Fresh from representing his home nation of Slovenia at the Tokyo Olympics, Luka Doncic has committed himself to the Dallas Mavericks for the long-term. The 22-year-old has agreed to a massive $207m deal that runs for five years.
The deal makes Doncic the first player to qualify for the designated rookie max extension due to having been twice voted to the first team All-NBA. A number of Mavericks staff traveled to Ljubljana to present the offer to the impressive young talent and it’s a deal that holds Dallas in good stead for the short and medium-term.
It’s been a decade since the Mavericks won their open NBA title, back in 2011, and the long-term extension of Doncic’s contract will give Mark Cuban’s side every chance of tasting glory again.
Dallas is now a tempting prospect when it comes to the NBA betting markets, such as here where they are at +3000. Last season Doncic played his part leading the American Airlines Center side to first place in the Southwest before they bowed out, for the second time in a row, to a first round playoff loss to the Clippers, but we feel they could go longer into the playoffs next time around.
Luka Doncic is undoubtedly one of the best young talents in the game and as such keeping him at Dallas is a great piece of business from Cuban, albeit the deal is not a cheap one.
Doncic has been impressive ever since he left Real Madrid to make his NBA bow in 2018-19, when he was named rookie of the year and he hasn’t taken his feet off the gas ever since.
He averages 25.7 pts per game in regular season action and an astounding 33.5 pts in playoff action, those stats are all the more impressive given Doncic has been on the losing end of both the playoff series he’s featured in.
On announcing the new deal Cuban was very effusive of Doncic’s talent and impact, stating;
“I’ve seen when he first came in, the pressure that was on him and the way he dealt with it, how hard he worked,” Cuban said. “How he recognized that it was always about the team winning and that was what was most important to him. That was always most important to me, whatever we could do to win.”
Head coach Jason Kidd was also not short of superlatives when discussing the point guard;
“I think when you talk about Luka’s gift, he’s a special player,” Kidd said, before adding. “And for me, as a coach, it’s just to guide him. Be an extra set of eyes and ears to make the game as simple and as easy for him on the court. To give him the answers to the test so that he can do what he does at a very high level.”
One imagines that Dallas Mavericks fans will be hoping that the deal will give their side the chance to build on their obvious potential and hopefully make a deeper run into the playoffs next time around.