Report: Mavericks felt Luka Doncic’s conditioning could end up being a ‘Joel Embiid-type situation’

The Dallas Mavericks parted ways with one of their better players in franchise history on Sunday. They traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers and received a package centered around big man Anthony Davis.

For as great as Doncic’s tenure with the Mavericks was, much of it was also marred by conditioning issues. Back in the year 2021, the Slovenian said he has “got to do better” about being in basketball shape. More recently, key figures in the Mavericks organization reportedly discussed with Doncic about lowering his playing weight prior to the start of the 2023-24 campaign.

In light of Doncic’s time in Dallas coming to a close, Cleveland.com’s Ethan Sands reported that the Mavericks organization was worried that the guard’s conditioning could spiral into a “Joel Embiid-type situation.”

“The biggest thing when talking to people around the league — obviously there was worry about Luka Doncic’s conditioning,” Sands said of the Mavericks. “And as we all know, as we all read and has been reported, he’s gotten up to 270 pounds, right? And that’s something that apparently, according to my sources, that the Dallas Mavericks were feeling like it could end up being a Joel Embiid-type situation.”

Embiid hasn’t been able to avoid the injury bug since he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. He missed the entirety of his first two seasons in the league with foot injuries and didn’t play in his first NBA regular-season game until the 2016-17 campaign. Embiid suited up in only 31 of the 76ers’ 82 games that season to boot.

Fast forward to the current day, and Embiid is seemingly as injury-prone as ever. He last played for the 76ers when the team beat the Brooklyn Nets back on Jan. 4 and has been sidelined for 35 of the team’s 48 games played so far in the 2024-25 campaign.

Though like Doncic, when Embiid is at his best and not hampered by injuries or conditioning issues, he’s a dominant force on the court. The last time Embiid played 60-plus games in a single season came in the 2022-23 season, and he won the MVP award after he averaged a league-high 33.1 points per game and led the 76ers to one of the top records in the Eastern Conference.

Perhaps Doncic will improve his conditioning habits now that he’s teammates with one of the league’s all-time greats in LeBron James. If Doncic is able to take inspiration from James’ regimen, that would be beneficial for the guard’s NBA career moving forward.