DONCIC FOR DAVIS: THE MOST INFLUENTIAL TRADE IN NBA HISTORY

Written by Ollie Weisstub, 03/02/2025. 

Unpacking the Details of One of the Most Wild Trades in all of Sport History.

An article for NBA-fans explaining the reasoning behind the NBA’s most recent blockbuster deal that was “constructed in the shadows”, and giving a brief grade for all teams involved.

Late at night, February 1st, one of ESPN’s most significant sports reporters “Shams” tweeted a short paragraph that shocked NBA fandom across the globe. The tweet read as follows, “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.“ So, the LA Lakers just traded Anthony Davis to the Mavericks, for Luka Doncic? There is a ridiculous amount of information to unpack here, as trades like this don’t just happen all the time. Let's start with what we knew at first. Shortly after the tweet people suspected Shams got hacked, as nobody in the world had speculated such a trade would happen, and the trade simply made no sense, it was literally incomprehensible to fans. So, for about 30 minutes people were in disbelief, until Shams tweeted again “It's 1,000% real”. Yes, this trade was so unbelievable it had to be confirmed. The first thing that everybody thought was what the Mavericks General Manager was smoking, as the Mavs just traded a player who has a ceiling of being one of the 10 greatest players of all time, who had just made 5 conecutive All-NBA appearances, who can put up 30-10-10 any night, who lead them to the NBA finals last year, and is only 25. The Mavericks literally traded one of the best talents in the NBA who hasn't even hit his prime yet, one of the few NBA players who should be “untouchable” and one of the only few players who shouldn’t. While it is for Anthony Davis, who has so far had an incredible season, Anthony Davis is 31, injury prone and not reliable. As well as this, he Mavs only got one first round pick. What could Nico Harisson (The Mavs General Manager, he finalized the trade) possibly be on? Well, there are 3 supposed reasons for the trade portrayed by social media, and I will break them down.

The Three Reasons for the Mavericks shipping away their star
Reason #1 - Money/Contracts

The superstar Luka Doncic was eligible next season for what the NBA refers to as a “superstar extension” which would cost them upwards of 300 million dollars. Also, it is a contract extension, so it is possible for Luka to decline the contract and sign with another team. Now this reason would be a total stretch even if Luka and the Mavs had tension, as he would likely take the large contract and stay with the Mavericks and trading one of the most talented players the NBA has ever seen for a slight worry that he would take 100 million less dollars to sign with an external team, that makes no sense. Especially because Luka Doncic loves the Mavericks, he has publicly stated that he has no intentions of leaving and he thinks of his teammates as brothers. He has publicly said he wants to retire as a Maverick, he has said that he never asked for a trade, and the Mavericks owner said he would “rather divorce his wife then trade Luka Doncic”, so there is not a chance that this is really an actual cause for trading Luka Doncic.

Reason #2 - “Defense Wins Championships”  - Mavericks General Manager 

After the dealing of Luka Doncic, when asked about the decisions Nico Harrison defended his choice by saying “Defense Wins Championships” something all basketball players have heard before. Luka has always been criticized for his lack of effort on the defensive end, but he's essentially one of three players in the entire NBA who are so talented on offense it cancels out his lack of defense. The Mavs did trade for Anthony Davis who is one of if not the best defender in the entire NBA, and Nico stated that they didn’t think they could win with Luka’s “style of play”. While this is fair, it makes little to no sense to fully trade a player of Luka Doncic’s caliber who could be an MVP candidate for the next 10 years for an old, injury prone player because that player is an All-NBA defender, especially when the Mavs are capable of building a team around Luka focused on defense. While this is definitely one of the factors in Luka getting traded, there has to be more as this isn’t enough to trade away such a promising future for a year or two of better defense.

Reason #3 - “Out of shape”

The Mavericks General Manager has stated multiple times that they think Luka Doncic is out of shape, and it's fair. Since his rookie season in the NBA he has gone from being 6 '7 and 230 pounds to 6' 7 and reportedly 270 pounds, and let’s just say it isn’t really muscle. We could see the building frustration with the Mavs front office, especially Nico and Luka’s weight, as there is a viral video of Nico snatching a beer out of Luka’s hands post game. It’s not just this though, as Luka got injured this year due to a calf strain, and has missed the majority of the season so far. This wasn’t really viewed as an unlucky injury to the Mavs General Manager however, as he believes it is because of his lack of effort towards his shape and body. So, it is possible that Nico wasn’t just worried about Luka being overweight, he was worried about Luka’s lack of physical care resulting in injuries. This, combined with his struggle defensively could be why Nico thought it would be smart to get rid of Luka and try to win-now, but there are still tons of questions.

What is still unknown about the trade? Shocking details on the  deal that make no sense!

So what remains unanswered? Well there are many odd details about this trade we know about. This trade would be much more reasonable if the Lakers called the Mavericks saying, we know you want to get rid of Luka, we will give you Anthony Davis to contend now, that's what you want. No, the Mavericks called the Lakers and said Luka’s on the board, give us an offer. Not only is it odd that the Mavericks were the ones trying to sell Luka, and they weren't just impressed with an offer. Now that's not it! The Mavericks specifically only talked to the Lakers, which is incredibly odd. For Luka Doncic, the Mavericks could literally ask for any NBA player in return except for maybe Victor Wembanyama or Nikola Jokic, or they could have asked for upwards of 10 first round picks, and teams would accept in a heartbeat. So why on earth would the Mavs just ship Luka for Anthony Davis and not try to find better offers? We don’t know the real answer, but as soon as I keep reading as soon I will add an insane conspiracy theory on the trade I've been hearing that could be true! Finally, one other odd fact about this trade is that Luka Doncic, the Mavericks Head Coach Jason Kidd, Lebron James, any Maverick/Any Laker player or front office member (except for the general managers) had any idea about the trade until they heard about it, after it was made! The reason why this trade was kept secret is totally unknown, and shocking, there aren’t even theories on why this is true, it would be a stretch to keep it from players, maybe they would do this to not disrupt team chemistry, but the coach of the team had no idea about the trade? 

A Conspiracy Theory Going Around on the Trade that makes a little too much sense…

So, even with all the reasoning, even with everything we know about the trade there are two main things that stand out. Why would the Mavericks trade Luka? (even the reasons listed, don’t add up for making such a deal), and even if they had a reason we don’t know for making the trade (secret tension, Luka privately asking out, a serious injury that hasn’t been disclosed. Why would they not take the best offer, because an injured Anthony Davis and a single first round pick is what the Mavs got, and they could have possibly obtained Giannis, Ja Morant, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, or 10 first round picks, and not only did they not do this but they didn’t even ask another team for an offer. The Mavericks only reached out to LA. There has to be something behind that, it makes no sense. While it could just be a mystery for now, there is a conspiracy theory made by fans on why this trade happened. And it's that this trade was forced by the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver. The Lakers haven’t been awesome this year, and their title hopes looked slim. The Lakers by far have the largest market and are the most commercially significant to the NBA, and if Lakers won a championship, they would make a lot more money then if Dallas did. It is possible Adam Silver wanted the Lakers to not just have title hopes this year, but to be set up for the next 10 years with Luka and his upcoming prime. While this does sound crazy at first, it's not the first time the NBA had visibly tried to “rig” games for the Lakers. An example of this is in a playoff series in the early 2000s between the Lakers and Kings, where the NBA would win nearly double the amount of money if LA advanced. The series went to game 7, and in the win or go home game it was very clear that the referees were biased. Not only was there a ridiculous free-throw disparity between the two teams, but there were plays where it was very clear that the Kings were being targeted, including technical fouls late in the game that most likely contributed more to LA’s win then the players themselves. So while yes, this theory is kind of crazy, it's not possible, and it seems to be the literal only real reason for the Mavericks giving up Luka.

Grading the trade for all teams involved, with brief reasoning:

Utah Jazz - C

Let's get this out of the way very fast, the Lakers needed to make up salary for this trade to work, so they got rid of Jalen-Hood-Schfino to make salaries match and the trade legal. The Jazz are currently tanking, and one of the worst teams in the NBA, so congratulations to them for adding Jalen Hood-Schfino, I hope he gets minutes for them.

Dallas Mavericks - D

Don’t get this twisted, Dallas is still in title contention this year when healthy and one of the better teams in the NBA, but in two years Anthony Davis, there number one guy who they obtained (FOR LUKA DONCIC) will be 33 and he already is injury prone, and Kyrie Irving will probably be retired. This team not only probably got worse for this season, but they also ruined their future. The only reason this trade isn’t an F is because they are title contenders still, and arguably much more deep than the Lakers. I do believe people will sleep on this team because of the loss of Luka Doncic, but they will be great defensively and be a top team this year, they could make the Conference Finals possibly, however they did totally ruin their future and give up an MVP candidate before he hit his prime because they didn’t like his physique. This trade for them was so bad people are making conspiracy theories on why they did it, and the Jazz arguably did better than them in this deal. This trade was definitely an F, but I couldn’t bring myself to give them this as they did obtain Anthony Davis and they are still a great team.

LA Lakers - A

Not much to say, the LA Lakers not only drastically increased their odds of winning a championship with Lebron James this season, but they set themselves up for a future past Lebron James this year. While it is still unclear if this team is going to contend this year or build around Luka, as the fit between Luka and Lebron is questionable (both very ball dominant players) they are totally set up and went from one of the worst futures in the NBA to one of the best. The only reason this isn’t an A+ is because they have one of the worst frontcourts in the NBA, and giving up Anthony Davis didn’t help. This is definitely a problem for LA that worsened throughout this trade, so while the trade wasn't perfect, it definitely was generational for the Lakers, they basically couldn’t have done better and I am excited to see Luka Doncic suit up for them.