The Dallas Mavericks just made the worst trade Nba history. Overall, it is the feeling after the Mavericks failed Luka Doncic, 25, at Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, a first round choice in 2029 and Max Christie. It is such a confusing business that when it was reported for the first time by the Shams Charania d’Espn, Everyone thought it was wrong.
It is only when several other reports came out to confirm it, and Charania sending another update saying: “Yes, it’s real” that shock waves have really settled and the extent of what comes to do without. The Mavericks had just exchanged a generational player for a next 32 -year -old player and a first -round choice at midnight on February 1.
The question in everyone’s mind, and will probably be simple until the end of time is simple. For what?
The complete image is still concentrated. CBS Sports NBA Insider Bill Reiter says that Luka was not sure to stay in Dallas in the long term. A report by Marc Stein said that Donic did not ask for a trade. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison explained the job saying: “I believe the defense wins the championships.” There are surface reports that Dallas was concerned about the packaging of Doncic, which was a subject of conversation several times.
“There are unique things about his contract to which we had to pay attention,” said Harrison at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. “There are other teams who were in charge, that he was going to have – he was going to be able to decide, make his own decisions to know if he wanted to be here or not, whether we wanted the supermaxer or not, and that he Please withdraw.
So, the company’s line here is that they were afraid of losing all over the line, and that it was out of shape and that it is a passive in defense. No matter how much that he has just taken Dallas to the NBA final eight months ago because of its offensive brilliance which borrowed them from more than one opportunity. Or that he is an All-Star five times, finished in the top five of the MVP vote three times and has more selections of first all-NBA team (five) than Stephen Curry. Even out of shape and a black hole on the defense, Donic is always a player once in a generation.
There is no precedent for something as it happens, and worse, it shouldn’t have happened. Harrison obtained the blessing of the new owner of the Patrick Dumont team to drop a superstar player who barely entered his peak for the money on the dollar.
Even if you can rationalize trading, the transport they have obtained is horrible. Consider what the Brooklyn Nets obtained for Mikal Bridges in July: five The first round choices, four of which are not protected. It was for a player, not a franchise face, the potential to be one of the best to play the type of game game. The Mavericks have A Choice of first round.
Anthony Davis is obviously the element of big tickets for this return, but again, Davis looks like an option n ° 2 in a championship team, as we saw when the Lakers won a title in 2020 with Lebron James as the best player in this team. We saw the Pélicans try – and fail – build around Davis at the start of their career, and although this Mavericks team is better united than any of these teams, this is not the goal.
You just don’t exchange a guy who is considered one of the three best basketball players in the world When there was no reason. It is a professional fault. And even if you can justify the act of negotiating Doncic, you certainly do not do it “in the shadows”. You don’t consult a single team either. You start an auction war. You sell to the most offender, you press every value of this job and try to go out on the other side with a package that is not only giving you for the next two, but for the next decade.
Because this is what this job is, he prepares the Mavericks with a good competitive list for the next three years Max. After that? Who knows.
But Harrison is resolved in his position. He said “it is my job to make difficult decisions”, although nobody was holding his feet in fire to exchange his best player. It was not a difficult decision, it was a completely avoidable situation.
Harrison, however, is known to make controversial movements since he joined the Front Office of Mavericks in June 2021. He hired Jason Kidd despite two disastrous stays in Brooklyn and Milwaukee. He exchanged against Kyrie Irving after the star goalkeeper became a pariah around the league. The trade in Kristaps Porzingis with the wizards who finally helped the Mavericks to go to the final of the Western Conference in 2022. On the deadline for the exchanges of last season, Harrison exchanged two future first round choices To land PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, who were paramount in Dallas to go to the NBA final. All of these movements were successful after receiving mixed criticism or were widely turned when they first performed.
But that does not exchange role players and did not take a chance on a talented but polarizing playmaker. This is the kind of agreement that defines your career for better or for worse. Harrison says essentially that Donci is not the player who can lead the mavericks to a championship, even when the last six years have proven the opposite. You would have trouble finding a single other frame of the front office that would make this offer, or would get as little return as the Mavericks.
This is the type of move to which you put your work and your career, because be Harrison leaves this by resembling a genius to move wisely now before it becomes too difficult, or before forcing a profession. Or it is the laughing stock of the League for years because it has exchanged one of the most transcendent talents in the history of the Mavericks franchise when it was not necessary. I bet on the latter, and unfortunately for fans of Mavericks, they will have to look so to ensure for another team for the rest of his career in a movement that has never needed to happen.
