The Los Angeles Lukas

Gloria: You got hustled.
Billy Hoyle: I did not get hustled.
Gloria: You got set up. You got hustled by Sidney.
Billy Hoyle: No. He’s a good guy.
Gloria: You said he’s full of s—t.
Billy Hoyle: And he’s a good guy.

White Men Can’t Jump, starring Rob Pelinka as Sidney Deane and Nico Harrison as Billy Hoyle

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In what may go down as the most asinine trade in the history of American sports, the Dallas Mavericks (with zero input from Mark Cuban) traded the Wonder Boy, Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and a bag of potato chips someone sat on in the backseat of the car. The full details of the three-team deal:

Los Angeles Lakers receive:
Luka Doncic
Maxi Kleber
Markieff Morris

Dallas Mavericks receive:
Anthony Davis
Max Christie
2029 first-round pick (via Lakers)

Utah Jazz receive:
Jalen Hood-Schifino (via Lakers)
2025 second-round pick (via Mavs)
2025 second-round pick (via Clippers)

And what’s hilarious? Utah Jazz GM Danny Ainge, who won championships with the Boston Celtics, had no knowledge the deal he was part of meant the Mavericks were shipping off Luka Doncic (Luka!) to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Lakers GM Rob Pelinka finessed the s—t out of Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas even had to give up a draft pick to the Jazz. I don’t care if the Dallas Mavericks win the NBA title this year. I don’t care if they win two in the next five years. You don’t trade a generational talent like Luka Doncic that young in his career. The dude is 25 years old. You’re set with box office talent for another decade. You’re sniffing, or one piece away, every year, of the Larry O’Brien trophy. He’s that f—king good.

Luka’s resume is bananas

B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Bananas. Luka Doncic has made First Team All-NBA five times in his career. Five times in six years. The only year he wasn’t selected? His first season in the league when he won Rookie of the Year. Did I mention he’s only 25? I did. Well, he’s only 25. Since his second year, he’s been considered a Top 5 player in the world.

Doncic, who led both conferences in total points (635), rebounds (208), and assists (178) for the 2024 Playoffs, took a Mavericks team that didn’t have any business whatsoever to the NBA Finals less than eight months ago, its first since 2011. Sure, the Mavericks lost to the Celtics. But Luka, despite suffering an injury the previous round, averaged:

• 29.2 points per game
• 8.8 rebounds
• 5.6 assists
• 2.6 steals

The next closest scorer on his team: Kyrie Irving at 19.8 PPG. From there, P.J. Washington at just over 10 PPG. The rest of the team? Single digits.

If you rewatch the Finals, one theme stood out more than any, even more than Luka, who was essentially playing on one leg, getting targeted on defense: the Dallas Mavericks’ supporting cast, despite being wide open, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from three. On the interior, the bigs couldn’t catch a lob to save their life which was their recipe for success through the Western Conference playoffs. Hence, why Luka only averaged 5.6 assists in the NBA Finals and not his playoff average of 8.1 assists.

Getting into the weeds of Luka’s affect on the court

Luka’s +/- for his career is +1,060. What this means is that when Luka’s on the court, his team has scored more than 1,060 points in comparison to the amount it’s given up. Luka has played six full seasons.

Anthony Davis, who has played twice as many seasons as Luka, now in his 13th year, has a career +/- of +925. Think about that. Luka has yet to hit his prime (ages 27-32) and already has a career +/- of +135 over Davis, despite seven less years played.

Or: compare last year alone. Luka’s +/- was +319, comparable to Jokic this year whose +/- is +378. Anthony Davis was +151. LeBron James, another great, was +220.

I bring this up because Luka’s defense was shat on by Dallas GM Nico Harrison at the press conference. “Defense wins championships,” he said. Not wrong. But that’s oversimplifying it. Team defense wins championships. Not necessarily individual defense. Not when your historically great face of the franchise absolutely steamrolls opposing defenses with his offensive output which compensates for his lack of lateral quickness.

And what about Kyrie’s defense? Or the aging Klay Thompson who the Mavs picked up in the offseason? This ain’t prime Klay we’re talking here. And speaking of a former Warrior, is there a single person on planet Earth who considers current Warrior Steph Curry an elite defender or even an average defender? Did the Warriors pick up the phone and trade away the Chef in an alternate timeframe I’m not aware of?

I’m all for a defense-first mindset. It’s how I played. It’s the type of player I enjoy watching the most. Amen Thompson, right now, is poetry in motion on the court. Pre-injury Kawhi, a beautiful player. Scottie Pippen on the perimeter during the Bulls’ heyday. I’m glued to the screen. Ben Wallace. Detroit Dennis Rodman. Yes, please.

But there are times, and there are players, who are so damn good offensively, that you have to be okay with your best player not being your best defender. Get them to average defender and call it a day. And Luka, as young as he is, could be an average defender. He’s capable because, like Jokic who is slow as molasses, he understands angles.

Luka just needed a few good vets along the way, something the Mavericks have failed to secure in trades over his stay at the organization. Instead, they, despite what was said at the press conference, surrounded him with even weaker defenders on the wings. Why let Derrick Jones, Jr. walk last year?

Luka Doncic’s career regular season stats

Doncic is the only player in NBA history to average 28+ points, 8+ rebounds, and 8+ assists for their career. The only one. Lebron hasn’t done this. KD. Jordan. Kobe. Jokic. Giannis. Larry Legend. No one, but Luka.

Luka Doncic’s career playoff stats

During his young career, Luka Doncic has upped his career stats across the board during playoff time, averaging 30.9 points per game, second only in NBA history to Michael Jordan at 33.4 PPG. Second only to the G.O.A.T. The G.O.A.T!

2019-20
31.0 PPG | 9.8 RPG | 8.7 APG

2020-21
35.7 PPG | 7.9 RPG | 10.3 APG

2021-22
31.7 PPG | 9.8 RPG | 6.4 APG

2023-24
28.9 PPG | 9.5 RPG | 8.1 RPG

What is Nico Harrison and the Mavericks ownership smoking?

The morning after the trade, Michael Pina of The Ringer, penned a headline for his latest essay: The Luka Doncic Trade Is the Dumbest NBA Move I’ve Ever Seen. The All NBA Podcast with Tim Legler called the trade the “craziest” in NBA history and something we’ll still be talking about in 50 years.

Jack Baer, in his story for Yahoo Sports, referred to the trade as “one of the most shocking deals in NBA history.” Paul Pierce is still waiting for “one great reason” for making this trade. And he hasn’t yet heard it. Nor will he.

By all accounts, everyone, including Bill Simmons, assumed NBA insider, Shams Charania, had his Twitter account hacked upon first reporting the story. So much so, he had to send a follow-up tweet that read, “Yes, this is real.”

During a Suns night game, a security guard tapped Kevin Durant on the shoulder and said, “Luka just got traded,” to which KD asked to borrow the security guard’s phone. Video shows Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal looking at the phone in bewilderment while sitting on the bench during gameplay.

Luka has 117 million reasons to drop 77 on the Mavs

Because he was traded, Luka automatically lost $117 million dollars. Why? He’s no longer in line for the supermax extension he was expected to sign in the 2025 offseason. The money is poof. Vamoosed. Gone. If the real reasoning behind the Mavericks getting rid of Doncic is the money — and not the other reasons they are placing out into the ether as an excuse: conditioning, defense, culture — then who, exactly, in the NBA should sign a supermax?

If not Luka, a player well on the trajectory of being Top 10 all-time in NBA history, who?

The only other current NBA players on Luka’s level are:

• Nikola Jokic
• Giannis Antetokounmpo

Sorry SGA and whoever else you think sits in this upper echelon. There are three players. Three. Not five. Definitely not Tatum. Apologies to Bill Simmons and the city of Boston.

Luka is not simply a franchise player or a superstar. He is an all-time great. He’s knocking on the door to the room where Magic, Bird, and Wilt are chilling. He’s got the killer instinct of Jordan and Kobe. And you ship him off for an often-injured Anthony Davis who has never shown he can be the 1-A guy on a team?

I think Anthony Davis is a great player on both ends. Elite. But there’s a reason his nickname is “Street Clothes.” He gets hurt, repeatedly. And, he’s not a 1-A or 1-B. He’s a #2. Like Kyrie. Like Pippen. Like Klay. Like Westbrook. Nothing wrong with being a #2. But whose your #1 now? Oh, wait, you shipped him off to Hollywood.

Don’t give excuses. You’re telling me, as a franchise, you can’t bring in other veterans to help him understand better conditioning or how to improve on defense? You have to send him somewhere else? I don’t buy it. At least Denver saw the type of player Jokic is, and regardless of his ‘weight’ issues, lack of foot speed or verticality, they said, “This guy is on another level despite all this.”

If Luka dropped 73 points, fourth most in NBA history behind Kobe’s 81 and Wilt’s 100 and 78, on an Atlanta Hawks team that passed on him in the NBA Draft, what do you think he’s going to drop on your newly constructed Mavs team Nico?

Luka’s not even in his prime yet

This is like Larry Bird going to the NBA Finals the first time in 1980-81, losing, and then the GM saying, “You know what? This guy can’t jump very high. He’s not fast enough for the NBA. His muscle definition is lacking. I think we should trade him to… the Lakers. Sounds like a great idea. Let’s trade him to a premier franchise so we’ll have to face him in years to come.”

Makes total sense, especially if you’re the Mavericks and you play in the same conference. This is where I’d insert an /s to note sarcasm if I were on Reddit. That’s perhaps the most perplexing part of this trade. That Luka got traded to a rival. A rival that has the second most NBA championships in league history (17), trailing only the Boston Celtics (18).

Of course, Bird didn’t lose his first NBA Finals. He won. Granted, not playing all that great. But do you know who did lose in their first NBA Finals appearance before winning multiple titles:

• Shaquille O’Neal (swept by Rockets)
• LeBron James (swept by Spurs)
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Hakeem Olajuwon

Hell, Jerry West, aka The Logo, won one ring as a player. He went 1-9 in the Finals. Did the Lakers trade him away after getting bounced year after year? Nope.

All-time greats. One after the next. I can keep going, but you get the picture. You don’t scrap a generational talent and start over. It took Jordan seven seasons before winning his first NBA championship at age 28. LeBron, nine seasons, at age 27. Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks franchise guy for 20 seasons, crashed out in his first Finals appearance in 2006, then went on to win a ring five years later, in 2011, 13 seasons deep into his career.

I’m not even a Mavericks fan

I live in Virginia. We have no NBA team. The Washington Wizards don’t count. Terrible name. Bring back the Bullets. Negative connotations aside. It’s a train. I’d just assume watch the Washington Generals get blown out by the Harlem Globetrotters when they’re visiting town.

And even if the Wizards did count as a Virginia team, again, it’s the Washington Wizards who somehow manage to have the league’s worst record, or close to it, every single year — including this year. Fifty games into the season and you’ve squeaked out eight wins? Sheesh. And the Hornets aren’t much better at 11 wins. We’re cursed, even on our borders.

I don’t even know how the Wizards are still a franchise. Can we get the Richmond Squires of the ABA back? Julius Erving maybe come out of retirement? Something. Anything.

But if I were a Mavericks fan, I’d be irate. And judging by the coffin brought to the arena and the memorial set up at the entry steps, I’d say the fans are well past irate. We’re talking Luka Magic. The Don. El Matador. Cool Hand. A 25 year old international superstar. Five First Team All-NBA nods already. More than Steph Curry who turns 37 years old in March. More than Chris Paul. Kevin Garnett. David Robinson. The same number as Charles Barkley, Julius Erving, and The Iceman George Gervin.

And he’s only 25 years old!

Luka is one-of-one. Players of his caliber don’t come along often. They definitely don’t fall into your lap on draft night. When you get a guy like that, you keep him. You don’t up and trade him in the middle of the night.

At his press conference, not once did Mavs GM Nico Harrison thank Luka for all he’s done for the city of Dallas. Go watch it. Almost every word spoken was a slap in the face of their former franchise player. The guy who kept their franchise not only relevant but their ceiling high following Dirk Nowitzki’s retirement in 2019.

The real questions

The more I think about this trade, the likelier it seems it was less Nico’s ego, that he believes himself to be a grand architect of creating championship caliber teams, and more the new ownership who, plainly put, didn’t want to pay Luka his upcoming supermax. That Nico is the fall guy for this. I’m waiting to read this in a book Nico Harrison writes in 20 years with a chapter titled, “My Greatest Mistake as an NBA GM.”

At least I hope this is Nico’s excuse. That he’s being compensated nicely by the billionaire Adelson Family for looking like a fool the world over.

After all, Mark Cuban, who sold the team in December 2023 and still holds a minority share, stated he didn’t have anything to do with the trade. That he didn’t know about it until it was signed, sealed, and delivered. In the past, Cuban has said he’d soon rather divorce his wife than trade Luka. So, you know where he stands on the deal. Also: has your wife seen that quote, Mark? That’s tough.

Nico said himself that head coach Jason Kidd wasn’t made aware of the trade going down. It was hush-hush. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, who they don’t call “Rob” without reason and Mavericks GM Nico Harrison, alone. By the look of Kidd, who was forced to sit beside Nico at the press conference, that couldn’t have appeared more clearly. Kidd’s face seemed to say, “He did it. Don’t look at me.” and “What the f—k?!”

Luka wasn’t aware of the trade until it happened. Nor was his agent. Nor was Anthony Davis, an All-NBA talent in his own right. Nor his agent. LeBron James, Davis’ teammate didn’t even catch word it was going down — and they share the same agent. LeBron allegedly found out while eating dinner with his family after the Lakers faced off against the Knicks.

In the press conference, Nico looked and sounded foolish. And once it was time to bounce, he was outta there.

And the era of The Wonder Boy is now over in Dallas. What did you all do? Are you high?

LeBron and Luka: A cause for celebration

Luka going to LaLa Land with LeBron isn’t viewed by anyone as a creation of a new super-team. LeBron is 40 years old. He hit the milestone on December 30, 2024. He’s not getting younger. Father Time is knocking. LeBron doesn’t want to open the door. It’s an amazing feat for him to be playing at the level he still is.

But the old LeBron is not the LeBron of old. His defense itself is pretty poor. I’m not faulting him. He’s 40. It happens. I throw my back out tying my shoes if I’m not careful. And sneezing. Brushing my teeth. Anything. Regardless of age, LeBron still has one of the greatest minds in the game. That hasn’t fallen off a cliff. It’s greater than ever. Not to mention, James is still averaging 24.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 9.1 APG in Year 22.

When LeBron played his first NBA game on October 29, 2003 against the Sacramento Kings, he was 18 years old. I had just turned 22 myself ten days prior. Luka Doncic was four years old. Probably wore velcro shoes and never imagined he’d one day sign a shoe deal with Jordan Brand. Now they’re teammates.

The benefits of being around an all-time great like LeBron, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, is that LeBron will teach Luka how to take care of his body better. How to condition more efficiently and effectively. How to eat better. And who knows? We might see Muscle Luka by 2026. If ‘Fat Luka’ is this good, imagine him with defined biceps and a six pack. LeBron is the ultimate vet and now he gets to mentor his successor who is, without a doubt, the future face of the NBA. Hell, he already is.

The Luka revenge tour

If I were the Dallas Mavericks organization, Luka’s revenge tour is going to be something else. I wouldn’t buy another season ticket for at least a year if I were a fan of your franchise (I’d boycott you for being morons), but I’d buy the one for the game in Dallas on April 9, 2025.

As meek as Doncic comes off in front of a camera off the court, when he’s between those painted lines, he turns into a complete animal. Rabid.

“You can’t f—king guard me,” he yelled after drilling a game winning three in four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert’s face during the Western Conference Finals match-up with the Minnesota Timberwolves last year.

Nor will anyone be able to guard him on the Mavericks when The Don dons a #77 Lakers jersey. We’ll see how good Nico’s restructured defensive-minded team is in real-time. Get your popcorn ready. Luka’s coming. And he’s not going anywhere for another decade.

Because that man is box-office. A living legend. A Top-10 All-Time trajectory. And the Mavs, despite any success they achieve in the next five years, will come to regret making that trade. It was an all-time blunder. This Mavs’ fan’s reaction says it all.

In a press release following the trade, Luka Doncic shared a message with the city of Dallas and its fans:

Seven years ago, I came here as a teenager to pursue my dream of playing basketball at the highest level. I thought I’d spend my career here and I wanted so badly to bring you a championship. The love and support you all have given me is more than I could have ever dreamed of. For a young kid from Slovenia coming to the U.S. for the first time, you made North Texas feel like home.

Dallas is a special place, and Mavs fans are special fans.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Luka Doncic, Statement after being traded by Dallas Mavericks

And what’s worst of all? Now I have to buy my son a Lakers jersey. The Lakers! Damn.