Fresh off a quick postseason exit, Luka Dončić wasted no time getting ready for his first full year as a Laker.
Luka Dončić and the Lakers had an ugly end to their year last season, losing to the Wolves in five games in the first round of the playoffs.
An early exit when you are the favored team and the No. 3 seed would irk anyone, but it clearly bothered Luka.
So much so that he wasted no time getting ready for the 2025-26 NBA campaign, beginning his workout routine for the following year the very next day.
In an exclusive with Men’s Health, Andrew Heffernan and Ebenezer Samuel detailed Luka’s quick start to his long summer.
All Dončić wanted to do after this season ended was train, and he made that clear to his manager, Lara Beth Seager, on May 1, one day after the Lakers were ousted from the first round of the NBA playoffs. The loss was the nadir of Dončić’s worst NBA season. For all the criticism of Dončić’s body, until this past season, nobody could diss his body of work: He’d never played fewer than 60 games in a season, and just a year earlier, he’d powered the Mavs to the NBA Finals.
No such luck in 2024. A calf injury knocked him out for all of January. Then Dallas sent him packing. Then came the 4-1 playoff series decimation at the hands of the Timberwolves. One day after that loss, Dončić texted Seager to start his offseason training program ASAP. “So every summer I try my best to work on different things,” he says. “Obviously, I’m very competitive. This summer was just a little bit different, you know. It kind of motivated me to be even better.”
Luka getting his offseason training started immediately with some new, intense summer workouts is good for him and great for the Lakers.
Dončić is already a five-time All-NBA player. Despite some disappointments last year and an ugly split with the Mavericks, his talent and results are already historically good.
Even with his defensive flaws and questions about his conditioning, a Luka-led team has come out of the Western Conference and made it to the NBA Finals in 2024.
The goal is always a title in Los Angeles.
With Luka looking slimmer and taking advantage of this unusually long offseason, all signs indicate he will give himself the best chance at being in tip-top shape when training camp begins.
If Luka does that, then we just might see a peak from Dončić that’s never been seen before. Given what he’s already accomplished as a basketball player, that should be an exciting proposition for Lakers fans and a potentially horrifying scenario for the rest of the NBA.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.