With a new approach to his offseason, will skinny Luka Dončić make a triumphant return next season for the Lakers?
Luka Dončić’s physical attributes — namely his weight and conditioning — have been spoken of to near nausea-inducing levels, whether it’s talking heads on TV, clips of “SKINNY LUKA!” on social media or even his own previous team’s front office.
There is certainly some truth in the worries about Doncic’s conditioning and weight, with him clearly not being in the most ideal shape, which reflected in both his physical appearance and on-court performance.
However, it sounds like Luka has gotten the memo and has fully committed himself to reshaping himself this summer, as recently reported by Dan Woike of The Athletic.
…Dončić has been incredibly committed to his conditioning this offseason. He’s dropped significant weight and is working on strict diet and cardio training, according to a source with knowledge of the plan. In a shift from his normal offseason, he spent a month away from on-court work to focus more on his body. Dončić has looked visibly slimmer in photos and is now back working out with Slovenia readying for EuroBasket competition later this summer.
Another player who takes a similar approach to start the offseason is LeBron James. Now, I’m not implying that James was directly responsible for Doncic or anything like that. It could be Luka himself, it could be a suggestion from his personal fitness team, which now consists of multiple individuals who have known him since before he came to the NBA and were hired by the Lakers, or it could be a combination thereof, among other things.
The point is that if the most durable athlete of all time, who has finely-tuned his offseason approach over 22 years of playing pro basketball, does it, there might be some merit to it!
Before we get into details of what this might mean for Doncic, beyond “oh he’s skinny now!”, let’s take a second to reflect on why he might have put on weight in the first place. Luka is a player who relied heavily on his change of pace and direction to be effective, but he added weight and muscle to adapt to the increased physicality of the league with a superstar target on his back while being able to now out-physical and out-leverage defenders, which he does with increasing frequency to make the game easier for himself.
That rationale is very sensible, but it can lead to certain bad habits off the court, and that bulking can eventually cross the line from effective to excessive. Then, you factor in that he’s been plagued by multiple lower body injuries for the past 3-4 seasons, which means periods of inactivity, load management and not being able to condition at high intensity; all of which exacerbate the issue. Most recently, we saw that he missed over eight weeks with a calf injury this past season and returned heavier and more deconditioned than before.
However, the solution is not simply shedding weight. Rather, the key is changing the proportion of muscle mass to body fat. You want to maintain and build a certain level of strength while dropping weight. It’s a body recomposition.
Further, when players rapidly shed weight or bulk, it can lead to both physical and performance issues as the body and mind try to play catch up. We saw this with Kobe Bryant heading into the 2003-04 season when he added 15 pounds of muscle, but then shed them the next off-season because he could never quite adapt to that new body type, which led to him feeling slow and sluggish.
Furthermore, Doncic’s conditioning issues are well-documented. You will often see him jogging down the court, trying to gather his breath or simply not able to move as well as you would like, particularly laterally on the defensive end. When he’s locked in, his IQ, anticipation, instincts and footwork are very good.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Working on his cardiovascular fitness, along with body recomposition, to better tolerate basketball’s high-intensity, shorter-duration demands (sprints, short bursts, fast-twitch movements) and longer-duration, lower-intensity demands (jogging, constant movement) will help with all aspects of his game.
It’s even more important considering the NBA’s pace and style of play is getting continually faster and fluid, highlighted by this year’s NBA Finals with two teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, who play at a speed and intensity that is light years ahead of what we saw 10+ years ago.
Last but certainly not least, Luka’s offseason changes will benefit his durability. As discussed before, he’s dealt with multiple lower-body injuries and/or ongoing lingering issues, including those of the calf and knee.
That isn’t a surprise when you consider just how much force goes through the lower body during basketball activities, particularly joints and tendons. For example, during running, the ankle joint can experience ground reaction forces up to 13x body weight and the achilles tendon upwards of 9x body weight. During jumping and landing, the knee can experience upwards of 9x body weight and the achilles tendon upwards of 12.5x body weight.
Therefore, losing excess weight becomes almost an exponential reduction in force throughout the body.
That being said, the aspect of losing weight still needs to be balanced with not losing strength because muscles serve as the body’s shock absorbers, mitigating force throughout the entire body.
These demands are even more amplified for Doncic as he often plays with Slovenia during summer competitions — as he will this summer — which means more load on his body with less time for recovery.
Overall, the news that Doncic has taken a new approach to his summer and committed himself to getting into shape is great news for the Lakers and Slovenia, particularly as he fully takes the reins of the franchise from LeBron James.
That being said, Rome wasn’t built in a day and one offseason isn’t proof of anything. Luka will have to continue to hone his daily habits, training and maintain that level of focus and commitment regardless of what else happens.
I do believe he is now surrounded by the right type of environment and people to do just that but as always, only time will tell.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA and combines his movement expertise and fitness training background to rehab & train elite athletes.
He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for over 5 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance, on Instagram, and on his weekly Substack 3CB Quick HIITS.