Luka Doncic’s latest message wasn’t about the Lakers, the season ahead or even the work he’s already started in preparation. It was about his daughters.
On Sunday, Doncic posted on Instagram to Gabriela and Olivia as his summer in Slovenia wound down and his return to Los Angeles came into focus. In the caption, he made clear that the distance between him and his children doesn’t change what they mean to him.
“Wherever I go, you are always with me. I love you!” Doncic wrote in Slovenian, translated into English.
He began the post with their initials, G+O, and closed it with two heart emojis. The tone was personal and direct, a small window into his offseason at a moment when the basketball calendar is about to pick up.
The post did not include any team news or season update. It was simply a family message from a player who spent much of the summer in his home country before returning to Los Angeles.
Family has already shaped parts of Doncic’s summer. In May, Reuters reported that he would skip Slovenia’s national-team schedule so he could spend more time with his daughters.
That came after a tough end to the Lakers’ 2025-26 season, when a left-hamstring injury sidelined him for the playoffs. Since then, Doncic has been working his way back with conditioning and court work in Ljubljana in September.
He also brought Lakers teammates to Ljubljana the previous month for time together and two informal practices. That gave the group a chance to get more familiar before the real work begins, and it kept part of the Lakers’ offseason in the same city where Doncic spent much of his summer.
The next stretch arrives quickly. Lakers media day is set for Sept. 28, eight days after Doncic’s post, and the NBA lists Sept. 29 as the start of training camps.
That means the Lakers are moving from summer routines into the kind of organized preparation that starts to define rotations and roles. Coach JJ Redick will soon begin sorting through how the pieces fit around Doncic.
As Lakers Daily’s earlier depth-chart breakdown noted, the conversation stretches beyond Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler. There are still lineup questions to answer and minutes to sort out among the supporting cast.
Another issue is how the offense functions when Doncic is on the bench. Collin Sexton’s possible value as a reserve is part of that picture, giving the Lakers another name to weigh as they shape their scoring options.
Those decisions will be easier to judge once camp opens. For now, Doncic’s message was focused somewhere else entirely: Gabriela and Olivia.
In Other News...
Kwame Brown Just Dragged LeBron Into Lakers' Dalton Knecht Debate
Dalton Knechts rookie season has already become part of a much bigger Lakers conversation, and Kwame Brown helped push it into a familiar place this week. During an appearance on The Basketball Show, Brown took aim at LeBron James while arguing that James presence in the organization, especially because of Bronny James, hurt Knechts development with Los Angeles. The debate has quickly turned into more than a simple look at a young players role, because it now sits at the intersection of roster construction, family ties and how the Lakers managed a first-year wing who entered the season with some real expectations.
The numbers that get tossed around in the discussion do show different playing-time paths for Knecht and Bronny, but they do not prove favoritism or reveal why the coaching staff made any specific decision. Browns comments are best understood as opinion rather than evidence, though they are the kind of remark that keeps a Lakers topic alive long after the game action has moved on. For a team that is always under a microscope, even a development question involving one young player can quickly become another referendum on LeBron, and this one is clearly not going away quietly. [Read more 🡒]
LeBrons New Move Reignited A Debate Lakers Fans Know Too Well
Kwame Brown has never been shy about offering a sharp opinion, and his latest comments on "The Basketball Show HQ" took aim at LeBron James in a way that is familiar to Lakers fans. Brown accused James of having a negative effect on the careers of several NBA players, including Russell Westbrook, while also widening the conversation beyond Los Angeles by bringing up possible ripple effects for players on the Philadelphia 76ers.
The claims were presented as Browns view rather than established fact, and they landed in a space where LeBron discourse rarely stays quiet for long. For Lakers followers, though, the familiar part is the debate itself, because any criticism tied to James tends to reopen old questions about roster fit, expectations, and the burden that comes with playing alongside one of the leagues defining stars. [Read more 🡒]
Bronny James Is Suddenly In The Middle Of A Lakers Roster Fight
The Lakers are already staring at a familiar early-season squeeze, with the 2026-27 schedule set to open Oct. 21 against the Warriors and roster decisions looming well before then. Los Angeles has to trim down to 15 players, and that puts a handful of names in the middle of the conversation, including Bronny James, Jaden Hardy, Dalton Knecht and Jarred Vanderbilt, as the front office sorts through what it can actually keep.
At the same time, the Lakers are still looking for help in the frontcourt, which only adds another layer to the roster math before training camp and the preseason. For a team trying to balance depth, development and immediate need, the spots at the end of the bench suddenly matter a lot more than they usually do, and that makes Bronny part of a much bigger decision than just one players place on the roster. [Read more 🡒]