Luka Doncic should make his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers soon.
On Wednesday, Doncic participated in his first practice with the Lakers since joining the team in a stunning trade with Dallas last weekend. Despite Lakers coach JJ Redick initially saying Donic could make his debut over the weekend, it’ll now probably come Monday night against the Utah Jazz.
“Probably more likely Monday,” Redick said. “No commitment made on anything, but probably trending more toward Monday.”
Here’s what else we know about when Doncic will suit up for the Lakers.
How long has it been since Doncic last played?
The Slovenian superstar hadn’t played for the Mavericks since he strained his left calf on Christmas Day. He missed the Mavs’ next 19 games until he was traded to the Lakers.
The Lakers have played two games since Doncic landed in LA. Doncic watched from the bench at Intuit Dome on Tuesday night while LeBron James led a 122-97 blowout of the Clippers for the Lakers’ ninth victory in 11 games. He did not play against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, either
Is there a chance Doncic plays on Saturday?
It’s unlikely at this point that Donic will play when the Lakers host the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
“We want him to feel confident,” Redick said Thursday. “We want our medical staff to feel confident. We don’t want to rush anything here. I think we’re all anticipating that. I know the fans are anticipating that, and certainly our players and our coaching staff are anticipating that. I think the one thing we all have in the back of our mind as we’ve shifted and had to recalibrate here in the last week — we’re not going to be able to just snap our fingers and it’s all going to work right away. There’s work to be done once he’s healthy and back in the lineup, and that’s going to be fun.”
Doncic participated in a 5-on-5 “stay-ready” game with teammates and the Lakers’ coaching staff Wednesday, and Redick said Doncic has experienced no setbacks in his recovery from the calf injury.
“All is well. All is positive,” Redick said. “Hopefully we get the word at some point in the next few days that he is going to play. We all want to see him in a Laker uniform.”
He ended the workout on the court chatting with Redick, James, assistant coach Scott Brooks and forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who was Doncic’s teammate in Dallas for four-and-a-half seasons. Finney-Smith joined the Lakers shortly after Christmas in a trade with Brooklyn.
“We’re kind of just assessing it day by day,” Redick said Wednesday. “We hope to have him back within the next few games. We just had noncontact practice today, but we got some good work in for about 45 minutes, and he’ll have a stay-ready game at some point over the next two days. He’ll have some more opportunities to play live basketball, and then we’ll make a decision on Saturday. If it’s not Saturday, hopefully it’s Monday. [But] those decisions will be made on Saturday.”
What it would take for the Mavericks to win the Luka Dončić trade?
How is Doncic jelling so far with his teammates?
James is still coming to grips with the trade of Anthony Davis, his close friend and teammate for five-and-a-half years, but already sounded excited about forming a new partnership with Doncic, his self-described favorite NBA player.
“Even though I don’t like the way things went down — I feel like he definitely should have got that money — but I’m happy he’s on my side now,” Finney-Smith said.
Finney-Smith also laughed at the Mavs’ reported concerns about Doncic’s conditioning and weight.
“I know him, [and] he wants to play the whole game,” Finney-Smith said. “I think like he played 40 minutes every game last playoffs. That’s one thing about LD. He wants to play. I don’t really look at the noise. I look at his production. If I’m putting up those kinds of numbers, maybe I should be 270 [pounds].”
Will the Dallas Mavericks regret trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers?
Whenever Doncic gets back on the court, Redick doesn’t think he will have many problems adjusting to playing alongside James in the Lakers’ schemes on both ends.
“The biggest learning curve is just the language,” Redick said. “He knows basketball. He knows it at a high level. We use a lot of the concepts that he used in Dallas, which a lot of teams use. We haven’t reinvented the wheel or anything. We are trending in the direction of playing really intelligent offensive basketball, and then you add in Luka, who’s a supercomputer on the court, who can see everything and has seen every coverage, every defense, it adds another layer for sure.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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