I've played basketball myself for over 20 years now - which is more than half my life. I have been a fan of the NBA just as long and even though both the time difference and my lack of time doesn't allow me to watch a lot of games, I still love the NBA and keep myself as up to date as possible. Every year when the playoffs come around, I find (by hook or by crook) time to watch the games of the most interesting series, the players I found most fascinating, etc.
I am primarily interested in the sheer skill of the players and the beauty of the game. I have very little fandom left in me. Sometimes during a game, I realize becoming aware of my heart beating a little stronger for one team than for the other, having more sympathies for one player than the other, but in general I'm a somewhat neutral, but nonetheless enthusiastic watcher of NBA games.
The Mavericks are the one exception. Having played basketball for such a long time and coming from Germany, they always had a special place in my heart due to Dirk. To still day, I find Dirk to be one of the most down-to-earth, sympathetic, humble and least vain and self-important superstars. This fandom for the Mavs carried over even after he retired, and I started to cheer for Luka - not that that was difficult to do considering what he has been able to achieve so far in his young career. Lukamagic is real!
This morning, I woke up to learn that the Mavs had traded Luka (and float some) for AD (and a pick + Christie) to the Lakers. The trade in full is as follows:
Los Angeles Lakers get:
G Luka Doncic
F Maxi Kleber
F Markieff Morris
Dallas Mavericks get:
C Anthony Davis
G Max Christie
2029 first-round pick
Utah Jazz get:
G Jalen Hood-Schifino
2025 second-round pick (via LA Clippers)
2025 second-round pick (via Dallas)
My reaction
The more I think and read about it, the more frustrated I become. Reading reports, I have learned that the Mavs (perhaps understandably) have become frustrated with Luka's lack of conditioning. A fair point by all the reports one has read over the years - his love for sweet tea and the other juciy parts of life in the off-seasons have been rather well-chronicled. Still, the deal to me is an absolute disaster and follows equally disastrous trades such as the decision to trade for Porzingis and the decision to let Brunson walk for nothing (though no one, I think, not even the Knicks, could have foreseen this coming - but it's still a bad look).
1. They, for whatever reason, believe that they are competing right now for a championship and need defence to do so. "I believe that defence wins championships," Mavs general manager Nico Harrison explained his motivation to deal Doncic for Davis. "I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We're built to win now and in the future."
Well, you couldn't be more wrong. You are not competing for a championship with the roster you have right now. Though your defence might improve with AD, your offence is going to fall off a cliff. You now really have only one reliable on the ball creator in Kyrie and if you play AD next to Gafford (or Lively II once he returns) as he has repeatedly said that he is not a center, your spacing is going to suck. You are not going to beat OKC, Denver or Memphis with that team. Hell, I don't think you're beating the Lakers once Luka returns.
2. You've swapped one of the best assets in his prime who is unto himself a walking top 10 offence for an older, over the course of his career rather injury-prone center who believes himself to be a power forward even though he has lost the ability to make both midrange jumpers and threes. Don't get me wrong - AD has been terrific, but he's beyond 30 (as is Kyrie) and at least partly reliant on his athleticism and all of a sudden that window that you had with Luka is not only as wide as it was before but also a lot shorter.
3. Even if you were fed up with Luka and his lack of conditioning, the return you got for a player who is First Team All-NBA and among the top 5 in MVP for the last years is nothing short of embarrassing. Consider the returns teams got recently when they traded their "stars" - think of the returns Utah got for Gobert, Brooklyn got for KD, the Wizards got for Beal, etc. Except for KD, none of the players are nearly close to Luka and all you got to show for is AD, a role-player and one measly first-round pick. Reading the reporting this morning, it seems like Dallas didn't even ask other teams to bid for Luka, which of course is going to limit your returns. The only team they were talking to were the Lakers - but I bet you dollars to donuts that if you had opened this to the whole league (the media craze be damned), you could have got so much more.
I'll be still cheering for Luka - I'm just too big of a fan of his game and the sheer skill he possesses. But man, it's going to be hard to cheer for the Mavs after this. I feel that they have shot themselves deeply in the foot this time and are going to be stuck with a very mediocre and rather old team (Kyrie, AD, Klay). From Dirk's twitter reaction, he wasn't all too pleased himself.
Well, good luck Mavs - you're going to need it!
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