Luka Doncic and LeBron James talk after a 2022 game. The two will be teammates on the Lakers after a blockbuster trade. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
It was so shocking that for the first few minutes no one believed it.
The Dallas Mavericks have traded Luka Doncic …
What?
Just after midnight on the East Coast, with most of the country tucked into bed, ESPN broke arguably the most shocking trade in NBA history: The Dallas Mavericks were trading Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.
Yes, that Luka Doncic.
Wow. Just … wow. You don’t trade players like Doncic. You sign him. Then re-sign him. Then re-sign him again. You build statues of him. In between, you work to build the kind of team around him that won’t make him demand a trade to a bigger market. What you don’t do is preemptively trade him to one.
Said a rival team exec, “Wildest trade I can remember.”
So why, Dallas? Why trade a 25-year-old franchise player? Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison offered the first explanation, telling ESPN, “I believe defense wins championships.” Fine. But Dallas played enough defense last season to blow past the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference playoffs. It wasn’t defense that cost the Mavs in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. It was the lack of a third scorer.
“I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance,” Harrison said, per ESPN. “We’re built to win now and in the future.”
Indeed, the more news that leaked about the deal, the less it made sense. The Mavs were concerned about Doncic’s constant conditioning issues, per ESPN. Right. Doncic’s dad-bod is a familiar site in Dallas, but it has not stopped him from landing on the All-NBA first team the last five seasons. The Mavs were reportedly concerned about committing supermax money to Doncic after next season. If true, they are the only team that is.
In exchange for Doncic, Dallas gets Davis, Christie and a future first-round pick. A first-round pick. Make no mistake: Davis is a great player. He’s averaging 25.7 points and 11.9 rebounds. He’s shooting 52.8% from the floor. Davis also has a longstanding friendship with Kyrie Irving. Together they will be a formative one-two punch.
But Davis will be 32 next month. Irving will be 33 a few weeks later. Both have a history of health issues. The Mavericks probably envision a lineup with Davis starting opposite Dereck Lively II with Irving, Klay Thompson and Spencer Dinwiddie sharing the backcourt load. There is a contender in that mix. But what’s the shelf life? A year? Two? Around the time this version of the Mavs are breaking up, Doncic will be just hitting his prime.
Davis and Irving, longstanding friends, will be Mavs teammates. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
And why the secrecy? By all accounts this was a brief, intense negotiation between the Mavericks and Lakers, with the Utah Jazz roped in late to help make the money work. “I have never seen so many team executives not involved in this trade stunned,” ex-Nets exec and current ESPN analyst Bobby Marks posted on X. The shocked texts to my phone echoed something similar.
“You would think they would shop him around,” a rival GM said. “For a guy like Luka you should get one of the greatest packages in NBA history.”
This is a fascinating trade for Los Angeles. You make it, of course. Every day. All day. For decades, the Lakers have been defined by stars. Jerry West. Magic Johnson. Shaquille O’Neal. Kobe Bryant. LeBron James. Doncic can assume that role for the next decade. He assures L.A. will remain relevant for another generation.
Short term? Barring another deal, the Lakers look ready to take a step back. Doncic is a tremendous talent but one a coaching staff likely needs a full offseason to build an offense around. It took the Mavs four years to build a team around him good enough to get out of the first round. With Davis gone, L.A.’s front line will be manned by Jaxson Hayes, Rui Hachimura and Christian Koloko. The backcourt trio is Doncic, Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht. A defense already ranked in the bottom third of the NBA just got measurably worse.
What does James think of all this? James, like the rest of us, was reportedly blindsided by the deal. There’s obviously an appeal to playing with a talent like Doncic. But James’s NBA clock is ticking. Is he ready to reboot the team alongside a new co-star? Would the Lakers have a conversation with James—who has a no-trade clause—about a deal?
Stay tuned.
What’s certain is that in the NBA, anything is possible. Mavs minority team owner Mark Cuban once said, “If I had to choose between my wife and keeping Luka, catch me at my lawyer’s office preparing for a divorce.” Cuban remains involved in Dallas’s ownership, but he has been largely exiled from basketball operations. This was Harrison’s deal, cut with Lakers GM Rob Pelinka in the basketball shadows. We’ll see who looks good in the light.
Published 14 Minutes Ago|Modified 3:42 AM EST
