Lakers Foolishly Looking to Follow Dallas Mavericks' Blueprint for Luka Doncic

The Los Angeles Lakers are a little bit of a mess right now, but they received a golden blessing when Nico Harrison decided to trade them Luka Doncic in the middle of the night. The only question is, how do they build a team around Doncic with the limited assets they have?

According to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, who appeared on FanDuel's "Run It Back" show on Wednesday, the Lakers are looking to follow what the Dallas Mavericks did for Doncic, thinking Austin Reaves can be their Kyrie Irving.

"It's really about re-inventing this team around Luka Doncic, and building the kind of team that Dallas had in its last couple of years," Mannix started. "That means finding someone that is a better fit than Deandre Ayton to be that Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford, hell, maybe it is Daniel Gafford. Just find somebody that can fit into that role. Look out for more 3-and-D type of players that fit the Dorian Finney-Smith, P.J. Washington type of mold. They just want to make Dallas 2.0...

"They feel they can succeed with a backcourt of Luka and Austin Reaves, even though they're a defensive challenge there; they believe they can succeed with those two guys if they get the right type of players in that frontcourt. It's going to be all about finding Dallas versions of those players that I mentioned this offseason."

The Lakers want to make Dallas 2.0 this offseason 👀

"They feel like they can succeed with a backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves...if they can get the right type of players in the frontcourt." - @SIChrisMannix @MichelleDBeadle | @ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 pic.twitter.com/uaSL2CSn7J
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) March 4, 2026

Don't Expect the Dallas Mavericks to Give the Lakers Any Favors

Right before the trade deadline, it came out that the Mavericks weren't looking to do any business with the Lakers, as they are still suffering from the PR nightmare of trading them Luka Doncic. Any other trade would just make the problem worse.

Luka Doncic would love to play with Daniel Gafford again, and that isn't a secret. Gafford tried playing for the Slovenian national team before Doncic was traded, and we've seen the two have conversations after games. But unless the Mavericks get at least a first-round pick and a good player for Gafford from the Lakers, there won't be a trade there.

The Lakers hardly have any draft capital to work with anyway, and their roster needs a lot of work. And while the duo of Doncic and Kyrie Irving was special in Dallas, Austin Reaves isn't as skilled a player as Irving is. They do have cap space for the future, but free agency is basically dead now with how the tax aprons are set up. That's impacted negotiations to have more contract extensions rather than free agency pursuits.

It's extremely unlikely the Lakers will find a roster quality of what the Mavericks had before they traded him, which is why it's always going to be infuriating that the Mavs traded him away. They had the perfect roster for him, and that's gone now.

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