The names atop the Los Angeles Lakers’ ownership structure keep changing. ESPN’s forecasters expect the name at the center of their basketball plans to remain the same.
Asked whether the 2026-27 season would be Luka Doncic’s last in Los Angeles, ESPN’s summer forecast panel gave “No” 20 points and “Yes” four. The result favored continuity despite another ownership transition, with Josh Kushner and Bob Iger preparing to take over from Mark Walter.
For ESPN Lakers insider Dave McMenamin, neither side appears to have a compelling reason to end the partnership.
His assessment rests on two things: the organization’s commitment to building around Doncic and the investment the 27-year-old has made in his teammates.
It is a prediction, not an assurance that a trade cannot happen. But it pushes against the idea that uncertainty in the owner’s suite necessarily means uncertainty about the franchise player.
ESPN Expects Lakers to Keep Building Around Luka Doncic
Getty Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts against the Houston Rockets during the second half at Toyota Center on March 18, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
In ESPN’s summer forecast, McMenamin pointed to the support Doncic has received since Rob Pelinka acquired him from the Dallas Mavericks.
“Even with the Lakers’ ownership about to change hands from Mark Walter to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, it’s hard to imagine the organization suddenly changing directions and not continuing to build with Doncic as the center of its universe,” McMenamin wrote.
Doncic also has contractual security. Beyond the coming season, his deal runs for two additional years, including a $57.8 million player option for 2028-29.
That option gives him a future decision point. It does not make next summer an automatic departure date.
McMenamin offered another reason to doubt that Doncic would seek an exit: his decision to pay a six-figure bill for a teammates’ minicamp and retreat in Slovenia.
The gathering combined basketball work with time together away from the demands of an NBA season. For a player still establishing himself as the Lakers’ leader, it was a tangible commitment to the group.
McMenamin described the prospect of Doncic making that investment and then deciding he was finished with Los Angeles next summer as “similarly unfathomable.”
Another Franchise Sale Adds Change Around Doncic
GettyNBA Commissioner Adam Silver, prospective Lakers owner Josh Kushner and then-Disney CEO Bob Iger attend the 2025 U.S. Open in New York. Kushner and Iger agreed to purchase the Lakers for $12.5 billion in a deal that came together in 72 hours.
The ownership turnover nonetheless gives the forecast an unusual backdrop.
If the proposed sale closes, Doncic will have played under five controlling ownership groups during his NBA career: Mark Cuban’s Mavericks, the Adelson-Dumont families in Dallas, the Buss family’s Lakers, Walter’s group and the Kushner-Iger partnership.
That sequence spans more than two seasons. The NBA approved Cuban’s sale of Dallas’ controlling interest in December 2023, before Doncic’s move to Los Angeles.
For the Lakers, the immediate question is whether new ownership will maintain the basketball direction already established around him. McMenamin expects it will.
For Doncic, the challenge is turning his offseason commitment into a durable partnership on the court. A retreat does not guarantee long-term happiness, just as a contract does not eliminate the possibility of a future trade request.
Still, ESPN’s forecast places the burden of proof on a departure, not a reunion next season.
The Lakers may soon have different owners. The expectation is that they will still be building around Doncic.
Lakers Get Strong Luka Doncic Prediction Amid Ownership Shakeup