On Saturday February 1st, NBA fans everywhere found out that the Dallas Mavericks (Mavs) point guard Luka Doncic was traded to the LA Lakers, and in return they got Lakers forward-center Anthony Davis.
The Utah Jazz were also involved in the trade and from the Lakers they received point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks.
Since the trade has been announced, there has been an outcry from fans and demands for the reason behind the trade to be revealed.
Who Was Involved
Few people in the NBA knew about the trade. Not even the transferred players knew until it had gone through. The few people who knew about the trade were Mavs General Manager (GM) Nico Harrison, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, Jazz GM Justin Zanik, and their CEO Danny Ainge.
The “leader” of the four was Harrison, who had contacted the Lakers Organization to meet with Pelinka to talk if a trade could happen three weeks before it did. Zanik wasn’t invited to the initial conversation of the trade, but he and Ainge were later approached by Harrison and Pelinka and asked if they wanted to be involved in a trade where they had to give nothing and gain a lot. Ainge knew a trade was happening between the Maves and the Lakers, but he didn’t know any real details about the trade until it was too late to back out.
The Jazz helped give Luka to the Lakers when they agreed to receive Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2025 second-round picks from the LA Clippers and the Maves. Ainge was upset when he found out just how big this trade was going to be, and even though they received a lot, the Jazz are riding on the fact that Hood-Schifino could become a star if given the opportunity he didn’t get with the Lakers.
Why the Trade Happened
After the shock of the trade died down, the public demanded reasons on why the Mavs would trade their main point guard out of nowhere. Numerous theories have been circulated online as to why Harrison gave away Luka, but none of them have been proven true. The only statements that have come from Harrison is that Davis is a better culture fit for what the Mavs want, and this trade was the Mavs’ best chance at winning the NBA championship.
Davis is a very good defensive player and the Mavs have been a team that leans towards offense more in the past and doesn’t always focus on how good their defense is. Harrison going for Davis and saying what he did in his press conference could be his way of balancing out his offensive playing style.
It was also said that the Mavs organization as a whole had been frustrated with Luka for quite some time because of his lack of diet and conditioning schedule. This could have been another motivator for the trade..
Those reason are the only ones that have been confirmed, but fans believe there is more to it than that. Some believe that the Mavs didn’t want to keep paying Luka millions of dollars which would make sense because Luka was about to receive a $345 million contract this summer. He is no longer eligible for this because of the trade.
Another theory on the trade is that the Mavs owner Miriam Adelson doesn’t care how good the team is and wants to move them to Las Vegas. Miriam is the late wife of Sheldon Adelson who was the owner of a large gambling empire.
The NBA is also looking for teams to expand to Vegas because they don’t have a professional basketball team yet. The move would benefit Adelson in multiple ways because of the revenue the team would make from fans traveling to see the Mavs and the growth of consumers in her Vegas casinos.
Aftermath
The trade has brought both good and bad consequences to both teams, but the Mavs have taken most of the heat since the news broke.
After the trade went public, many Mavs fans said they would never see another game and they called for Harrison to be fired. People also held “memorials” for Luka outside of the stadium and fans who went to the first few games after Luka left expressed their opinions when shown on screen leading to multiple ejections of fans. The trade has yet to pay off for the Mavs, and while they have won the majority of their last seven games without Luka, Davis is already injured and will be out for at least a month.
On the Lakers side, they lost a very valuable defensive unit, and they haven’t secured a center to fill Davis’ role yet. Because they got such a great offensive player like Luka though, some of the burden will be taken off of LeBron to be the leading scorer. This can enable James to play more of a defensive role on the court while still getting buckets and assists. who takes some of the load off of Labron James as the main playmaker for the Lakers.
Luka made his debut with the Lakers on February 12th where he played just 23 minutes but he got 14 points and four assists. He also showed great chemistry with James and made quick passes to other teammates down the floor showing that the Lakers could now be a big offensive threat to other teams with James as their power forward, Austain Reaves as their shooting guard, and now Luka who could potentially be their starting point guard.
The Luka Davis trade is not the first shocking and confusing trade to happen in the NBA and it won’t be the last, but what other NBA organizations should take from this is that it’s better to be open than to let everyone find out at the same time.
The Mavs are a bit discombobulated right now, which is to be expected. There is a possibility that the result that they wanted from this trade might not happen right away. Davis needs to get healthy again and grow chemistry with his new teammates, but if that happens, there is a real possibility that they are a team that is consistently in the run for the NBA championship.
