The Los Angeles Lakers made their first major post-LeBron James push around Luka Doncic. CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn still sees a warning sign big enough to follow the franchise into 2028.
The Lakers acquired Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz in a sign-and-trade, added Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili, and recommitted to Austin Reaves as part of a younger Doncic-led core. Quinn’s concern is that Los Angeles may have spent most of its flexibility without building a roster good enough to survive the top of the Western Conference.
That matters because Doncic’s contract does not remove all future pressure. The Lakers star signed a three-year extension in 2025 that can put his future back in play in 2028, when he has a player-option decision and could position himself for another massive deal.
Quinn’s bluntest warning was not simply that the Lakers are imperfect. It was that if this plan fails, Doncic could eventually look back toward the Dallas Mavericks.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic Plan Comes With a 2028 Clock
Quinn wrote that the Lakers “used up their flexibility” after the Kessler move and their other free-agent additions, leaving Los Angeles with a roster that may still be missing the kind of big, versatile wing defenders needed to win four playoff rounds.
That is the key basketball concern. Kessler gives Doncic the lob threat and rim protector the Lakers have needed, but the price was steep. According to Reuters, the Lakers’ sign-and-trade for Kessler sent Utah unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, along with pick swaps in 2028 and 2030.
That is a major bet on Kessler, Reaves and the rest of the new supporting cast being enough.
Quinn questioned whether it is.
The CBS Sports analyst argued that the Lakers are now relying on Kessler and Reaves to be the second- and third-best players on a contender behind Doncic. He also pointed to the lack of proven two-way wings, a problem that becomes even more glaring in a West featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
That is where the 2028 warning becomes more than a distant hypothetical. Doncic can give the Lakers time, but he does not have to give them forever.
Dallas Looms as the Uncomfortable Comparison
Quinn’s most pointed scenario involved a possible Doncic return to Dallas.
The Mavericks are no longer the same organization that traded Doncic. Quinn noted that several central figures from that decision are gone, while Dallas has a young potential star in Cooper Flagg and a cleaner long-term asset picture. The Mavericks also control the Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick, which would become far more valuable if Doncic ever left Los Angeles.
That does not mean Doncic is planning to leave. It does mean the Lakers’ margin for error is smaller than it may appear.
Los Angeles can still offer the biggest stage, a familiar star-friendly infrastructure and, eventually, a massive long-term contract. But Doncic has already seen how quickly a front office’s roster-building choices can change the arc of his career. If the Lakers are capped out, short on picks and still chasing the Thunder or Spurs two years from now, the conversation around his future will not be easy to dismiss.
Quinn compared the possible Dallas path to LeBron James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014. The point was not that the situations are identical. It was that even the NBA’s biggest stars can revisit old relationships if the basketball path looks better.
Lakers Need Kessler Trade to Work Fast
The optimistic view is clear: Kessler gives Doncic a real center, Grimes and Sexton add guard depth, Mamukelashvili provides frontcourt shooting, and Reaves gives Los Angeles another high-level creator.
That is a better regular-season framework than asking Doncic to carry every possession.
The concern is the playoff version. Who guards elite wings? Who absorbs the toughest perimeter assignments? Can Kessler cover up enough mistakes at the rim without the Lakers becoming too vulnerable when he sits? Can Reaves be the No. 2 option on a championship team in a conference loaded with younger, deeper cores?
Those are the questions Quinn believes the Lakers have not fully answered.
For now, Doncic is still the centerpiece of the Lakers’ future. But the Kessler trade and the rest of Los Angeles’ free-agency work raised the stakes. The Lakers are not just trying to improve next season’s roster. They are trying to prove to Doncic, well before 2028, that their plan is championship-caliber.
If they cannot, Quinn’s warning is that the Lakers may eventually find themselves facing the same fear Dallas once did: a Doncic future that no longer feels guaranteed.
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