Luka Doncic was blindsided when Dallas traded him to the Lakers. Doncic doesn’t want any more of those surprises in his career. He told Melissa Rohlin of the California Post he’d like to spend the rest of his career with the organization.

“Hopefully, yeah,” Dončić said. “But as you know in this NBA business, you never know what’s going to happen. But I feel like I’ve found something here that’s very comfortable for me. And hopefully [that happens].”

During that time, Doncic aspires for not only championships but individual recognition.

“Obviously a championship, that’s what you play for every game,” he said. “That’s what you train for every day. But obviously it would be nice to win the MVP also. Not everybody can say they have an MVP, so obviously that would be nice.  But that comes with the team first. If you don’t play good, you’re never going to win championships or MVP. So, we’ve got to play good. I’m very excited to go to war with these people. I think we had a great training camp and we’re ready to go.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

• Walker Kessler is the new man in the middle as the Lakers open their season against Golden State on Wednesday. Kessler received a massive four-year, $130MM deal from the Lakers, who gave away two first-round picks to Utah along with pick swaps to acquire the big man. Kessler was limited to five games last season due to a left shoulder labral tear. How important will he be? “Their season hinges on Walker Kessler,” a Western Conference scout told The Athletic’s Dan Woike. “One, he has to be healthy. And then two, he has to be good. … And because he hasn’t played in a competitive NBA game, we don’t know how he’s going to handle that.” Kessler is embracing the pressure. “I think he wants to embrace that. I think that’s why he wanted to be a Laker,” coach J.J. Redick said. “And why he wanted to be here was because of the fact that there are stakes every single night when you wear a Lakers uniform.”
• Bronny James struggled through the preseason in part due to an injury. He has been limited by a quad contusion suffered just before the start of training camp, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reports. Redick added that James often shared the court during the preseason with training camp invitees, rather than rotation players.
• Do they belong in the championship conversation? McMenamin notes that key offseason acquisitions Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton have started just six playoff games in their careers combined.
• Who’s in the starting lineup beyond Doncic, Austin Reaves and Kessler? Apparently not Jake LaRavia, who told The Athletic’s Law Murray (Twitter link) that he expects to come off the bench in the opener. Grimes, Mamukelashvili, Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams are some of the other logical candidates to join the top trio in the starting five.
• Sexton has a right soleus strain and won’t play tonight, Khobi Price of the California Post tweets.