The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA world on Saturday night by exchanging superstars. Shams Charania sent out a Tweet (X post? X? Whatever) that Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis were being traded for one another. No one believed it, but gradually more and more reports came out to corroborate the story. It’s real but makes no sense.
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who is famous for the infamous botching of Nike’s pitch to Stephen Curry, has made his mark as an NBA executive now. He is reportedly justifying this move by saying defense wins championships, apparently unaware that Luka Doncic carried his team to championship about nine months ago. Along with that, the Mavericks are reportedly tired of Luka’s consistent issues with his conditioning. His weight ballooned up to the 260s early this season, and I guess that’s been a recurring theme the last few years. Still, even with that being a problem, he’s been one of the league’s top three players each season. I think the Mavericks front office overlooked that.
The other shocking part of this deal is how little the Mavericks got in return. They didn’t shop Luka at all and instead directly approached the Lakers for Anthony Davis. That’s a surefire way to get back a poor return. There are teams out there that would’ve traded an all star caliber player and all of their available first round picks. Instead, they only got a 2029 first round pick back with Davis.
Now, where the Hornets come in. They actually own the Mavericks 2027 first round pick thanks to the PJ Washington trade last year. If they elect to keep this group together as long as possible, the Mavericks will be led that season by an oft injured Kyrie Irving who will be 35 by season’s end and an oft injured Anthony Davis who will be 34 by season’s end. You can’t predict injuries, but you wouldn’t bet money on players who struggled to stay healthy when they were young suddenly becoming ironmen in their mid 30s.
The Mavericks also have a lot of contracts expiring in 2026, so the could conceivably clear their books to acquire a max player other than Irving, but I don’t have any ideas of what that would look like so far out. I certainly don’t trust the Mavericks to do something smart. Their last two moves of significance were giving away Josh Green for nothing so they could give soon-to-be-35-year-old and relatively washed up Klay Thompson $50 million and trading away a perennial MVP candidate because they thought he was too chubby.
Anyway, the pick is top two protected and if it falls within the top two picks, the Hornets only get a second round pick out of the deal. However, there’s a very real scenario where the Mavericks struggle to keep their aging stars on the floor and limp to a lottery finish. If all is going to plan for Charlotte, which is admittedly a pie in the sky thought, they could be a good competitive team that gets gifted a top 10-ish pick. That’s certainly something we can look forward to two years out.
