Luka Doncic Describes New-Look Lakers With One-Word Response

The Lakers superstar offered a telling assessment of the revamped roster following the team’s chemistry-building minicamp in Slovenia.

Basketball - NBA - Los Angeles Lakers visit to Ljubljana - Ljubljana, Slovenia - August 23, 2026 Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic poses for a photo with teammates on the court where he played growing up in Ljubljana REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic | REUTERS

After going through some drastic changes over the course of this NBA offseason, Luka Doncic and the new-look Los Angeles Lakers are inching closer to the start of the 2026-27 campaign, which gets underway against the visiting Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21.

It has been a busy summer for the Lakers, with the team going through another change in ownership, changes to the front office and a roster overhaul around Doncic and Austin Reaves.

In an effort to get to know his teammates and build some much-needed chemistry ahead of next season, Doncic funded a trip overseas to his home country of Slovenia for a Lakers minicamp, which has received rave reviews from all those who made the trip.

Luka Doncic Describes New-Look Lakers as ‘Happy’

During a rapid-fire session of questions that needed to be answered with one word, Doncic described his new-look squad by simply saying:

"If you could only say one word to trash talk, what would it be?"

A one-word interview with Luka 🤔 pic.twitter.com/C8To50x5ht

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) September 6, 2026

“Happy,” Doncic said of his revamped squad.

The reigning NBA scoring champion also answered a few other questions with one-word responses, like which teammate he’d like to switch places with for a day. He said it would be Jarred Vanderbilt.

Vando Vault - Slovenia 🇸🇮

IG/vando_vault pic.twitter.com/G1YIIncaVk

— Luka Updates (@LukaUpdates) September 8, 2026

Doncic also said that if he weren’t a professional basketball player, he would be a golfer and that golf is the only sport that Reaves can beat him at, for the time being at least.

Another funny response came when he was asked, "If you had to give yourself a nickname, what would it be?"

“Don,” Doncic said.

He also believes that “patience” is his biggest on-court strength, which is right on the money, considering he forces everyone to play at his pace. That’s no easy task, to say the least.

Lakers Minicamp Put Luka Doncic and Company on the Right Track

One thing that keeps coming up about Doncic after the minicamp in Slovenia is that he showed admirable leadership, funding the trip and setting up activities for his new teammates overseas. 

The new-look Lakers really got a chance to get to know one another, with Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Walker Kessler all coming away from the trip with a good sense of who the face of the franchise is and what to expect heading into the 2026-27 campaign.

The revamped squad will be put on display starting Oct. 5 when the Lakers travel up north to face the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center.

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