The Lakers franchise appeared set to be entering a crossroads in the next couple of seasons. LeBron James is 40 and the franchise had hovered around .500 for the last two seasons. A title win came five years ago but there had been a slow, steady drain of draft resources since then with underwhelming results.
Anthony Davis was locked up for the long term with the Lakers but he is also 31 years old. With no path to landing a second star after James’ eventual exit, there appeared to be no direct path for LA to true contention this decade. That is until Saturday night.
The Mavericks dropped a top-5 player in Luka Doncic into the Lakers lap for the bargain price of Anthony Davis, Cam Christie and a 2029 first round pick. Oh and the Mavericks got to dump a questionable contract in Maxi Kleber too. Danny Ainge and the Jazz also picked up two second-round picks and Jalen Hood-Schifino for facilitating.
The fact that this trade was done in complete secrecy speaks to how badly mismanaged the trade was from a Mavericks perspective. Look at the haul players like Kevin Durant, Mikal Bridges, Paul George, Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Davis got in the last decade alone. None of those players rise to Doncic’s level/age yet the Mavericks got as underwhelming haul here compared to nearly all of them.
Based on reaction of league executives MassLive reached, it was a complete unknown that Doncic was even available for trade before this deal. It’s very easy to envision multiple teams beating the Lakers offer for the All-Star if given the chance, particularly with the treasure chest of draft assets assembled by rebuilding teams. Instead, it appears the Mavericks were stuck on acquiring a win-now player with Anthony Davis with a history of injury issues and six years older than Doncic. It’s a confounding decision, yet the Lakers are probably doing cartwheels right now in the wake of it.
Not only do they get Doncic but they will be allowed to retain him without using a supermax contract (since he wasn’t traded while on his rookie deal). For now, he gets a chance to co-exist with LeBron James. For the long term, the Lakers get a franchise cornerstone for the next decade that players will want to play with. Combine that with the Los Angeles market and a path for long-term contending relevancy is suddenly back in play for the Lakers, all while retaining all the intriguing young chips on their roster.
The Mavericks could have be worried about Doncic’s defense or about him being a flight risk if they didn’t want to hand him a supermax contract. That’s no excuse for not taking bids league wide for a franchise star in his prime. The Mavericks needed to do their due diligence here to see if they could get a younger franchise cornerstone. Instead, they just got an older one with the same type of durability question marks as Doncic. They also sold low on a guy who had just made the NBA Finals.
“I believe that defense wins championships,” Mavs GM Nico Harrison told ESPN regarding his motivation to trade Luka Doncic for Anthony 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.”
A Irving/Davis pairing doesn’t make the Mavericks a more intriguing contender in the present. Instead, it just shortens their contending runway in all likelihood given their ages.
Meanwhile, the Lakers have a gift fall into their lap in Doncic in the same way they acquired Pau Gasol at the 2008 trade deadline. The low price for Gasol in that deal was always ridiculed from the moment the Lakers pulled the trigger. It’s hard not to envision the same happening for years now with this Doncic blockbuster.
