NBANBAThere’s no living this one down. In a trade that makes zero basketball sense and will go down in NBA infamy, the Dallas Mavericks are sending prime Luka to the Los Angeles Lakers. For real.
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By Michael PinaFeb. 2, 2:31 pm UTC • 5 min
Last night the Dallas Mavericks made—in my dozen years professionally covering the NBA and lifetime of following it religiously as a fan—the most damaging, indefensible trade I’ve ever seen. It’s as bad as it is mystifying as it is comical. If you’re a Mavericks fan, mild nausea is a best-case scenario for your foreseeable future. Godspeed.
Here’s the deal, in case you somehow haven’t already seen it:
Mavericks receive: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers 2029 first-round pick
Jazz receive: Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks
Lakers receive: Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, and … LUKA DONCIC!!!
In reality, there is no basketball reason to make a trade like this, whether you’re desperate to win the title this season or trying to stay competitive for the next 10. Unless, of course, you’re Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who delivered a truly baffling explanation to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon:
“I believe that defense wins championships,” Harrison said. “I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future.”
Sure, but Doncic is one of the three best players in the world! He’s also just 25 years old, coming off five straight first-team All-NBA seasons, and led the NBA in scoring (33.9 points per game!) last year. No, he is not a better defender than AD, but, to be clear, the Mavericks would not have sniffed last year’s NBA Finals without the 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 8.1 assists Doncic averaged through 22 playoff games. And in those Finals, the Mavericks held Boston’s historically dominant offense to a 109.2 offensive rating! Doncic’s defense was a blemish the team figured out how to live with.
Dallas had a frustrating January. They went 6-10 and endured a couple of devastating injuries. They’re currently projected to be in the play-in, but are also just three games back of the six seed. Trading away the primary reason to believe, convincingly, that a bounce back is coming is not the reaction you want to see. We’re talking about Luka Magic. Luka Legend. He scored 73 points on the night my daughter was born and, being both superstitious and hilarious, I told my wife we should think about naming her after him.
This is someone whose playoff resume reads like a mercenary’s hit list. He broke the Phoenix Suns in 2022 and convinced the Minnesota Timberwolves to make their own calamitous trade less than a year ago. He averaged 35.7 points and 10.3 assists in a classic 7-game series back in 2021 that forced Kawhi Leoanard to play perhaps the best two-way game of his career. Players like this don’t get traded very often (if ever) for so many different reasons, but the most practical one is it makes the rest of your roster look like a funhouse mirror.
Just about every personnel decision Dallas made over the past seven years was done with Doncic’s best interest in mind. If you can accentuate his skill set—the generational pick-and-roll genius with defensive shortcomings—climb aboard. If not, you make no sense here. He’s why they gambled on Kyrie Irving and lured Klay Thompson away from California. He’s why they drafted Dereck Lively II (it’s very hard not to feel bad for him right now) and then traded for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford.
After last year’s trade deadline, the Mavericks crystallized around Doncic with a new sensible supporting cast, then went 21-9 with the eighth-best defense in the league. Removing Luka from this team is like taking the sun out of our solar system. Everyone who relied on him can’t possibly exist in the same way anymore, if at all. Since he strained his calf on Christmas Day, Dallas is 7-12 with the league’s 19th-ranked offense and 19th-ranked defense.
When everyone is healthy, the Mavericks’ new starting five will probably be something like Irving, Thompson, Washington, Davis, and Lively II. On paper, that is an extremely talented, large, and physically imposing five-man unit, supported by Quentin Grimes, Naji Marshall, and Gafford off the bench. There will be a staggering drop in shot creation, and several Mavs who were once sustained by Luka’s incredible playmaking will now have to rewire their responsibilities on a permanent basis. Some won’t be able to.
Meanwhile, AD turns 32 next month, is currently out with an abdominal injury, and can opt out of his contract in 2027. To complain about Luka’s conditioning and then trade him for a chronically injured big man who’s six years older and not as good right now is driving me to become a conspiracy theorist. None of this passes the smell test. Irving turns 33 in a month and Thompson turns 35 in a week.
Dallas only received one (how!) first-round pick in this trade and it’ll be coming in 2029 from a Lakers team that, um, JUST TRADED FOR LUKA DONCIC! Words can’t really do justice to how catastrophic all this is. The Mavs already don’t have their own first-round pick in 2027 and 2029, and the Thunder own swap rights in 2028. Dallas can’t tank in 2030, either, because the San Antonio Spurs (an organization that has not yet traded Victor Wembanyama) can swap firsts with them then, too.
Dallas did slide under the luxury tax, though, which should make the tens of fans who still want to cheer for them a few years from now feel a little bit better about their situation. So long as they don’t ever watch another Lakers game for the rest of their life or daydream about how much better Doncic will be when he, like, reaches his actual prime, they’ll be fine. Everything is OK. All is well. Now all the Mavericks have to do is sit around, not contend for a championship, and wait for another once-in-a-lifetime prodigy to fall from the sky.
Michael Pina is a senior staff writer at The Ringer who covers the NBA.
