One of the biggest offseason stories throughout the entire NBA involved Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic getting into the best shape of his career. Doncic was noticeably slimmer, having dropped a lot of weight, and was even featured on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine outlining his journey.
During his run with Slovenia at FIBA EuroBasket, Luka looked a bit quicker and more energetic on the court and the same could be said at the outset of this season for the Lakers before his unfortunate injury. But the desire to get into elite shape actually came before he joined the purple and gold.
In an interview with his good friend and mentor Dirk Nowitzki on NBA on Prime, Doncic revealed that the thoughts of getting into top shape started during his run to the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks in 2024:
“It kind of started in that Finals run. I felt like I was missing a little bit. Obviously last season was hard for me, a lot of things going on. I’m 26 years old and I got a long ways ahead of me. So it just kind of started there.”
Doncic was undoubtedly playing a ton of minutes during that postseason run as he averaged 40.9 minutes in 22 games during the 2024 playoffs. In the NBA Finals itself, those numbers were a little lower as he averaged 38.8 minutes in the five games which is still impressive considering the offensive load he was tasked with carrying for that team.
Now with the Lakers, Luka still is the primary scorer and creator, though with LeBron James and Austin Reaves he has a bit more help when it comes to the offensive load. Either way, this improved stamina should serve him well not only late into games, but late into the season and the playoffs if the Lakers are able to make a deep postseason run.
At such a young age, it’s nice to see Doncic take control of his career as he has all of the talent in the world and now has the conditioning to match it.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic not expected to miss more than one week
It was a blow for the Lakers to lose Luka Doncic to a finger and lower leg injury after just two games. But it sounds as if Luka won’t miss more than the week he is expected to, which is great news for the Lakers.
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