December 25, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Maverick’s guard Luka Doncic (77) celebrates after making a basket against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first quarter at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Pictures During the early hours on Sunday morning, Los Angeles Lakers Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris acquired Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first round.
It was the type of trade that sent the NBA Social Media World to a shock, with active NBA stars who wondered about ESPN’s Sham’s Charania’s pages being hacked.
But trade is absolutely true. According to Charania, Mavericks Los Angeles recently contacted and offered Doncic, who Lakers believes is a generational.
Consensus here is that Doncic is a generational player who will not be 26 years old until the end of the month. Davis turns 32 at the end of the month. There is a huge difference in the basketball world. AD is a generational talent on both sides of basketball that will be a first Bollot Hall of Famer, and Mavericks was still steamed in this trade.
To increase the surprise, no one who was involved in this trade knew that something would happen. Doncic, Davis and Lakers star LeBron James were all held in the dark about this overnight blockbuster, according to Charania.
But the question that NBA fans are asking on Sunday morning is why the hell would Dallas actively buy one of the league’s best players who is still only 25 years old and ultimately turn him for Davis?
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Mavericks was actually skeptical of Doncic-this was not a trade that was player-driven, as the Slovenian superstar was ready to sign a Supermax extension with Dallas this summer.
Windhorst prepared that Mavericks hesitated to give Doncic the type of extension this summer and that they could probably have received even more through trade. Lakers were the only known freedom.
In just 25, Doncic has handled his fair share of injuries. But it is completely crazy to let a generation of talent like the one from your organization. Due to a Supermax contract? Teams publish them all the time. It is common in the NBA to pay hundreds of millions of dollars – especially when you have a genuine household name.
Again, Doncic has some pitfalls in his game. And apparently Mavericks just couldn’t look past them. He is a subpar defender who had any problems that stayed in shape. But to hand him over to a team like Lakers for an aging superstar in Davis? It is unreaches.
This feels like one of the scenarios where an open line of communication could probably have solved certain things. If Mavericks wanted Doncic to release a few pounds and focus on his defensive games, tell him this season. There is no way that things were so bad that they could not address him.
For Mavericks, this trade leaves Kyrie Irving without his Batman. Mavericks instead has two Robins with Irving and Davis. They are currently No. 8 seeds in the West, but how the mating of Irving and Davis work together will determine if they are at all a serious playoffs.
Parning James and Doncic is a non-Brainer for Lakers, which is currently the No. 5 seed. If this pairing works, especially later this spring, you could see a world where a motivated Doncic and rejuvenated James could go on a deep drive in the NBA finals.
But this trade is about the future, and Mavericks did not want Doncic in the picture. Could this trade mean that James has only a few more months in a Lakers uniform?
There is no world where two ball -dominating alphas like these can coexist, right? We said that about Doncic’s mating with Irving, and it actually turned out to be the happiest we have seen Kyrie for quite some time.
No matter what James chooses for this season, Lakers has his superstar.
