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Only nine months ago, Luka Dončić put Rudy Gobert on ice skates.
Dončić crossed over left and right. Then, he lunged backward. The 3-pointer he made over Gobert’s outstretched arm delivered the Dallas Mavericks a Game 2 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.
Six days later, the Mavericks punched their ticket to the NBA Finals.
How did the Mavericks go from that playoff high to trading Dončić so quickly? That was the question many were struggling with late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
Sending Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis — a player not as good as Dončić and six years older — and a lone first-round pick was so shocking that Mavericks franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki couldn’t help but express one emoji on social media.
😳
— Dirk Nowitzki (@swish41) February 2, 2025
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has been unafraid to make bold moves before. Two years ago, he traded for Kyrie Irving when Irving was coming off a controversy-filled stint with the Brooklyn Nets.
But that was a play for talent. In this trade, the Mavericks are losing it.
Hollinger: Why Mavs are taking huge risk by sending Luka Dončić to L.A.
Davis is a 10-time All-Star who’s one of the game’s great interior forces. In 2020, his play in the NBA bubble helped the Lakers win a championship. As good as he is, he is nowhere close to Dončić’s level. The Slovenian, as a teenage prodigy, was the youngest player ever to win EuroLeague MVP. The Mavericks targeted him in the 2018 draft, where he was selected third by Atlanta but traded to Dallas in exchange for Trae Young and a first-round pick.
Dončić showed he belonged right away. He averaged 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists during the 2018-19 season and was named NBA Rookie of the Year.
In his second season, Dončić finished fourth in MVP voting. He led the Mavericks to a 43-32 record and a playoff berth. He nearly averaged a 30-point triple-double in his first taste of NBA postseason action, as the seventh-seeded Mavericks took the second-seeded LA Clippers to six games.
Harrison’s trades for Irving in 2023 and P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford in 2024 set the table for Dallas’ march to the finals. The Mavericks knocked off the Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Timberwolves in the postseason, despite not having home-court advantage in any series. Dončić averaged 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.1 assists in the postseason.
While the Mavericks fell short of winning the championship, there was a feeling that they would be back again. Dončić was only 25 years old.
Dallas’ decision to move a perennial MVP candidate entering his prime was motivated, at least in part, by some of his bad habits. ESPN reported the Mavericks had “major concerns about moving forward” with Dončić “due to his constant conditioning issues and the looming commitment of another supermax contract extension this summer.”
Dončić scored 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting in the closeout Game 5 against the Timberwolves in the conference finals. He celebrated afterwards with a beer. Dončić looked dismayed when Mavericks assistant general manager Michael Finley swiped the beer from him.
Luka Doncic and his father, Sasa, after the Dallas Mavericks clinched a spot in the NBA Finals. pic.twitter.com/fbqhft2G6B
— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) May 31, 2024
Dončić’s weight fluctuated in Dallas. He missed five games in November with what the team said was a right wrist sprain. In a Christmas Day game against Minnesota, Dončić suffered a left calf strain. He was expected to return sometime before the All-Star break. He didn’t accompany the Mavericks on their five-game road trip.
According to a league source, Harrison is expected to address the Mavericks as a team Sunday morning before they face the Cleveland Cavaliers about why he made the trade. Multiple Mavericks players were blown away when details of the move spread late Saturday. One Mavericks player, according to a source with knowledge of his thinking, expected Dončić to accompany the team on its road trip and believed he would be back in the lineup soon.
Dončić was eligible to sign a supermax extension with Dallas this summer. That deal would have paid him roughly $345 million over five seasons. The maximum contract extension Dončić can sign with the Lakers this summer is worth significantly less — $229 million over five years, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Jason Gallagher, the head of production at ThreeFour Two Media, the company responsible for Lakers coach JJ Redick’s podcast, wrote on social media that he hoped Dončić would “torch the Mavs moving forward.” Mavericks fans, meanwhile, were left seething at the trade.
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The Mavericks and Lakers will face each other two more times in the regular season. Their Feb. 25 game is in Los Angeles. Dončić will make his return to Dallas on April 9.
In the meantime, the Mavericks will try to incorporate Davis into their starting lineup. He has espoused the belief for years that his best position is power forward — not center. He spent the majority of his minutes at power forward when the Lakers won the championship in 2020, which is sure to be a Mavericks talking point in the coming days.
Davis will get to play plenty of power forward in Dallas. The Mavericks can pair him next to Gafford and Dereck Lively II. Dallas should instantly become one of the NBA’s best interior defensive teams.
It’s obvious, though, that the team’s offense will take a hit without Dončić. The Mavericks had the No. 1 offense in the NBA in Dončić’s second season, and they finished in the top eight in offensive efficiency five times in the past six years.
Irving will have more responsibility to be a shot creator on a nightly basis. Irving is in the midst of a strong season, but he is also 32 years old and is dealing with a bulging disc in his back.
The Mavericks still think they can be contenders after the Dončić trade. Harrison used the word “championships” in a statement he gave to ESPN.
Dallas proved it could make the finals with Dončić and Irving together. Time will tell if Dallas can actually be a contender again without one of the brightest offensive talents in league history wearing a Mavericks uniform.
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(Photo: David Berding/ Getty Images)
