Luka Doncic is 23 years old. He has already been three times all star (the fourth will arrive in February 2023) and another three have entered the Best Quintet in the NBA. He is already one of the best players in the best League in the worldNo discussion possible. And he’s a franchise player, Alpha and Omega, from the Dallas Mavericks, who broke all the forecasts and was a finalist in the West last season. After a hectic summer of 2021, with movements in the offices and the bench, Doncic secured his future in Texas with extension of mega star (five years, $207 million) that went into effect this season. So the Slovenian has a contract great this season and four more. In the current course he charges just over 37 million. In the last season, 2026-27, he will have the unilateral option (player option) to end a contract for 48.9 million or go on the market in the summer of 2026.
But, you knowDoncic-level stars need two things: aspire really the MVP and, above all, fight to win NBA rings. The Mavs do not have another great star next to the point guard, who this season is averaging 32.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.7 assists. So the goal of the franchise is that this trip to the final of the West 2022 does not remain as something exceptional. Because in Dallas they know that if Doncic doesn’t feel that in the Mavs he can aspire to the maximum basically every season, You will start thinking (or there will be a high risk that you will) of changing scenery before the closing of a contract that ties him to the Mavs, who however could not prevent their star from requesting the transfer and causing a cataclysm. It’s not unusual… if things don’t go as they should.
Journalist Tim MacMahon (ESPN), which follows the news of the Mavs, ensures that the franchise knows that they cannot fail a generational player like Doncic. He said it on the podcast Hoop Collective: “I think the Mavs have a two-year window. This season and the next, heading into the summer of 2024. It’s a two-year arc. It’s similar to the situation the Bucks were in with Giannis Antetokounmpo.”.
The Bucks also had to listen to how the big markets they tempted a Giannis who, however, began the 2020-21 season by signing an extension with the Bucks (five years, 228 million) and ended up winning the franchise’s first ring since 1971. “I think that is the margin they have to convince Luka that in Dallas he can fight for the title every season. If they don’t show it…I’m not going to say now that he’s going to force him out or ask for a transfer at that point, but if he’s not happy he’ll feel in a position to think about leaving. I don’t know exactly what he thinks either, but I’m close to the team and I know people who know Doncic well. He is not the type who will find excuses to leave and I think he would be happy playing his entire NBA career in Dallas. But if those reasons for leaving are the ones that end up looking for him and exploding in his face… that would be the problem. He is a great competitor. He likes to win, it’s what he got used to. He won titles with Real Madrid, he won a Eurobasket with Slovenia. He hates losing. Can’t stand it: be it cards or ping pong… but especially in NBA games, of course”.