Doncic/Davis Trade Analysis

Ladies and gentlemen, the trade deadline is upon us. In case you’ve been offline for the last 12 hours, Luka Doncic is now a Laker, unless Adam Silver decides to veto the deal (he won’t, by the way). This is a 3-team trade between the Mavericks, Lakers, and Jazz in which the Jazz get Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2nd round picks (one from each team), the Mavericks get Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers’ 2029 1st round pick, and the Lakers get Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris. This is an absolutely insane trade, and myself and the rest of the league are still in shock about it, but we can at least go about grading it to see how each team did in the deal.

Jazz: B

This is a really easy trade for the Jazz, as they are simply receiving assets just for facilitating the trade. Hood-Schifino was put in a rough situation where he got little to no playing time routinely through his first year and a half as an NBA player, so we’ll see if he can properly develop in a situation with no expectations. Only upside here, so the Jazz get a B.

Lakers: A+

The Lakers are getting Luka Doncic. Plain and simple. The addition of Maxi Kleber is a decent one, as Kleber is a pretty good backup big, but the trade does leave them without a long-term answer at Center. Also, the defensive upside of a starting lineup with Luka, Austin Reaves, and modern-day LeBron James is very low, but the offensive upside is relatively high, so we’ll see what JJ Redick does with his new team. The starting lineup is projected to be Luka, Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith/Rui Hachimura, LeBron, and Kleber/Jaxon Hayes once the team is healthy, so it’ll be interesting to see how this team does the rest of the season. They get an A++ for getting a top 3 player in the league who isn’t even in his “prime” yet.

Mavericks: F-

The Mavericks are giving up a top 3, arguably top 2 player in the league who just led them to an NBA Finals appearance. There is almost no justification for such an action. Now, the year hasn’t exactly gone as the Mavs would have liked, as they currently stand as the 8th seed in the West, and Luka has been hurt for a sizable chunk of the year, but that is still no justification for trading the second best player in the franchise’s history at age 25.

And sure, even if you were going to go down that route (which, I argue, is a terrible decision despite the lack of defensive upside of Doncic), you could at least get what Phoenix got for Kevin Durant. AT LEAST. I just made a mock trade with the Spurs in which it monetarily works to send out those same 3 players and get back Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle, Keldon Johnson, and as many 1st rounders as it takes to get Luka to San Antonio. There is no reason why the Lakers should be the only bidders on a player as amazing as Luka Doncic. They only got back Anthony Davis, Max Christie (who is a decent young guard, especially defensively), and one singular first round pick that won’t even be very good now because Luka Doncic is on the team.

This trade is absolutely baffling and gets worse the more I hear justifications by the owner and GM. They’re concerned about giving Luka a supermax worth 350 million? He’s arguably the second best player in the world who led you to an NBA Finals less than 9 months ago. Conditioning concerns? Zion Williamson has had conditioning concerns nearly since the moment he was drafted, and he’s still on the team. And last year, Luka had conditioning concerns as well, and do you know what he did? He played 70 games, averaging 33.9/9.2/9.8/1.4/0.5 and finishing 3rd in MVP voting. He’s been injured a lot this year? He’s not the only one on the team who has missed games; in addition, Davis has historically been the more injury-prone player (props to him though, he’s been mostly healthy during the last two seasons), plus Davis is 6 years older than Luka.

This trade makes absolutely no sense for the Mavericks. They deserve an F——- for trading away someone of Luka’s caliber for pennies on the dollar and giving the Lakers more relevance for seasons to come.

Conclusion: Insanity

I think it’s safe to say that the trade deadline shenanigans have already begun. This wasn’t even the only trade that happened with an LA team yesterday, but Luka and AD moving is much more interesting than Drew Eubanks and PJ Tucker. If any more crazy or impactful trades happen, I’ll be sure to cover them as soon as I can. Happy Deadline Week to everyone but the Mavs front office!