I Don't Get It...

According to ESPN, The Dallas Mavericks have traded Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, and Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and the 2029 first-round pick. The Jazz were involved in the trade as they received Jalen Hood-Schifino, the LA Clippers' 2025 second-round pick, and the Mavs' 2025 second-round pick. Yes, you read that right. The Mavericks have traded away THE Luka Doncic. The Luka Doncic that took this team to the finals last year. The Luka Doncic that has been named first-team 5 times in his 6-year career. The same Luka Doncic who is only 25 years old has led this Dallas team to two conference finals and a finals appearance.

So why did the Mavericks GM Nico Harrison make this move? I don't know. It makes no sense for the Dallas Franchise. This is your Franchise and you traded him that. This would be the equivalent of the Chiefs trading Mahomes or the Nuggets trading Jokic. Guys like Luka should be untouchable in trade talks. I am going to try to make sense of this. Not justify it, but make a little sense of it. There may be events that transpired behind the scenes that none of the public is aware of. The reports that have come out have stated that the Mavs are concerned with Luka's conditioning. This has been evident as we all remember the viral video of Luka getting his beer can taken away from Mavs VP of basketball operations Michael Finley while he was celebrating the finals berth last May. Many people speculated that to be a little odd as fans believed that he deserved a little victory drink after such a great feat. Now looking back on it, maybe there was more going on behind the scenes than what we originally thought. This is all speculation but I can't imagine that Luka had done something so egregious that the Mavs decided that his performance so far in his career for the Mavs won't "save" him from being shipped.

The Mavs have every right to be worried about his conditioning but when a young player is as great as he is, you have to overlook it. And it is not like his "lack of being in shape" has impacted his play on the court. He is one of 2 players ever to average 30+ points in the playoffs for a career. The other is Michael Jordan. Is Luka a perfect player? No. His defense is sometimes lackluster and his body language is poor at certain moments. Is he the best player the Mavs have ever had? Yes! 1000% and no I did not forget Dirk. I am just at a loss for words. Based on everything I have heard in terms of justification for this trade, it makes no sense why this transaction was made from the Mavs' side. If the Mavs don't win a championship with AD, the fans will come for this organization and I won't blame them one bit.

Now let's look at this from the Laker's perspective. I think they won the trade because they are set for the future once Lebron retires. Coupled with the LA factor and players wanting to play with Luka, they should have no issue building around him. However, it is a weird move for the short term. Luka and Lebron essentially play the same style of basketball. Both control the pace of the game by orchestrating the offense but that requires them to have the ball. So it will be interesting to see how 2 ball dominant players will co-exist with one another. Lebron in recent years has improved off the ball and has been better at the catch-and-shoot 3s but he's no Ray Allen or prime Klay Thompson. The defense will certainly suffer as you lose a possible DPOY candidate in AD for a player who has struggled in that area for much of his career. I think there will be some early growing pains but Lebron and Luka are too great to not figure it out by the final and most important stretch of the season. Will it result in a championship? We will just have to wait and see.