Category: Basketball

A couple of days after signing his max extension with the Los Angeles Lakers — then seeing the Back Street Boys at the Sphere in Las Vegas with some teammates — Luka Doncic was half a world away in his native Slovenia, preparing with his countrymen for the EuroBasket tournament.

The setting may change, but the questions for Doncic did not — reporters wanted to know about his thinner look and offseason conditioning work. Here are his responses from Slovinian media outlet SIOL.net, as translated by Eurohoops.net.

"There have always been questions about my fitness, but I thought I was playing great before, too. This year we approached things differently. Last summer was rough — I played until June and then jumped straight into Olympic qualifiers. This time, I had more time and a better plan."
As for his new workout routine.

"It wasn't easy at first, but then it becomes a habit. We'll see how it translates to games — I haven't played since the NBA season ended, and I've only just started scrimmaging again."

This largely echoed what Doncic told the media in Los Angeles last week. With his improved conditioning, Doncic may be able to play a little faster and is more likely to stay healthy. Still, near the top of Coach J.J. Redick's list of goals for this season will be to get Doncic and LeBron James to the postseason healthy and ready to make a run, which is going to mean some rest and nights off.

It's going to be interesting to see what the new, motivated Doncic looks like on the court. Our first look will come as Doncic and Slovenia play some warm-up exhibitions (starting with a couple of games against Germany in the coming days), but things get serious Aug. 28 when Slovenia opens EuroBasket against Poland.

The expectation remains that Jayson Tatum will not set foot on an NBA court next season. If he does, it will be deep into a season that his Boston Celtics are already treating like a gap year, having focused on money-saving moves this offseason.

All that said, it's still a good sign to see Tatum walking without a boot and moving well at the New England Patriots' practice on Wednesday.

There also have been videos on social media of Tatum working out in the Celtics' practice facility weight room.

Tatum had surgery on his torn Achilles in May, and advancements in techniques and equipment mean anyone getting that surgery is up and moving around much sooner than they would have even a decade ago. That's the case for Tatum. However, a return to the court for a professional athlete remains a long arc because of the need to rebuild strength in the supportive muscles around the tendon, as well as make sure it is fully healed and can handle the intense strain placed on it. Even then, it usually takes time for the player to fully trust that leg again on the court.

Seeing Tatum walking around the Patriots' practice doesn't change any of that, but it's still a good sign.

Austin Reaves is on arguably the best contract in the NBA. The 20-point-a-game scorer last season for the Lakers will make $13.9 million — less than the full midlevel exception — this season, the third year of his four-year, $53.8 million contract.

Next summer, Reaves is expected to use his player option to become a free agent — and the man is going to get paid. Several executives told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps to expect a deal that averages more than $30 million a season.

I think he will get $30 [million] plus," one executive told ESPN, echoing multiple front office sources who were asked about the next deal Reaves could command.

Those executives also echoed the idea that Reaves will re-sign with the Lakers — he is loyal, Los Angeles needs him as the No. 2 shot creator next to Luka Doncic, and he's a fan favorite so the backlash of letting him walk would be ugly. Reaves' ability to shoot the rock (37.7% on 3-pointers last season, 39.9% on catch-and-shoot attempts), play off the ball or on, makes him an ideal fit next to Doncic.

However, there are questions that this season is going to answer about Reaves and his fit with the team. One is the playoffs, where Reaves struggled against the athletic Timberwolves defense, scoring 16.2 points and 3.6 assists per game while shooting just 41.1% overall and 31.9% from beyond the arc — now he needs to prove that was a fluke. While he's improved on that end, Reaves remains a minus defender, which is tough to put next to Doncic for long stretches (especially in the playoffs).

That said, look at the guards making around $30 million a season right now — Jalen Suggs, Tyler Herro, Jordan Poole, Dejounte Murray — and Reaves slots in nicely with that group. A deal in the four-year, $120 million range sounds about right.

If the Lakers don't want to pay it, other teams will. But the Lakers will pay it. Expect Los Angeles and Reaves to work out a deal, although he could be a late official signing as the Lakers use their expected cap space (depending on what happens with LeBron James' future with the team) to build out the roster they want around Doncic, then use their Bird rights to re-sign Reaves. That said, the deal will get done.

Luka Doncic got his max contract extension. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got a historic one, and the Thunder also extended and locked up his running mates Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. Devin Booker got his extension.

Trae Young has yet to get his, and he's growing increasingly frustrated. He was frustrated at the pace of things a month ago.

ESPN/Andscape's Marc Spears said Tuesday that Young is "disappointed" that he has yet to be offered a deal. From Spears' appearance on NBA Today:

"What I'm hearing now, at this point — you can tell by Trae's Tweet, and I saw him during the Finals — I think he's disappointed that it hasn't come, it hasn't been offered."

Atlanta can offer Young a four-year, $228.6 million max extension right now, but there also is no time crunch from the Hawks' perspective (the deadline to reach a deal is June 30, 2026).

The question becomes: Is Young a max player? If not — and the conventional wisdom around the league is he's not a full max guy — then what is the number where everyone is happy, both in terms of dollars and years?

The Hawks were aggressive this offseason, retooling their roster into one that could be a top-four team in the East. They traded for Kristaps Porzingis, who brings much-needed shot blocking to Atlanta, and he seems a natural pick-and-pop partner with Young. Nickeil Alexander-Walker brings shooting to the wing, plus he and Dyson Daniels give the Hawks an elite wing defense. Luke Kennard adds even more shooting. And that's not counting Jalen Johnson getting healthy and Zaccharie Risacher potentially making a leap in his second season.

There's some logic to the idea of Young at the point leading this roster, he averaged 24.2 points and 11.6 assists per game last season, shooting 34% from beyond the arc. He also led the league in turnovers with 355 (4.7 per game), and is a minus defender.

Does Atlanta want to see how things shake out on the court before getting serious with extension talks? More likely, they talk to Young about a two-year contract closer to his current salary (two years, $100-105 million). Whether he'd accept that is the question.

What Young wants is an offer and negotiations as a place to start. You could easily get that vibe out of his support for Dallas Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons and the drama around his contract.

The question is, how serious are the Hawks about talking at this point?

The story of Luka Doncic signing a max three-year extension with the Lakers could not be told without discussing the shocking trade that sent Doncic to the Lakers in the first place.

What was clear from listening to Doncic at his press conference after the signing was that he was looking forward, not back. That's what his manager, Lara Beth Seager, told Dan Woike of The Athletic.

"He's moved on," she told The Athletic...

"He's only looking forward. And he's here. He wants to get the best players here. He wants to win, and he knows it starts with him. And I think that's what he proved this offseason. 'OK, everyone wants to say or people think that they know me or I'm not a leader or I'm this way, or I'm that way, I don't care. They can think and say whatever they want. I'm gonna show them who I am."

Nothing helps someone move on like $165 million. That new contract helps.

Seager compared Doncic's situation with the Lakers like a marriage, one that may have ups and downs but is built on trust and loyalty. That echoed what Doncic himself said during his press conference.

"I was kind of thinking, obviously not at the moment when I got traded, but later on when I started playing, I wanted to be here," Doncic said. "Like I said, this is an amazing organization. We have a trust in each other, so honestly, I decided pretty quick."

That commitment to the Lakers and the future may be most evident in his post-trade revenge body and newfound commitment to conditioning.

"I would just say, it was like a fresh start for me," Doncic said. "Obviously, I was on my way of doing it [already], but it was just kind of a fresh start. I had a little more time to get my mind on basketball, just doing other things. So, I would just say, like, a fresh start for me."

Doncic has moved on, and the lottery luck leading to Cooper Flagg landing in Dallas has helped that organization and its fan base move on. That's healthy for everyone involved.

It doesn't mean that a Lakers vs. Mavericks Christmas Day game wouldn't be a real showcase for the league. Sports fans aren't going to move on quite as quickly.

Part of the discussion about Luka Doncic’s extension with the Los Angeles Lakers — after LeBron James opted into his contract — was about the Lakers' potential to have max cap space as soon as next summer. That allows them to retool the roster around Luka Doncic, which sparked some speculation about the Lakers chasing Giannis Antetokounmpo or other stars to slot in where LeBron stands now, building a classic multi-star title team. Multiple superstars has always been the Lakers' ideal.

Rick Carlisle is questioning that old-school thinking and if that's the best way to build a contender in the modern NBA.

In a fantastic interview/conversation with Caitlin Cooper of “Basketball She Wrote” (a journalist every basketball fan should follow), Carlisle talked about how the Pacers were built and won, and that serving as a model for other teams (an echo of things he said during the Finals).

"The NBA game has now become a play hard league. It's not just being top heavy with stars. Roster construction is changing... It's become more important to have more good players than be top heavy with two or three great players that get all the touches."

These past NBA Finals were a testament to that. Oklahoma City boasts MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, while Indiana features an All-NBA, Olympian player in Tyrese Haliburton. However, in both cases, these were teams deep with good role players who played hard nightly and fit the teams' systems and styles — neither team rolled out a player the other team could just instantly target in their top eight. This wasn't SGA and Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren covering up for the players below them, OKC rolled out quality players in Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, and on and on down the line.

The key to those rosters was not the high ceilings of the stars but the high floor of the top eight — Indiana reached the Finals on the strength of that idea. The Pacers didn't just have Haliburton, Myles Turner and Pascal Siakam, there were quality players in Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin and Ben Sheppard. There was quality depth Carlisle could trust in a way that was not happening with the New York Knicks, for example.

A year prior it was the same thing, the Celtics had stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but that roster also was eight deep with players Joe Mazzulla could lean into: Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and on down the line. Two years ago, it was an MVP in Nikola Jokic in Denver but surrounded by depth in guys such as Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Christian Braun and more.

During the NBA Finals, Carlisle owned the idea that none of this works without the right star at the top — a team needs a transcendent star or two. However, beyond that, it becomes about depth more than stockpiling stars. It's not how strong the stars at the top are, but how weak is the weakest link in the chain? And come the playoffs, can opponents pull the chain apart by focusing on that weak link?

Fans are understandably weary of talk of the NBA and its tax aprons, but those are changing how teams are built now. Carlisle has seen the future, as have the Pacers, and they were in the Finals because of it. Expect other innovative teams to try to follow this model.