I texted my friends group chat and groupme and we launched into a great 90 minute back and forth on it. All of su, as is to be expected, were on teh side of this is ludicrous, stupid and completely braindead for the Mavericks, but at the very least it made 12:15 through to The Moose & Firkin's 2am closing time a lot of fun (don't worry, I uber).
Two days later, I'm still not really sure of what to make of it. Reports have emerged that are at least attempting to explain it (slightly), from reports of the Mavs just disgust with Luka's effort into conditiioning (more on this to come), to the what was once hairbrained but has some legs theory that this is some 3D chess move to tank fan interest for the Adelson's to be able to move them to Las Vegas. But it all remains that this is by far the most inexplicable, stupid, unprecdented trade in NBA history.
Every layer makes this even dumber - including the revelation today taht the Mavs intentionally looked to keep it quiet between them and the Lakers, lest Luka find out and create noise by wanting out. Of course, they wanted him out, so that was ridiculous. Then was the even better revelation that the Lakers brilliantly negotiated the Mavs to give away less, in a situation where the Mavericks should ahve held all the leverage.
Simply put, what makes this the wrost trade ever is very simple: we've never seen a player of this caliber been willingly given away when money wasn't the main factor. Granted, money was a bit of a factor - seemingly the Mavericks not wanting to tie up supermax money in Luka - but critically they could from a financial standpoint. They just actively viewed that as a bad investment. In a capped league, it absolutely is not. But anyway, truly this was unprecedented.
The only comparison I could even think of was the Red Sox trading away Mookie Betts in 2019, fresh off winning the World Series, with Betts as at worst the #3 player in MLB. The Red Sox could afford him of course, but squarely said money was the issue in trading him away. It was dumb, as dumb as this. But at least they (1) made it clear it was about money, even if that was ridiculous, and (2) at least held something of an auction.
We also have situations like the Edmonton Oilers trading Wayne Fucking Gretzky in 1988, but again they squarely blamed money from teh beginning. If anything, the Oilers stand as the best case scenario - they still had a good enough team to win the Cup in 1990, and then slid into irrelevancy for 25 years, save for one fake, crazy run to the Cup Final in 2006. That slide into mediocracy and irrelevancy may easily befall the Mavericks.
You just don't trade players of his caliber, especially in capped leagues. I don't care if he's fat and lazy at best (and I guess potentially something of a functional alcoholic at worst), he is one of the Top-5 players in the league despite that, and someone who drug your team to the NBA finals literally seven months ago. It is malpractice to just willingly give up on him. If we want to focus on his weight, let's turn our attention to the Pelicans, who have moved heaven and earth to keep Zion Williamson, a player who hasn't hit Luka's highs and has been far fatter at his lows, on the 10% chance he turns his life around. And you know what? That's the right thing for the Pelicans to do.
The Mavericks are not acting rationally. It either will be that this is part of a giant long ploy by ownership, or truly Nico Harrison is just dumb. Honestly, even if he's proven "right" in that Luka stays oft injured, oft in-shape, and ultimately never leads the Lakers to a title, you still don;'t make this move, because the alternative is worse. The Mavericks got so lucky that the Suns and Kings stupidly passed on Luka, and the Hawks preferred Trae Young (who ironically is still there). They had a generational player fall into their laps, and he delivered - from five 1st team All-NBA selections, to making the WCF in 2022 and Finals last year. And they threw it all away.
The view on this trade was so overwhelmingly negative, so overwhelmingly shocking, that I don't think it changes anything long term in the league. People will realize this is an outlier of a rogue GM just acting dumb and emotional. I don't think other league superstars shoudl be on notice. 29 other teams would have seen the fallout and it has been enough to spook any team even contemplating something similar back inside. And for good reason - you don't trade 25 year old Top-5 players.
