Absolutely no one was prepared for the news of the blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Lakers acquiring superstar guard Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Anthony Davis. It was truly a deal that broke the internet as no one saw this coming, but the Lakers now have a building block for the post-LeBron James era.
In the short term, however, Doncic is still dealing with a calf injury and hasn’t played since Christmas Day. It is a very delicate injury and one in which a return can not be rushed, but thankfully for the Lakers, it looks like it won’t be too long before he is back on the court.
Late Saturday night, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst appeared on SportsCenter and reported that Doncic has already been ramping up for a return before the All-Star break and is getting closer to suiting up:
“He’s definitely ramping up and getting closer. I don’t know if they for sure have a date in mind, but there was a feel that he could be back before the All-Star break, which is in two weeks. It’s obviously a worrisome injury, it’s the second time he’s injured his calf this year and you gotta be careful with that. But this isn’t like a long-term thing.”
As Windhorst noted, this is the second time Doncic has injured that calf this season so he and the Lakers must be careful with it. He should not be back before he is completely healthy and the Lakers will take every precaution before getting him on the court.
Before the injury though, he was targeting a return around Feb. 8, per NBA insider Marc Stein:
Luka Dončić was targeting a Feb. 8 return from his calf strain, sources say, but long-term concerns about conditioning are said to have factored into Dallas' shocking change of course.
Now Anthony Davis will partner Kyrie Irving … and the Lakers have their heir to LeBron James.… https://t.co/SGmhMbg2Nc— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 2, 2025
The Lakers are set to host the Indiana Pacers on Saturday afternoon, so it will be interesting to see if Doncic is able to play.
But the anticipation of seeing Doncic in the purple and gold next to LeBron will only continue to grow from here. The Lakers have once again pulled off a deal that nobody thought was even a possibility and Doncic will be on the court only when he is healthy and ready to do so.
Mavericks approached Lakers about Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade
Once the news had broke on this unbelievable Luka Doncic trade for Anthony Davis, there were a ton of questions many still had. In particular was how these discussions even began between the Lakers and Mavericks and how things progressed from there.
As it turns out, it was the Mavericks who reportedly initiated the conversations and offered Doncic to the Lakers. While it was undoubtedly a difficult decision to part with Davis, the Lakers felt Luka has the chance to be the face of the franchise for the next decade and ultimately couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
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