Dallas Mavericks Rumors

And-Ones: A. Arenas, 2025 Draft, X. Lee, Kidd

April 24th, 2025 at 3:08pm CST by Rory Maher

Alijah Arenas, a five-star prospect who has committed to play his freshman season at USC, has been placed in a medically-induced coma following a serious car accident early Thursday morning, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

As Charania details, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call of fire at 4:55 a.m. local time after a Tesla Cybertruck crashed into a fire hydrant and tree. The LAFD did not identify Arenas by name, but Charania confirms he was involved and taken to a local hospital in serious condition. Initial tests indicated Arenas did not suffer any broken bones, Charania adds.

Arenas, a 6’6″ shooting guard, is No. 13 on ESPN’s recruiting rankings for the 2025 class, making him a potential first-round pick next year. The 18-year-old is the son of former NBA star Gilbert Arenas.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) have updated their list of the top 100 prospects ahead of the 2025 NBA draft. While many of the top 25 prospects remain unchanged, some have moved around a few spots. For instance, Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears is up to No. 5 from No. 7. Givony writes that the 18-year-old has generated “significant buzz” from the NBA scouts and executives he and Woo have spoken to in recent weeks.
Former Princeton guard Xaivian Lee is withdrawing from the 2025 draft and will transfer to Florida for his senior season in 2025/26, agent George S. Langberg tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Lee was named first-team All-Ivy League each of the past two season for the Tigers and is now focused on helping the Gators defend their national championship.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd has become a minority stakeholder in English Premier League club Everton, per The Dallas Morning News. “I’m honored to be joining Everton’s ownership at such an important moment: with a new stadium on the horizon and a bright future ahead, it’s a great moment to come on board,” Kidd said in the release.

And-Ones: Gambling, Doncic, Thompsons, DPOY, More

April 24th, 2025 at 8:01am CST by Luke Adams

As part of their anonymous poll of 158 NBA players, the full results of which can be viewed here, Sam Amick and Josh Robbins of The Athletic got several interesting responses about the league’s gambling partnerships and the impact they’ve had.

Of The Athletic’s poll respondents, 46% felt the partnerships were bad for the NBA, while 34% said they were good — the remaining 20% were either undecided or were somewhere in the middle. The general consensus is that those partnerships have benefited the league financially but have increased the likelihood of players being harassed by fans.

As Amick and Robbins write in a separate story, players around the league also sounded off on February’s shocking Luka Doncic trade, questioning not only the Mavericks‘ decision to deal the perennial All-NBA first-teamer but also the timing of the move.

Some players who spoke to The Athletic acknowledged that the trade wouldn’t have looked quite so bad if not for the injury woes that tanked the Mavericks’ season, while others said it was too early to render final judgment. But the responses Amick and Robbins got strongly suggested that the only players fully on board with the deal were anonymous Lakers, including one respondent who said, “I think it (was a) phenomenal decision. So smart. Wise. I’m a Nico Harrison fan.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In an entertaining feature for ESPN.com, Michael C. Wright takes a closer look at the rapid rise of twin brothers Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson, who have met their goal of making the playoffs for the first time this year, with the Rockets and Pistons, respectively. Now, they’re ready to take that goal one step further. “I want to see him in the Finals,” Amen told Wright. “That would be fire. But just one of us wins. I know who that’s going to be.” Ausar shares his brother’s goal, but disagrees with his prediction about which team would come out on top. “Man, we would whoop ’em,” Ausar said. “This year, when we played, when we had all of our players, we beat them.”
With the NBA set to announce its Defensive Player of the Year award winner on Thursday evening, Josh Robbins of The Athletic spoke to 13 head coaches and assistants around the league about who deserves the honor. Hawks guard Dyson Daniels and Thunder wing Luguentz Dort were the top vote-getters in Robbins’ poll — Dort isn’t among the three finalists for the award.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report looks ahead to the offseason and identifies under-the-radar teams that might make sense as destinations for 10 potential trade candidates around the NBA, ranging from stars like Kevin Durant and Trae Young to role players such as Marcus Smart and Daniel Gafford.

Front Office Rumors: Suns, Ishbia, Myers, Hawks, Connelly, Harrison

April 23rd, 2025 at 7:13pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Suns owner Mat Ishbia is believed to have had a “longstanding” interest in trying to convince former Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers, now an ESPN broadcaster, to return to the NBA to lead Phoenix’s front office, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

Ishbia is looking to add new voices to his front office contingent before hiring his fourth head coach in four years, according to Stein and Fischer, who say it’s is unclear whether longtime head of basketball operations James Jones would be replaced in that scenario or would work alongside a new executive.

If Myers were to join the Suns, he’d presumably be the one calling the shots over Jones, but many sources around the league are skeptical Myers would be amenable to joining the team, Stein and Fischer say, even though Phoenix is relatively close to Myers’ L.A. home. While that could work in the club’s favor, Myers is said to be enjoying his TV job and his consulting work with the NFL’s Washington Commanders, while the Suns are currently deep in the league’s second luxury tax apron without a lot of short-term future draft equity.

According to Stein and Fischer, Ishbia is expected to have a “significant” voice in hiring a new head coach, which suggests that Jones and/or another key front office newcomer might not have as much say in the coaching decision as a head of basketball operations typically would. The Suns are expected to seek out a younger, greener head coach than their last three, with multiple former players likely to be considered, the duo reports.

Here are more NBA rumors:

After firing former general manager Landry Fields earlier this week, the Hawks are looking to pair newly elevated GM Onsi Saleh with their eventual Fields replacement to lead the front office, according to Stein and Fischer. Sources inform the duo that team owner Tony Ressler is open to forking over top dollar for a seasoned front office pro. Myers, who was Saleh’s boss with the Warriors, is a possible target for Atlanta.
While current Timberwolves president Tim Connelly will likely be linked to front office openings this offseason, there’s a league-wide expectation that the Wolves will sign him to a new deal now that Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are poised to take over control of the team from Glen Taylor, Stein and Fischer say.
Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont is reportedly no longer interested in giving general manager Nico Harrison carte blanche when it comes to basketball decisions, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon told former colleague Bomani Jones on the latter’s podcast The Right Time With Bomani Jones (YouTube video link). MacMahon says Dumont is believed to be seeking an experienced front office executive to work alongside Harrison going forward, following his controversial decision to trade five-time All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic to Los Angeles in exchange for a package led by injury-prone big man Anthony Davis. “Now, the ‘In Nico We Trust’ era has ended,” McMahon said. “He wants him to bring in an experienced exec. I think he’s realized he’s got to have some checks and balances that weren’t in place… I think this has been a very educational experience for Patrick Dumont in his first full year as an NBA governor. Also, the realization [that] in this world [the] management’s not the stars. The stars are the guys on the floor.”

Mavs Rumors: Health/Performance Team, Doncic, Dumont, Harrison, Kidd

April 22nd, 2025 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Within an in-depth story focused on the changes made with the Mavericks‘ health and performance department in recent years, Tim MacMahon of ESPN shares several details that reflect poorly on the team’s current management, starting with the firing of longtime director of health and performance Casey Smith in 2023.

As MacMahon explains, several sources believe general manager Nico Harrison fired Smith – who was close with longtime Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki as well as Luka Doncic – because he wasn’t enough of a yes-man.

“(Harrison) was 100 percent threatened by him,” a team source told MacMahon. “He’s going to show that I’m in charge and nobody else can question that.”

MacMahon also reports that the relationship between new director of player health and performance Johann Bilsborough and athletic performance director Keith Belton has been frosty, writing that Bilsborough doesn’t respect Belton’s acumen. Belton was hired by the Mavs first, with Bilsborough later hired as his superior.

A January disagreement over how Dereck Lively‘s foot injury was being handled led to a “loud, heated confrontation” between the two men, according to MacMahon, who hears from one source that the altercation was “coming for a long time.”

Here’s more on the Mavs:

Both MacMahon and Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal (Substack link) say the calf strain Doncic sustained on Christmas Day was a source of major tension between the Mavs and the guard’s camp. The team believed that Doncic could be back in two to three weeks and Harrison thought the injury was related to Doncic’s conditioning, whereas the star guard’s camp was adamant that he needed to sit out for six weeks to fully recover and believed the injury stemmed from the fact that he returned too soon from a previous heel issue. “That deepened the divide,” a source told ESPN.
In the wake of the Doncic trade, Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont no longer views Harrison as having “irreproachable basketball expertise,” sources tell Tim Cato of DLLS Sports (subscription required). Dumont has been especially frustrated that Harrison either didn’t foresee or didn’t better prepare him for the extreme negative reaction to the trade from the fan base, Cato adds.
Within the same story, Cato cites sources who say that Jason Kidd “resented” the Doncic trade, even though the Mavs head coach shared some of Harrison’s frustrations about Doncic’s work habits. Kidd felt he was being asked to reinvent a roster and a system that had previously been built around Doncic, Cato explains, noting that the coach’s frustration was a factor in his decision to skip a mandatory press conference in February on the same day Doncic made his Lakers debut.

Contract Details: Lawson, Castleton, Williams, Davis, Davison, Payton

April 22nd, 2025 at 7:27am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors dipped into their mid-level exception to give A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton rest-of-season salaries of $100K apiece when they signed standard multiyear contracts during the final week of the regular season, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.

Had Toronto simply signed the duo to minimum-salary deals, Lawson would’ve received about $24K at the end of this season, while Castleton would’ve earned less than $11K.

In exchange for those end-of-season raises, Lawson and Castleton each gave the Raptors favorable terms for the 2025/26 season. Both players have fully non-guaranteed minimum salaries ($2,270,735 for Lawson; $2,191,897 for Castleton) and don’t have offseason trigger dates, so Toronto could hang onto them all the way through training camp and the preseason without owing them any guaranteed money beyond this season’s $100K.

We have details on a few more of the contracts signed during the final days of the regular season:

The two-year, minimum-salary deal that point guard Brandon Williams signed with the Mavericks on April 10 includes a non-guaranteed $2,270,735 salary for 2025/26. Williams would lock in a partial guarantee of $200K if he remains under contract through July 7 and that partial guarantee would increase to $850K if he’s still on the roster at the start of next season. If Williams plays out the full contract, he’d have four years of NBA experience when he reaches free agency in 2026, so Dallas wouldn’t have the ability to make him a restricted free agent.
Veteran guard Terence Davis signed a two-year contract worth the veteran’s minimum with the Kings. His $2,546,675 salary for next season is non-guaranteed, but he would earn a partial guarantee worth $250K if he remains under contract for the team’s first regular season game of 2025/26.
The Celtics‘ new two-year deal with G League MVP JD Davison is a minimum-salary agreement that includes a non-guaranteed team option worth $2,270,735 for the 2025/26 season.
The two-year, minimum-salary contract that Elfrid Payton signed with the Pelicans also features a non-guaranteed team option for ’25/26. That option would be worth $3,153,598 if exercised.

2025 NBA Draft Tiebreaker Results

April 21st, 2025 at 4:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Tiebreakers among teams with identical regular-season records were broken on Monday through random drawings to determine the order for this year’s draft prior to the lottery.

The results are as follows, according to a press release from the league (Twitter link):

Phoenix Suns (No. 9) over Portland Trail Blazers (No. 10)
- The Suns will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Trail Blazers.
- The Suns’ pick will be sent to the Rockets.
Dallas Mavericks (No. 11) over Chicago Bulls (No. 12)
- The Mavericks will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Bulls.
Sacramento Kings (No. 13) over Atlanta Hawks (No. 14)
- The Kings will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Hawks.
- The Kings’ pick will be sent to the Hawks if it’s outside of the top 12.
- The Hawks’ pick will be sent to the Spurs.
Memphis Grizzlies (No. 18) over Milwaukee Bucks (No. 19) over Golden State Warriors (No. 20)
- The Grizzlies’ pick will be sent to the Wizards.
- The Bucks’ pick will be sent to the Nets.
- The Warriors’ pick will be sent to the Heat.
Los Angeles Lakers (No. 22) over Indiana Pacers (No. 23) over Los Angeles Clippers (No. 24) over Denver Nuggets (No. 25)
- The Lakers’ pick will be sent to the Hawks.
- The Clippers’ pick will be sent to the Thunder.
- The Nuggets’ pick will be sent to the Magic.

While the tiebreaker winner will pick ahead of the loser(s) in the first round, that order will be flipped in the second round.

For instance, the Warriors’ second-round pick (traded to the Grizzlies) will be at No. 48, followed by the Bucks’ pick (traded to Detroit) at No. 49, and the Grizzlies (traded to New York) at No. 50 — that’s the opposite of their order in the first round.

For lottery teams that finished with identical records, the second-round order is still to be determined depending on the lottery results.

For example, if Phoenix’s first-round pick (traded to Houston) stays at No. 9 and the Blazers’ first-rounder stays at No. 10, Portland’s second-round pick (traded to Toronto) would be at No. 39 and Phoenix’s (traded to Washington) would be No. 40. But if the Trail Blazers win the No. 1 overall pick on lottery night, moving ahead of Phoenix in the first round, then the Suns’ second-round pick would be No. 39, while Portland’s would be No. 40.

We’ll publish the full lottery odds and pre-lottery draft order for 2025 later tonight.

Mavs GM Harrison On Doncic Trade, Fan Reaction, More

April 21st, 2025 at 4:14pm CST by Rory Maher

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison discussed the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic as well as the overwhelmingly negative reaction to it from fans, who have been chanting “fire Nico” since the deal was completed.

“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.

“But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], P.J. [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck] Lively, we felt that’s a championship-caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”

When asked why he should be able to keep his job, Harrison defended his Mavericks tenure, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.

“Well, one, I think I’ve done a really good job here,” Harrison said. “And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge the totality, from the beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with [governor Patrick Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts], the leadership we have is really elite and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re going to be competing for a championship.”

Here’s more from Harrison’s press conference:

Harrison was pressed on why the Mavericks couldn’t get more assets from the Lakers for Doncic. “I think the biggest thing is if you don’t value AD as an All-NBA player and All-Defensive player, then you’re not going to like the trade,” Harrison said, according to Curtis (Twitter link).
The Mavs’ head of basketball operations said Dumont didn’t pressure him to make the deal, as Curtis relays (via Twitter). “Not at all. Patrick reminds me of the leadership that I had at Nike and a really good leader doesn’t tell the people that work for him what to do. It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.”
Despite the intense backlash, Harrison claims his relationship with Dumont has actually been “strengthened” in the two-plus months since the trade was made, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Harrison said Davis won’t need surgery this offseason and he doesn’t believe Lively will either, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Both players missed significant time with injuries, but were able to return before the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament.
Regarding Kyrie Irving‘s $43.96MM player option for 2025/26, Harrison said he wasn’t sure if it would be exercised, but he’s confident the 33-year-old will be in a Mavericks uniform next season. “It’s too early to tell what Kyrie is going to do, but what I do feel is he’s going to be a Maverick next year,” Harrison said (Twitter link via Curtis).

Stein/Fischer’s Latest: Kuminga, Suns, Jones, Williamson, Nowitzki

April 20th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jonathan Kuminga‘s role in the playoffs will be closely watched around the league as he heads into restricted free agency, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line report (Substack link).

Kuminga never entered the game in the Warriors‘ play-in victory over Memphis on Tuesday. It’s expected that Kuminga will have at least a limited role in the first-round series against the Rockets as Golden State tries to combat Houston’s athleticism.

Coach Steve Kerr has stated publicly that the combination of Kuminga and Jimmy Butler at the forward spots hasn’t worked well due to spacing issues — both are subpar three-point shooters. The coaching staff had hoped that Kuminga might be further along in developing his play-making skills.

The front office and Kuminga couldn’t meet his asking price during rookie scale extension talks. He was seeking more than $30MM annually. The Nets are a potential suitor with enough cap space to give Kuminga a lucrative contract, but a sign-and-trade with another team could be a potential option this summer.

Here’s more from the latest Stein Line round-up from Stein and Fischer:

The Suns are unlikely to pursue another veteran coach after Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer lasted just one season apiece. However, Pelicans coach Willie Green is a potential candidate if new New Orleans president of basketball operations Joe Dumars doesn’t retain Green. Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant, Rockets assistant coach Royal Ivey and Mavericks assistants Jared Dudley and Sean Sweeney could also be in the mix, Stein and Fischer confirm. Those names were all previously reported.
It’s not a certainty Suns top executive James Jones will hold onto his job. Owner Mat Ishbia could make a change in the front office before a new head coach is hired, Stein and Fischer note.
Dumars will take his time before deciding whether he’ll look to shop oft-injured franchise player Zion Williamson. There’s some skepticism around the NBA that the Pelicans will continue to ride with Williamson as their cornerstone piece.
The Pelicans‘ decision to hire Dumars a day after David Griffin was let go and the Kings’ same-day hiring of Scott Perry to replace Monte McNair have both faced scrutiny around the league, with sources wondering why the teams didn’t conduct more thorough searches, Stein and Fischer say. Dumars was also said to be high on Sacramento’s list.
Dirk Nowitzki has an office at the Mavericks‘ practice facility but he’s rarely there, which speaks to his distance from the Mavericks current ownership group and general manager Nico Harrison. Nowitzki was named a special advisor to former majority owner Mark Cuban, who no longer has much say in personnel decisions, including the blockbuster Luka Doncic deal.

Mavs Notes: Thompson, Davis, Lively, Offseason

April 19th, 2025 at 12:42pm CST by Luke Adams

After the Mavericks‘ season came to an end as a result of Friday night’s play-in loss in Memphis, Klay Thompson described his first year in Dallas as “tumultuous.” Head coach Jason Kidd took a rosier view, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com relays, referring to 2024/25 as an “incredible season” for his team, which missed out on the playoffs after making the NBA Finals last spring.

“When you look at the injuries that we’ve had (and) the change, for us to even be here playing in (Friday’s play-in) game, it’s incredible,” Kidd said. “It just shows the character of that group in that locker room, the fight, being prepared, moving on, learning from our losses and also our wins. So an incredible season with the change and injuries. Some would say we shouldn’t even be here, so give those guys in that locker room a lot of credit.”

While Kidd was eager to praise his players for the way they fought through the season, the fact that so much fight was required at all is a reflection of why Thompson viewed it as “tumultuous.” The second half was defined by a series of injuries to key players and the fallout of the controversial Luka Doncic trade.

When Thompson signed with the Mavericks as a free agent last summer, he was hoping to be the missing piece for a club that was three wins away from a championship in 2024. Instead, he’ll be watching his former team (Golden State) from home during the first round of the playoffs after averaging just 14.0 points per game in his first season as a Maverick, his lowest scoring mark since his rookie year.

“Don’t do this to me. Don’t do that to me. Don’t do that,” Thompson said with a laugh when asked if he’d still join the Mavs if he could do his 2024 free agency over. “That’s kind of a ridiculous question. I don’t own a time machine, and I don’t believe in going back, looking back. If I did that my whole career, I would not be where I’m at and I wouldn’t have been able to persevere through two really hard injuries.

“So I’m here in Dallas, and I enjoyed my time and I’m looking forward to the future.”

Here’s more on the Mavs as their offseason gets underway:

Anthony Davis, who scored 40 points in Friday’s loss, said after the game that he appreciated the way that Mavericks fans treated him after his midseason arrival, even though he knows many of those fans disliked the trade the team made to acquire him. “Obviously, it’s a lot of emotions. I know it’s not directed towards me,” Davis said, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News. “The city loved the guy (Doncic). Get rid of a guy. A new guy comes in, yet they want to embrace you and they’re thankful for you, it still stings. I’m just thankful and appreciative of the city of Dallas and the fans for welcoming me and Max (Christie) to the new situation.”
Mavericks center Dereck Lively was on a minutes restriction for both of the team’s play-in games this week, tweets NBA insider Marc Stein. Lively, who was out from mid-January to early April with a foot injury, played 18 minutes on Wednesday vs. Sacramento and 20 minutes on Friday vs. Memphis.
According to Stein (Twitter link), Lively’s foot injury was “at the center of some significant tensions” among some of the new members of the Mavs’ medical and performance team at the practice facility in February. President of basketball operations Nico Harrison defended the medical team during this week’s media session when asked how Lively was on the verge of returning to action in January before being diagnosed with a stress fracture. “It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms—our medical team knew it was something more,” Harrison said. “And so that’s why they went and tested him again and saw the CT scan. They actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury.”
Bobby Marks of ESPN has shared his preview of the Mavericks’ offseason in a YouTube video and in an ESPN.com Insider-only article. Marks explores what a new contract for injured guard Kyrie Irving might look like and identifies forward P.J. Washington as another key extension candidate to watch.

Luka Doncic Discusses Mavs’ Harrison, Conditioning Criticism, More

April 19th, 2025 at 7:39am CST by Luke Adams

Roughly two-and-a-half months removed from the trade that sent him from Dallas to Los Angeles, Luka Doncic sat down with ESPN’s Malika Andrews (YouTube link) ahead of the Lakers‘ first-round playoff series with Minnesota and said he still hasn’t talked to Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison since the deal.

Speaking to select Dallas-based media earlier this week for the first time in over two months, Harrison said he had “no regrets” about the trade and repeated the mantra “defense wins championships” when asked why he didn’t feel that the Doncic-led core that made the NBA Finals last season was capable of winning a championship.

Doncic was asked by Andrews what he thought of Harrison’s comments.

“It’s just sad the way he’s talking right now,” the Lakers’ star said (story via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com). “I never say anything bad about him, and I just want to move on. The fans, my ex-teammates, I’ll always keep at heart. It’s time for me to move on from there.”

Doncic admitted that he didn’t take the news of the trade well — he said he threw his phone across the room, cracking it, when he first learned he’d been dealt out of Dallas, and repeatedly asked if it was an early “April 1st” joke.

“Sadness, mostly,” Doncic said of his initial feelings. “I was still in shock. Like, crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”

In the wake of the trade, numerous reports out of Dallas indicated the Mavericks had concerns about Doncic’s work ethic, diet, and conditioning issues. While it was impossible for the five-time All-Star to avoid those reports, he said he tried to ignore them and move forward with his new team, rather than dwelling on what went wrong with the Mavs.

“I mean it’s painful, depending on how you take it,” Doncic said. “It mostly came from Dallas, so I didn’t want to talk back. But I don’t really read that much stuff. I’m just trying to focus on my journey.”

Asked by Andrews if he had envisioned playing his entire career in Dallas prior to the trade, Doncic replied, “Of course. That’s an easy question.”

He’s no longer eligible for the five-year, super-max extension that the Mavericks could have offered him this summer, but Doncic will have the ability this offseason to sign a new contract with the Lakers that could be worth up to a projected $229MM over four years, beginning in 2026/27.

It remains to be seen whether the 26-year-old would prefer that long-term extension or a shorter-term contract that would put him in better position to maximize his future earnings, but it sounds like he’ll have interest in getting a deal done with the Lakers. Asked by Andrews if he wants to stay in Los Angeles, Doncic offered a succinct, straightforward reply.

“Yes,” he said.