Yup, you heard that right. The Dallas Mavericks just sent 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers- to pair up with LeBron James- in exchange for All-NBA Anthony Davis and other assets in a 3-team blockbuster.
Luka hasn’t played since Christmas day against Minnesota, and the Mavs’ front office was growing frustrated with his conditioning. One report said that Luka, at one point, reached 270 pounds, per ESPN, Prompting Dallas to contact the Lakers to trade him.
It’s hard to take in how crazy of a deal this is. Luka Doncic is a generational talent and undoubtedly a top 5 player in the NBA. At 25, he’s among the most valuable players in the NBA and all four major sports. Reports went out that Luka never asked out of Dallas, either. In a rare instance, Mavericks’ GM Nico Harrison decided they should move on from him despite going to the NBA finals just 8 months before. There is now speculation about what Nico Harrison was thinking.
Another factor that makes this deal as insane as it is is that no one knew about it. Nico Harrison was the one who approached Lakers’ GM Rob Pelinka for the offer, not the other way around. They both kept the negotiations a secret. No reports or news were out that even considered Doncic on the market: no speculation, rumors, or anything. Just strictly hidden information between the two managers is an incredibly rare idea in today’s era of sports. Not even the players were notified of the deal until it happened. In fact, The Lakers were the only team the Mavs contacted to offer Luka. No other teams were even approached to give up their best offers for the franchise star, which, if you’re going to give up a superstar, you should ask some teams with a ton of assets to give up. This is because the Mavericks had only one player in mind that they wanted for Luka: Anthony Davis.
Full Trade Details:
Mavericks Receive: Anthony Davis (From LA), Max Christie (From LA), 2029 Lakers 1st Round Pick.
Lakers Receive: Luka Doncic (From DAL), Maxi Kleber (From DAL), Markieff Morris (From DAL).
Jazz Receive: Jalen Hood-Schifino (From LA), 2025 Clippers 2nd Round Pick, 2025 Mavericks 2nd Round Pick.
For the Lakers: It’s hard to get a much better deal than this. Before the trade, their future looked bleak, with an aging LeBron and Anthony Davis. Now, however, their entire franchise is flipped upside down. They just received a new franchise cornerstone that will put them in contention for the next decade and, for a short time, getting him with LeBron James. Luka Doncic is a 5x all-star, 5x all-NBA first-team player. He also won the scoring title in 2024 and won Rookie of the Year in 2019. He’s been an MVP candidate for the past 5 years, and whenever you get an opportunity to get someone like that, you take it. However, there are now growing questions at the center position. Giving up an all-defensive level talent in Anthony Davis sucks, and he was also their only real big man. The Lakers badly need a center after this deal, which raises the question that they probably aren’t done trading.
For the Mavs: On paper, this trade looks awful for them. Anthony Davis is 31 and is getting older. He’s a 10x All-Star, 3x All-Defensive First team, 2x All-defensive Second team player. 4x All-NBA First team selections, and 1x All-NBA second team selection. Those accolades look better than Luka’s, but that’s only because Luka is 6 years younger than Davis. The Mavericks tried to improve their defensive approach with this trade, and AD is an extremely valuable defender who will help. AD is a top 15, or in my opinion, a top 10 player in the league. But at the end of the day, you cannot give up a generational superstar like Luka Doncic. They did, and now their duo is Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, who are 31 and 33 years old, respectively.
Along with that, They only got a single pick out of the deal. For reference, the Jazz got 5 1st-rounders in the Gobert trade, and Mikal Bridges was traded for 5 1st-rounders as well. Of course, neither of those trades had an all-star player in return, but if you’re the Mavs, you must get more picks out of the deal. We’ll see how it plays out, but as of right now, this is a bad look for Dallas.
For the Jazz: There’s not much to say here; there is no risk in this deal. They traded nothing except for cash and got back two second-round picks and a role player they could develop in Jalen-Hood Schifino, which is an automatic win.
Overall, this trade just changed the NBA forever. The NBA world is still in shock over the deal, and it’s gonna take a long time to recover. I’m sure this is easily the wildest, most insane trade I have ever seen in my lifetime and potentially in NBA history. It’s not just because of the players involved, either. It’s also because of the circumstances around it. We’re in for a wild trade deadline, and I’ll make a trade deadline recap after this is over. That’s all for Drake’s Take; see you next tim
