible thanks to the new NBA collective bargaining agreement signed in 2023 and the inclusion of the concept of the supermax contract, by which a player with merits, such as a certain number of years in the league, being an All-Star and being included in the best teams of the year, could raise his contract to the maximum in the league, in the case of Doncic, up to 345 million in five years.
However, according to Marks, this extension will no longer be possible, with the Mavs, of course, and he gives the keys to the steps the player must now follow. He will not be able to sign that contract, but that does not mean that he will lose it. Doncic has two more years left on his contract, the last one in 2026-27, a player option in which he would earn $48 million. From then on, the extension of his contract would come into play.
According to Marks, what Doncic should do is sign a three-year contract extension with the Lakers, leaving himself a player option for the 2028-29 season. This strategy would allow Doncic to reach 10 years of NBA service, allowing him to recoup virtually all of what he loses by not being able to sign his ‘Supermax‘ extension this summer. According to the calculations, if he follows these steps, his salary in the 2028-29 season could reach $72 million that season.
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