Lakers's new Luka Doncic-LeBron James duo gets blunt assessment from Jazz's Will Hardy

Today at 10:42 PM

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy gave an honest assessment of the Lakers’ new duo of Lebron James and Luka Doncic. The superstar point guard is set to debut against the Jazz on Monday night in one of the most anticipated games of the season. Los Angeles stunned the NBA world with the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade that many pundits are seeing as a huge win for the organization.

The 25-year-old is one of the best players in the world and just finished second in MVP voting last season. In addition, Doncic led the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2024, winning the Magic Johnson Trophy for Western Conference Finals MVP. While James and Doncic need time to build chemistry, Will Hardy was bullish on this new partnership. The Jazz head coach gave his take on this duo in a pregame interview with ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin.

"I don't know if any of us know what it will look like. I assume it will look good … I don't see any world where those two playing together isn't a good thing"

LA is ready to embrace the new face of its franchise

While the Lakers do have some concerning weaknesses at the center position, there’s a reason why this trade has been widely praised. Trading for this kind of talent at this point in his career is the kind of move a winning franchise makes. And now the franchise’s long-term future, which looked kind of bleak a few weeks ago, is very bright. The long-term belief was that Anthony Davis would become the new face of the franchise when LeBron James eventually retired.

However, the star power forward is 31 years old and has been injury-prone throughout the years. Davis is still a top ten player in the league. But it’s unclear how many more years he can play at this level. Luka Doncic, on the other hand, is six years younger and has likely still not reached his prime yet. The Slovenian superstar is exactly who the Lakers can build around in the post-LeBron era.

But James doesn’t look to be retiring anytime soon. And that’s exciting, considering his recent run of form. The Lakers have won nine out of their ten past games with LeBron looking like an MVP candidate. Two of the most devastating offensive engines are about to be on the floor at the same time. That’s a scary prospect, especially considering that most of the West’s top teams are young and inexperienced.

Overall, Will Hardy is right. It will take some growing pains but LeBron James and Luka Doncic are too great for this partnership to not eventually work. Really the question is can these two build chemistry fast enough to win a title this year? In addition, do the Lakers have the right surrounding pieces around their two stars? These kind of questions will be answered in the coming months.

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