Last night at 12:18 AM, Shams Charania sent out a tweet that was so unbelievable that most people including myself thought that his account was hacked. “BREAKING: The Dallas Mavericks are trading Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Three-team deal that includes Utah.” When the Knicks traded for OG and KAT, I was shocked and felt a pit in my stomach but when this trade went through I immediately dismissed this as I could not comprehend the thought of trading Luka Doncic. An all time night on NBA Twitter, we began to see that this trade would not even work on the NBA trade machine. It was one of those moments where you couldn’t do much but turn on Sportscenter on one TV to listen to Brian Windhorst and Tim McMahon break down the trade and get the perspective of Greg Anthony and Quentin Richardson on NBA TV on the other TV. 12 hours later, I still can’t fathom the magnitude of this trade but I will attempt to breakdown one of the biggest trades in SPORTS history.
Let’s take it back to June 2024 where the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals where Luka Doncic averaged 29.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists. After trading for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington at the trade deadline last season, the Mavericks went 21-9 and ran through the West to make the Finals including one of the best game winners in NBA history in the WCF against the Wolves. Luka ended up making his 5th 1st-team All-NBA in his 6th season. An absolute brilliant season where I though he should have got way more MVP love since he was averaging a near 34 point triple double PER GAME.
This year Luka was dealing with injuries but before he went out he was averaging 28 8 and 8. Luka has been a top 3 player since his second year in the NBA and Mavs GM Nico Harrison CALLED UP THE LAKERS AND DANGLED LUKA IN THEIR FACE. Luka is 25 years old and is one of the faces of the NBA, he should be one of the most untradeable players in league history and the Mavs offered him up to 2 teams only. 29 teams must have though Luka was untouchable including the Lakers but when Harrison and Pelinka linked up two weeks ago, Harrison did the unthinkable. To defend the trade, Nico Harrison said that “defense wins championships” which is obviously true but the Mavs were three games away from winning an NBA title last season and their only championship they won in history was led by Dirk Nowitzki, who is not known for his defense.
If the Mavericks really did not want to pay Luka Doncic the 5 year $345 million supermax deal, I guess it would make sense to trade Luka but why not start a bidding war for a consensus top 4 player in the NBA. To only get 1 first round pick back and not get the best Lakers role players like Austin Reaves or Dalton Knecht is such a malpractice. Nico Harrison also mentioned that the Mavericks were not happy with Lukas conditioning. They made it seem like he was Zion Williamson who was so severely overweight he couldn’t play. (Shoutout Zion for getting back in shape). It sounds like a lot of poor excuses with a losing mentality that a GM cannot have. Besides the 5 1st-teams Luka has made, he is 2nd all time in playoff ppg, 3rd all time in PPG, and 7th all time in triple-doubles and they handed him to the Lakers who have always had a face of the franchise. From Jerry West, to Kareem and Magic, to Shaq and Kobe, to Lebron James, the Lakers keep getting generational talents to be the face of their franchise. I don’t know how it is going to go but I am really excited to see Lebron play with Luka.
Im done for my Luka Doncic rant for now, lets talk about the return. Getting Anthony Davis, Max Christie and one first round pick is simply not enough but does allow the Mavs to stay in the mix in the West. For whatever reason, AD really hates playing the Center position and did an exclusive one on one interview with Shams to talk about the Lakers needing a center he can play beside. Well AD got his wish as he can play beside Daniel Gafford who is having a career year and Derrick Lively when he is back from injury. Max Christie has been great in his role with the Lakers this season and is a good addition but the two of them does not add up to LUKA DONCIC. Lebron’s ex sidekicks (AD and Kyrie) would have been the best duo in the NBA in 2017 but the truth is AD is 31 and Kyrie is 32 and their window to win an NBA Championship just became a lot shorter. I think the Mavs will still be good and can compete with anybody in the West but it is just not enough to make real noise.
The Lakers making this trade are set up to win now and the future. Having Luka Doncic be the face of the franchise once Lebron retires is special. It will be interesting to see how the new look Lakers work but once they get it figured out they will be special. I feel like the Lakers are not done on the trade front before Thursday’s trade deadline as well, possibly trading for another big so they do not have to rely solely on Jaxson Hayes. The Lakers core outside of Lebron is now built perfectly to contend for years to come with Luka. An interesting point that was just texted to me is that the Mavericks have announced the trade while the Lakers and Jazz have not. Is it possible there is more to that trade and the Lakers can walk away with Walker Kessler too? The Jazz seem to be involved in every trade and walked away with a second year lottery pick who has not found his footing in the NBA yet and two second round picks. Danny Ainge is a mastermind and walked away with something from nothing.
I have so many more thoughts about how crazy it is to trade Luka that I can’t even get them down on paper. The Mavericks managed to turn Jalen Brunson, Kristaps Porzingis, and Luka Doncic into Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and Spencer Dinwiddie and 1 single first round pick. The magnitude of this trade is yet to be felt and I hope that this trade deadline to continue to be one of the craziest deadlines in NBA history. On a personal note being a salty Steph Curry fan, this needs to be a wake up call to the Warriors to not keep Brandin Podziemski untouchable and get Steph some real help. LeBron went from one generational superstar to another generational superstar and Steph’s second best player is Quinten Post. I know this is super off topic but getting Steph someone that can just make a layup would be helpful to push to make the playoffs. To end this post I must ask one question for everyone to think about: HOW COULD YOU TRADE LUKA DONCIC?
JakesTakes 
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