Lakers' offseason wish list is proving Luka Doncic should still be a Maverick

Luka Doncic just finished his full season with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week, and Rob Pelinka and company are trying to copy the formula that made his teams so dangerous with the Dallas Mavericks. According to Sam Amick and Dan Woike of The Athletic, Los Angeles wants to put centers similar to Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II around Doncic, as well as two-way wings and a "long-term secondary playmaker."

The Lakers' wish list includes all of the things that Doncic had in Dallas, and the fact that they're about to go through the trouble of bringing all of these players to Los Angeles proves that he should still be a Maverick right now.

The Lakers are trying to rebuild what the Mavs already built

Doncic had everything that he needed to win a title in Dallas, but that opportunity was ripped away from him.

It took the Mavericks six seasons to finally put the perfect team around Doncic, and as soon as they did, they reached the NBA Finals. Dallas making that deep playoff run in 2024 was not a coincidence, as they finally cracked the code at the trade deadline. The P.J. Washington and Gafford acquisitions gave them the energy and fearlessness they needed to compete in a loaded Western Conference, and the rest was history.

That was the best team that they ever put around Doncic, and less than a year after that playoff run, Nico Harrison decided to trade him to the Lakers. Now, Los Angeles is in the same position that the Mavericks were once in.

They're finding out that you have to give Doncic two-way players, rim protectors, lob threats, strong 3-point shooting, and an elite backcourt partner to put him in a position to win, and getting all of these pieces on the same roster isn't going to be easy. Dallas did an incredible job of putting the right team around him before ultimately trading him, and the fact that Pelinka is trying to copy Dallas' blueprint exactly should tell you something.

He saw how well the Mavericks played in 2024.

Irving was the perfect co-star.
Jones Jr. and Washington were his dirty-work wings.
Lively II and Gafford looked like two of the best pick-and-roll big men in the NBA.

Dallas had years of being contenders in front of them if they had just given Doncic another chance, but Harrison pulled the plug.

Doncic shouldn't even be in this position right now

The Lakers are now trying to give him what made him such a monster in Dallas, but a Doncic-led squad shouldn't have to rebuild. Los Angeles promised him that they would "give him a locker room full of his type of players, to find him replicants, if not improvements, of the balanced roster he made a finals run with in Dallas in 2024 before the stunning trade that sent him west," but that promise hasn't come true yet.

The Lakers can't just run it back and expect to be one of the top teams in the West. Thus, their journey to becoming Dallas 2.0 begins.

Doncic shouldn't be waiting for a team to build a roster around him entering his ninth season in the NBA. He should already have that luxury, and if the Mavericks had just held onto him, he would.

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