Insider: Lakers want to model Luka Doncic's cast after 2024 Maver… — and more

The Los Angeles Lakers will have an opportunity to truly mold their team around Luka Doncic this summer. They're projected to have roughly $50 million of salary cap space, and if LeBron James ends up leaving, all of that cap space could be used on players who will complement Doncic while truly moving the needle in the right direction.

While Doncic is yet to play on a championship-caliber team in the NBA, he did play on a Dallas Mavericks team that reached the NBA Finals in 2024. That squad featured a strong front line with the likes of Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, who were shot-blocking threats in the middle, as well as capable two-way players throughout its roster.

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated made an appearance on "Run it Back TV" and said the Lakers want to model their roster around that 2024 Mavericks squad that lost in the championship series to the Boston Celtics.

“It’s really about reinventing this team around Luka Doncic and building the kind of team that Dallas had in its last couple of years. That means finding someone that is maybe a better fit than Deandre Ayton to be that Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford — hell, maybe it is Daniel Gafford — just find somebody that can fit into that role.

Look out for more 3-and-D type of players who fit the Dorian Finney-Smith, PJ Washington type of mold. They just really want to make Dallas 2.0. I think they feel they can succeed with a backcourt of Luka and Austin Reaves.

“Even though there are defensive challenges there, they believe they can succeed with those two guys if they get the right type of players in that frontcourt. So I think it’s going to be all about finding the Dallas versions of those players that I mentioned this offseason.”

The challenge will be to acquire players who have speed, athleticism and defensive ability who are also useful, if not productive, on the offensive end. The Lakers currently lack two-way players, and that deficiency is a major reason why they aren't considered contenders right now.

Gafford has been mentioned as a player they have been interested in trading for, but it seems unlikely Dallas would work with them on a trade for him, given the awful optics of last year's trade that sent Doncic to L.A. Other players the Purple and Gold could pursue this offseason include Peyton Watson of the Denver Nuggets, Tari Eason of the Houston Rockets, the Miami Heat's Andrew Wiggins and, of course, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Insider: Lakers want to model Luka Doncic's cast after 2024 Mavericks

NEWARK, N.J. — Paul Cotter scored the winner in the shootout, Connor Brown forced overtime with a tying goal with 2:21 left in the third period and the New Jersey Devils beat Toronto 4-3 on Wednesday night, sending the Maple Leafs to their first straight loss.

Timo Meier and Arseny Gritsyuk also scored in regulation for the Devils, who have won three in a row and improved to 25-8-1 when scoring at least three goals. Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves.

William Nylander, Matias Maccelli and Matthew Knies had goals for the Maple Leafs, who haven’t won since beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Feb. 3 — their last game before the Olympic break. Anthony Stolarz made 44 saves.

Cotter put a backhander past Stolarz to start the shootout for the Devils. After Nylander’s wrister was stopped, Jesper Bratt also scored on a backhander to put New Jersey up 2-0 in the shootout. Auston Matthews’ wrist shot was then stopped by Markstrom, giving the Devils the victory.

With the game tied at 2 in the third period, Knies batted in the rebound of John Tavares’ shot past Markstrom to put Toronto ahead with 6:10 left.

Brown took a pass from Gritsyuk on a rush toward the net and roofed a quick shot in tight past Stolarz to tie it at 3 with 2:21 remaining.

The Devils outshot the Maple Leafs 47 to 27 in regulation.

New Jersey was without defenseman Brett Pesce, who suffered a lower-body injury against Florida on Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs sat three players, Bobby McMann, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Scott Laughton, for roster management reasons ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.

Up next

Maple Leafs: Play at New York Rangers on Thursday night.

Devils: Host the Rangers on Saturday.

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Despite feeling optimistic going into the 2026 season, George Russell has admitted that the new set of regulations has made even the "straightforward" parts of Formula 1 racing feel complicated.

The Mercedes driver has arrived in Melbourne with a wide smile on his face after a successful stint of testing in Bahrain. The Brackley outfit looked fairly dominant in the running we saw at the Bahrain International Circuit, and the young Briton has made it no secret that he's feeling optimistic as he enters the season as a championship favourite. 

"We've had a much better pre-season than we've had over the last four years," he told Motorsport.com and other media. "There's no items on the car that have been of major worry to us. Everything's working as expected. Correlation is good. Simulated correlation is good.

"And they're things that we have failed in over the last four years... Things are working out as we'd hoped."

While Mercedes struggled during the ground effect era, testing is painting a very different picture if the team's machinery is as fast as it looked earlier this month. But despite it beginning the season with confidence, such a substantial change of regulations shouldn't be underestimated. Russell is well aware of the challenges he and his competitors face.

George Russell, Mercedes

"There's a huge amount [of unknowns]. I think there's a lot of discussions around race starts - a challenging topic. There's a lot of hurdles," he said. "I think you can get tripped up by any small error. So there's no time to relax during a race, during qualifying, pitstops. Things that once were quite straightforward parts of racing are now very complicated.

"However, to this point, I think we've done the most amount of preparation possible. We feel in a good place. However, I'm sure new track things might be different."

What does he think about going into the season as a favourite for a championship win?

"Not a lot, really. Yeah, it doesn't change anything. There's a lot of chat around us - Mercedes - and we take it as a compliment, I guess. However, once the helmet's on and visor's down, you're just flat out. You don't really think about any of this additional noise. You just take it race by race."

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

Purdue avoided a third straight defeat as C.J. Cox caught fire in the second half. The Boilermakers trailed early but used a 9-0 run to tie the game at 43-43, with Cox scoring on a put-back. His fourth corner 3-pointer with 48 seconds remaining gave Purdue a 68-66 lead they would not relinquish.

Despite committing eight turnovers that helped Northwestern build a first-half lead, Purdue's defense and clutch shooting down the stretch secured the win. Trey Kaufman-Renn contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds before briefly leaving with a shoulder injury.