By Justin Stulpe
Less than an hour into the morning of Feb. 2, a bombshell trade in the NBA occurred that made everyone who immediately saw the news believe the headline was fake.
In a blockbuster three-team trade, the Los Angeles Lakers traded for superstar guard Luka Dončić and a pair of forwards in Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris from the Dallas Mavericks, in return sending All-NBA forward Anthony Davis, guard Max Christie and a first-round draft pick to the Mavericks, as well as dealing young guard Jalen Hood-Schfino and cash to the Utah Jazz.
The impact of what transpired rippled throughout the sports world was instant and massive, as there has never been such a trade in the NBA of this magnitude considering both the shock and high-end talent being exchanged. Topping the list as to why this deal was hard to grasp was that the main prize in the deal, Dončić, was shipped out of Dallas at just 25 years old, all the while being a top-five player in the world the last half-decade.
Dončić being in the uppermost echelon of basketball players in the world had many fans around the league believing that he was “untouchable,” meaning that he would not be traded no matter the circumstances. His extended excellence in the league was highlighted by five straight first team All-NBA selections, three separate seasons finishing top-five in the “Most Valuable Player” voting, along with bringing the Mavericks from being a below average squad to an NBA Finals appearance only eight months ago.
Despite being the face of the franchise for the last seven years, in addition to all of the personal accolades and recent team success, Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison did the unthinkable and traded away a generational talent at the beginning of his prime for a return that many believe is underwhelming for the talent and value of Dončić. In return for the Slovenian superstar, the Mavericks received All-NBA big man Anthony Davis, third-year guard Max Christie, and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round draft pick.
Anthony Davis is a tremendous basketball player in his own right, being a defensive monster who is a 10-time all-star and NBA champion, along with Max Christie showing promise on both offense and defense in his young career. That being said, this package of players and a single draft pick has Mavericks fans and fans around the world distraught about how the Mavericks got so little for the face of their franchise that would have produced at an elite-level for years to come.
Quickly after news of the trade broke, people began to question why the Mavericks would give up on their cornerstone player so early into his career. In the days since the league-altering trade went down, reports from insiders have revealed three main reasons as to why the Mavericks would do the inconceivable move of trading away Dončić, all of which does not excuse the decision to trade a player with all-time great levels of production.
Mavs General Manager Harrison detailed how trading away Dončić in order to acquire Davis gives the team a boost in team-defense, something that he believes can lead the team to a championship.
“Defense wins championships,” Harrison told ESPN. “I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance,” Harrison added.
Harrison also controversially said that the decision to trade for Davis gives them a better chance to win currently and in the future as well, subtly alluding to the commonly held idea of Dončić’s shortcomings on the defensive end being a reason why the Mavericks have come up short while he was on the team.
“We’re built to win now and in the future,” Harrison said.
Although the Mavericks have improved their defensive identity with the addition of Davis to the squad, the benefits of such improvement on defense are not even close to the downsides of having to trade away Dončić, as Davis has never been the best player on a team that has reached the NBA finals, while Dončić achieved that feat just last season for the Mavericks.
Harrison noted that they are now set up to win in the current season, along with the future, but this is just preposterous to say, as Davis is an injury-prone big man who is about to turn 32 years old, a full six years older than Dončić who is about to turn 26 later this month. Along with Davis being on the wrong side of 30 years old for elite-level players, the other star on the Mavericks, guard Kyrie Irving, is about to turn 33 years old next month as well.
With this, it is confusing how trading away Dončić -the best player in the deal- who just dragged the Mavericks to the finals last season, makes the team better this season. Dončić is just about to enter the absolute prime of his career and will produce at an all-time level for another decade, while Davis and Irving probably only have a few years left of great play left in them, not to mention both Davis and Irving have extensive injury histories that can derail any hopes of competing for championships with one injury.
Multiple sources reported that another reason as to why the Mavericks traded Dončić was the recurring concerns that the team had regarding his weight management and conditioning. Dončić is an oversized guard, in the mold of NBA legend Magic Johnson, so being a little bigger compared to other players at his position is both an advantage and detriment to Dončić’s abilities on the court. He is able to back down smaller guards that try to defend him and he can score at will with an array of post-moves and physical drives to the time, but on the other hand, he struggles to stay in front of people on defense that can sometimes detract from his offensive wizardry.
In combination with the Mavericks’s front office worry about his conditioning, they were frustrated with Dončić’s weight gain over the last month when recovering from a calf strain that has sidelined him since Christmas. Reports from the Daily Mail note that Dončić ballooned to 270 pounds during this period, which made the Mavericks weary for his immediate future, along with the long-term future. Although Dončić is 6-feet-8 inches tall and has always played heavier than most traditional point guards, Harrison viewed this to be a sign to trade Dončić at peak value is his opinion and before the final reason he decided to swap Dončić for Davis. A massive contract-extension in the summer.
Through his exceptional play and personal accolades throughout his tenure with Dallas, Dončić would have been able to sign a five-year, $345 million supermax contract extension. Harrison was reluctant to give Dončić the megadeal for a combination of the aforementioned reasons, wanting to become a defensive-oriented team with Davis instead of Dončić. Now that Dončić has been traded away from the Mavericks to the Lakers, he is now unable to get that supermax extension, being able to sign at most a five-year, $229 million contract. This is still an insane amount of money, but being traded cost Dončić over $100 million, to go along with another shocking revelation about this enormous trade, none of the players involved knew it was going down.
Various sources note how neither Dončić, Davis, or superstar of the Lakers LeBron James knew about talks of a Dončić for Davis swap. ESPN Senior Insider Shams Charania said that, “This deal materialized in the shadows. This came out of nowhere.” It also was reported that the Mavericks only contacted the Lakers about dealing Dončić, meaning that the Mavericks offered Dončić for Davis without letting it be known to any other team in the league that they were willing to trade their franchise player. Dallas missed out on a bidding-war for the megastar and took the first trade package that was offered when they could have received much larger compensation for a top-five player in the world.
What does this trade mean for the Mavericks? The Lakers? The rest of the league?
First, the Mavericks are in win-now mode, even more so than they were with Dončić, as their true championship window is a few short years. It is championship or bust with this core that is not getting any younger, but they do field a formidable squad that can be a serious threat in the Western Conference. Looking ahead five years, if Davis and Irving are still on the team, they will likely have had their best days behind them and possibly be looking into the face of a long and arduous rebuild with very few promising young players getting considerable minutes.
The Lakers may have just pulled off the heist of a lifetime by trading for Dončić, a player that can alter the direction of a franchise in the current, and for the next decade or more. Dončić now pairs up with James to create a scary two-headed monster that will certainly give teams trouble night in and night out. With the core of players and James just turning 40 years old, this dynamic duo will not be around for too many more years, but Dončić can be the catalyst of another era of Lakers hoops that can dominate the competition like many times in the past. If Los Angeles is able to retain Dončić’s services, the team has a locked-in perennial MVP candidate every year for the next decade.This gives them an outlook to win in the current day if they make a trade for a big man, along with setting themselves up for more playoff runs in the long-term future.
It truly is a win-win deal for the Lakers, whereas there is a lot of volatility for the Mavericks, as if they don’t win a championship with this defensive-minded squad in the next two to three years, this could go down as one of the worst trades in North American sports history.
As for how this impacts the rest of the league, the Lakers have yet again got their hands on a player who can define a generation of basketball and will certainly attract many high-end free agents to come play in L.A. with a superstar guard. If the Lakers maintain their ability to reel in marquee free agents to play in one of the largest sports markets in the world, along with a player who will undoubtedly be considered one of the greatest to ever touch a basketball, the league might be one word. Cooked.
Dončić to the Lakers will go down as the craziest and most impactful trade in NBA history when it is all said and done, and the implications of this deal will be felt for decades to come.
