When the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off the trade to acquire Luka Doncic, most didn’t understand why the Dallas Mavericks even wanted to trade him in the first place. As it would come out over time, one of the main reasons that was brought up in multiple reports was concerns about Doncic’s work ethic and how he takes care of his body.
Despite his on-court success, there were issues with Doncic’s weight and the Mavericks apparently felt that it would eventually impact his long-term health. The Lakers obviously weren’t concerned with that and one reason is because of the presence of LeBron James.
No one puts more into taking care of their body than LeBron and that is why he remains one of the best players in the league at the age of 40. The Lakers superstar just became the first player to reach 50,000 career points combined regular season and playoffs, doing so on a 3-pointer assisted from Doncic, who feels LeBron might be able to reach 70,000 points.
“I mean, it’s amazing,” Doncic said of James’ accomplishment. “Watching him do this stuff at this age, it’s just unbelievable. Like 50k points, I can’t even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70k.”
What LeBron is doing at this stage of his career is simply mind-boggling, but it goes into the work he does off the court and keeping his body in peak condition. And Doncic himself sees it as a learning process to witness all James does.
“Nothing new, honestly,” Luka said about what he’s learned about LeBron since joining the Lakers. “I mean, the way he works, the way he takes care of his body, that’s why he’s playing now at this level, so I don’t think nothing new, but just overall, being next to him and experience that situation is a learning process for me.”
Doncic was already one of the best players in the NBA today even with some apparent weight and conditioning issues. Allowing him to learn from James and keep his body in the best form possible on the Lakers might be the worst thing the Mavericks could have done, and now the rest of the league might need to be very afraid.
JJ Redick believes Lakers are getting used to playing with Luka Doncic
It takes time for a team to get used to playing with a creator like Luka Doncic, who sees things differently than basically anyone else. But Lakers head coach JJ Redick believes the team is beginning to figure it out and learn how to play with the superstar.
“There’s a non-cadence to the way Luka plays, if that makes sense,” Redick said. “A lot of offensive players have pre-programmed reads, he just does shit that you’re like ‘What, why did you do that?’ There was a blitz against our bench in the second half, could’ve made one read, could’ve made another read. Made the read that I would’ve picked last, and we ended up getting a layup on it. Our guys are starting to get into a groove and a rhythm, even with the non-cadence of how he plays.”
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