Lakers' first-round playoff exit shouldn't skew overall narrative of the Luka Doncic trade

Luckily for the Lakers, all signs point towards Luka Doncic signing a max-extension this offseason, and continuing to don—pun intended—the iconic purple and gold for the foreseeable future. For that reason alone, despite their embarrassing first-round exit, the sky is not falling in Laker land. 

Doncic, for all his shortcomings, is a nearly unparalleled offensive engine. While in the coming days, weeks, and months, he will likely be the subject of much criticism, citing his weight, lack of conditioning, and defensive inabilities, Doncic is still the sole reason that the Lakers should be viewed as perennial title contenders going forward. 

While Lakers fans are surely displeased to be seeing their team bounced in the first round, the future of the franchise remains exceedingly bright. The arrival of Doncic in Los Angeles created a near-universal wave of excitement and enthusiasm, but underneath that wave there was an undercurrent of understanding that this roster, at least in its current makeup, wasn’t truly championship-ready. So while there was some hope that the combined brilliance of LeBron James and Doncic could make up for a bit of a misfit roster, in the end that optimism was largely misplaced.

While the Lakers were ultimately unsuccessful in their pursuit of Charlotte Hornets’ starting Center Mark Williams, Rob Pelinka clearly knows what he needs to accomplish this offseason. While Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt made up a serviceable enough center rotation during the conclusion of the regular season, it shouldn't have been all that surprising to see them be rendered largely ineffective against the bigs of Minnesota—Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. Doncic needs a starting caliber center, and that should be priority number one heading into the offseason. 

In addition to fortifying the Lakers’ front-court rotation, the bench unit could also use some beefing up, as head coach JJ Redick clearly had little faith in deploying his second unit for extended periods of time. 

Luckily for the Lakers, they have a cornerstone talent in the prime of his career in Doncic—the same cannot be said about the Mavericks. While the Lakers' roster is flawed, their path towards improvement is clear and straightforward. In fact, they could even use the team that Doncic took to the Finals, just last year, which Nico Harrison assembled, as a blueprint of how to best build a supporting cast for their Slovenian superstar. 

Anyone who's willing to cite the Lakers’ early-round loss as an example of why Nico Harrison and the Mavericks were right to move on from Doncic has lost the plot. And that could be putting it too politely. Putting recent disappointments aside, it remains far more plausible that once the dust has fully settled on this historic trade, the Mavericks relieve Nico Harrison of his duties than the Lakers regret pulling the trigger.