The Los Angeles Lakers had to build a team on the fly last offseason around superstar Luka Doncic. They were not expecting to land the international star in February of 2025, and did not have the assets that summer to build a perfectly-suited team. Still, they won 53 games and went to the second round of the playoffs while Doncic was injured.
The summer of 2026, though, represents L.A.’s first real chance to build a roster entirely suited to Doncic’s strengths. Lakers legend James Worthy — who is around the team often as a member of the Spectrum SportsNet crew — discussed what he feels are the best type of players to surround Doncic with.
“Shooters, particularly those who can hit the 3 consistently,” Worthy said on The Kevin O’Connor Show on Yahoo Sports. “Guys who can defend and not necessarily hide him in the defense, but take some pressure off of him. They need a big who can protect the paint and also receive lobs and be a force defensively. They need players that surround him who can also create, they need an Austin Reaves. LeBron [James] was able to do it at 41 and take some pressure off of Luka when they started to blitz him.
“Teams will figure out a way to disrupt a guy like Luka or a guy like KD, so he needs guys — and I think he loves the fact that Austin Reaves is on the team because he loves what Austin does when he doesn’t have the ball — they need what Oklahoma has, when he’s out of the game he needs a bench that can come in and put up 40, 50, 60 points from time to time and they need it consistently.”
Worthy here describes what would be an ideal roster construction around Doncic. Shooting, playmaking and defense are the benchmarks of all successful teams, evidenced by the two teams currently in the NBA Finals. It’s unclear if the Lakers have the pathways to acquire all of these ideals, but the blueprint on building a winning team around Doncic already exists in the 2024 Dallas Mavericks.
That team had playmaking in the form of Kyrie Irving, shooting in the form of P.J. Washington, Maxi Kleber and Tim Hardaway Jr., defense in the form of Josh Green and Derrick Jones Jr. and two strong big men with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II.
The Lakers have some of that with potential free agents Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton, but absolutely need more of it across the roster.
Robert Horry: Lakers have to build to beat Spurs & Thunder
Another former Laker recently spoke on what the Lakers need to do this offseason. Robert Horry’s suggestion was to look at the Western Conference’s two best teams — the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder — and build teams that can directly counteract what they do best.
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