The Mavericks Just Made One of the Worst Trades in Sports History

I had a few things I wanted to write about today. I actually made a list last night while watching Lakers-Knicks. It included:

• Is Amen Thompson Making the Leap?
• What evidence is there that Daryl Morey has done a good job in Philly?
• Jayson Tatum's shooting has regressed
• Here come the Pacers
• Is Jalen Suggs the most important player on the Magic?
• Are the Lakers really good now?

That was the thought I had watching the Lakers completely control the matchup with the Knicks last night. The only difference maker the Knicks had was Josh Hart, because you just can't bully Josh Hart, bless his heart. But they completely took Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, and Mikal Bridges out of that game, and the annual OG Anunoby injury also happened. The only times the Knicks looked even remotely in the game was by Hart's sheer force of will, and that wasn't nearly enough.

That the Lakers did it without Anthony Davis was interesting. Because now they don't have him. Instead, they get Luka Fucking Dončić. Somehow. And they only had to trade a single draft pick for the pleasure. In case you're just waking up to the news, which I thought was a joke when I saw it, here's the trade:

• Utah Jazz get (because of COURSE Danny Ainge got in on this action): Jalen Hood-Schifino, LA Clippers' '25 second-round pick, Dallas' '25 second-round pick
• Dallas Mavericks get: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, Lakers' '29 first-round pick
• LA Lakers get: Luka Dončić, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris

Normally, I don't put all these details in pieces like this. Anyone reading this is reading it for analysis (and I love you for that) not news. But I just had to type it out one time to see if it made any more sense to me after I typed it. It did not.

This is by far the stupidest trade in NBA history. This is worse than Paul George to the Clippers, worse than Pau Gasol to the Lakers, worse than Chris Paul to the Clippers. I absolutely just can't think of a trade that even approaches it. The NBA's guard rails – salaries needing to match, etc. – are supposed to prevent trades exactly like this. And yet here we are. I can only come up with two comps for this trade – Babe Ruth to the Yankees, and Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. That's it. If you want to put Herschel Walker to the Cowboys and Ricky Williams to the Saints in the discussion, we can, but I wouldn't.

Luka's Historical Greatness

I have often criticized Luka Dončić in the past, particularly for his defense. But Luka is very clearly one of the five best players in the NBA, and when he's in peak form, one of the top three. From a value perspective, he is no worse than one of the three best players at this moment. I think the three most valuable players are Luka, Jayson Tatum, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo are a little too old, and Victor Wembanyama a little too young to be more valuable than the other three.

We can argue about those things if you like. But what is inarguable is how dominant Dončić has been. After winning Rookie of the Year, he made the All-Star team and first team All-NBA in each of the next five seasons. He won't do that this year because he has missed too many games due to injury, but he would have had he been healthy. But let's take a look at those first six seasons for a second, because his seventh season isn't over yet. In the first six seasons of a player's career, there are just three players in NBA history to amass 10,000+ points, 3,000+ rebounds, and 3,000+ assists:

• Oscar Robertson
• LeBron James
• Luka Dončić

That's it, that's the list! And last season, Dončić proved he can will a team to the NBA Finals, which is a very big deal. The league's history is littered with superstars who never get to the NBA Finals, and some of the league's greatest players who did and didn't win didn't get there at the age (25) that Dončić did. Charles Barkley was 29. Karl Malone was 33. Luka Dončić could retire tomorrow and be one of the greatest NBA players in history, and would easily sail into the NBA Hall of Fame. And he is just now entering his prime. Trading him is one of the craziest things I've ever seen in sports.

That's the first part of this – why you would trade him at all? Marc Stein – who knows the Mavericks better than literally everyone else in NBA media – reported that the Mavs were worried about Luka's conditioning. That is oddly plausible. Don't forget, this is the same organization that saw fit to take a beer out of Luka's hand WHILE HE WAS STANDING WITH HIS ACTUAL FATHER after the Mavericks won the Western Conference Finals last season:

To say that would be rude in a vacuum would be a dramatic understatement, but to do it with cameras rolling, and while the player is standing with his literal and actual father, is beyond the pale. I was offended on Luka's behalf when it happened back in June. Sadly the clip cuts off too soon, but you can see the shock and bewilderment on both men's faces when Michael Finley takes it from him. But you only get to the point where you do that as an organization if you haven't been sitting around your office and bitching to each other internally about a player's conditioning.

Having said that, it'd be odd to trade any player because of that, and sheer lunacy to trade one of the best players in NBA history because of that. There has to be another reason. Publicly, the Mavericks are saying it's about defense. But that's not it either, because if their goal was to improve this season on defense, then they never would have signed creaky Klay Thompson. Furthermore, the Mavericks' 113.4 Defensive Rating is 13th in the NBA, and better than their 115.4 Defensive Rating that ranked 17th last season, when again, they reached the NBA Finals. Their Defensive Rating would be completely acceptable once Luka came back to buoy the offense.

This is about money. By getting under the luxury tax for this season, the Mavericks save themselves hundreds of millions in luxury tax payments if not this season, then in the next two seasons. Stein also posited that the Mavs may have been wary of paying Luka the five-year, $345 million contract he would have been eligible for this summer, but I don't think so. They could have put weight and nutrition clauses into the deal and forced him to get into better shape. This was about saving luxury tax payments, because if you're a ruthless owner who cares only about the profit and not the basketball or championships, then you are going to view luxury tax payments as giving away money for nothing. And while I don't have time right now to get into who exactly Miriam Adelson and the Adelson family are, I assure you that she is precisely that type of owner.

But Why This Trade?

Even saying all of this, if you're still determined to trade Luka Dončić, why this trade? Well, for one thing, the salaries match up. This season, Anthony Davis makes $43,219,440, and Luka makes $43,031,940. By adding a few other players to the deal, and with Davis being willing to waive his trade kicker (which, that is extremely fishy in my opinion, because he has no reason to do so), the Mavs are now under the luxury tax.

You can say, OK, but other players make less money, why couldn't they do those trades? Well, again, the salaries have to match, or you need to trade to a team that can absorb the difference in salary cap, and there aren't a lot of teams who can do that. Take a look at the Celtics for a second. You'd trade Jrue Holiday and five first round picks for Luka if given the choice. Except the Celtics can't do that, because Holiday only makes $30M, and since the Celtics are over the second apron, they can't aggregate other players to get up to Luka's $43M. OK, so you need a player that is more expensive? What about Jaylen Brown? He makes $49.7M this season. Except now Dallas is taking on more money, and they specifically didn't want to do that. So even taking talent out of the mix, Dallas was needing to thread a needle.

Add to what Stein said about Mavericks GM Nico Harrison's relationship with Anthony Davis:

He is also said to have an extremely close relationship with Davis dating to his days his working for Nike before joining the Mavericks that he’ll obviously be leaning on heavily now.

Even if I accept all of that, which I don't, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, the Mavericks had the ammunition to acquire Davis without trading Luka or Kyrie Irving. I even saved the deal I made in the Trade Machine:

You could argue this deal leaves them shorter on depth, but it also gives you a big three that could challenge for the NBA title. If you're trading Luka for Davis, you need a way bigger haul. Mikal Bridges – a player who has never made the All-Star team or an All-NBA team, and likely never will – was just traded for six first-round picks. I could continue, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Rudy Gobert, there are so many examples of large draft pick hauls in recent trades, and the Mavs got none of that. They effectively got zero valuable picks. They actually gave up as many draft picks as they acquired in this deal, and the Lakers 2029 first-round pick they got is essentially worthless, because now Luka is on the Lakers, and they will be good as long as he's there.

There are also all sorts of fit questions with Davis on the Mavericks. The Lakers don't really have any fit concerns in my opinion, they just need to trade for a center this week, and I'm sure they will. But the Mavs side is a total clusterfuck. I don't want to waste too much time on that side until we see if they make any more moves ahead of this week's trade deadline, and also I have to get ready for my day here, but rest assured this team as currently constituted makes absolutely no sense.

A week ago, a healthy Dallas Mavericks team arguably was the best bet to win the West and make it to the NBA Finals. I had that discussion with a friend, and we agreed it was still Dallas because Oklahoma City still is too young and completely dependent on SGA, and the Nuggets don't have enough talent and are completely dependent on Jokić. The Mavs 1-2 punch of Luka and Kyrie, combined with their supporting cast, was the right combination of proven and dominant. Maybe you disagree, but we could have a discussion about it.

Now, the Mavericks have blown all of that up because they wanted to save some luxury tax money, and they're blaming it on Luka's weight. It's sad and pathetic, and it's only going to look worse and worse, because they just traded him to the team with the player who has only really had one major injury in 20+ years in the league because he takes the utmost care of his body, and now Luka gets to work out with him every day. I just couldn't imagine a worse plan if I tried. Even if Luka is so hurt he misses the next two years (he isn't), it would still be an idiotic trade. The Dallas Mavericks have just made one of the worst trades in sports history.