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3 hours ago
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Every lifetime, you get to experience a few “where were you when?” moments. Finding out Michael Jackson died. The American presidency being called for Donald Trump in 2016. And any true NBA fan will remember where they were on the evening of 1 February 2025. I was waiting in line for a drink at a bar in Los Angeles when a friend tapped me on the shoulder and asked: “Have you seen this fake Shams tweet?”
The tweet, as it turns out, was real, as unbelievable as it still may be. The Dallas Mavericks have, indeed, traded Luka Dončić, the 25-year-old who was supposed to be the face of the franchise for years to come, to the Los Angeles Lakers. In return, they will get the man who was supposed to lead the Lakers for the next five years or so, 31-year-old Anthony Davis. There are a few more players involved in the trade (who will be discussed below), and even a third team in the Utah Jazz to help facilitate the deal. But for all intents and purposes, this was the most dramatic case possible of bona fide Top 10-superstar musical chairs.
Now, to attempt to make early sense of what this trade means in what will most likely go down as the most shocking trade in NBA history. We should also note that at the time of publication, the trade has not been officially confirmed.
The nitty gritty
The Mavericks receive: Davis, Max Christie, the Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick, $55,000 in cash from Utah.
The Lakers receive: Dončić, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, $55,000 in cash from Utah.
The Jazz receive: Jalen Hood-Schifino, the Clippers’ 2025 second-round pick (via the Lakers), the Mavericks’ 2025 second-round pick. (We won’t delve into how this trade affects the Jazz, as it’s mostly inconsequential asset shuffling).
How this affects the Dallas Mavericks
Perhaps the most shocking element of this trade is that the Mavericks decided to cut bait with a supposedly untouchable franchise cornerstone at the beginning of his prime – it was less than a year ago that he led Dallas to the NBA finals. While reports have emerged that Dallas had concerns about Dončić’s defense and his commitment to “conditioning,” (fancy GM language for fitness), it’s reasonable to wonder if there’s more to the story than is being let on. Dončić, a five-time All-Star and one of the best players of his generation, was eligible for a supermax contract this year, and it’s fascinating that, instead of giving it to him, Dallas decided to get out of the Luka business altogether. To add to the mystery, early reporting indicates that Dončić wasn’t really shopped to teams other than the Lakers, so there wasn’t a chance to find out if the Mavericks could have received a bigger haul for him. Very curious indeed.
In the meantime, Dallas are left with a formidable roster to attempt a championship run this year, assuming the team’s other superstar, Kyrie Irving, and Davis can shrug off nagging injuries. They also picked up Christie, a 21-year-old three-and-D wing, in the deal. He has impressed in a starting role for the Lakers this year with his increasingly reliable jump shooting and ability to guard the opposing team’s best player most nights. The Mavericks kept ascending star center Dereck Lively II, and important additional depth players such as PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Klay Thompson. This version of the Mavericks is huge, defensively gifted, and skilled. If Davis can continue playing to his ceiling, as he has done for much of this season, Dallas aren’t out of the championship hunt this year, even without Dončić.
The future is where things start to get a little murky. Sure, a six-year age gap between Davis and Dončić isn’t a big deal among us mere mortals, but in the competitive lifespan of an NBA player, it’s eons – the Mavs have swapped a player coming into his prime for one who is approaching the end of his. And if the Mavericks were really motivated by health concerns for Dončić, they won’t be sleeping a whole lot sounder with Davis, who, while remarkably healthy for the last two seasons, has been injury-prone his entire career. Davis is undoubtedly worlds better than Dončić on defense, but Dončić is one of the best offensive players in the league, so it’s a hard sell for the Mavs to opt for an equally health-challenged player who’s significantly older and, though a formidable scorer in his own right, an offensive downgrade. Not to mention that, by all accounts, Davis was blindsided by the deal, and there’s no guarantee he’ll choose to stay in Dallas in the long run.
So, there are certainly reasons for Mavericks fans to be optimistic about their team’s new setup, at least in the short-term. But unless Dončić has some deep, dark secret we don’t know about – health-related or otherwise – trading him away at this point in his career is a very odd move by the Mavericks, and there isn’t really another way to frame it.
For the Los Angeles Lakers
Davis recently sat down with Shams Charania to reiterate his desire to play the four alongside another high-caliber big man. Little did he know, he would soon get his wish – it would just come in a trade to Dallas, where he will line up alongside Lively. It’s a mind-blowing change of course for this Lakers team, which had looked like it was finally starting to fire on all cylinders and find a clear identity in a Western Conference loaded with talent. But the move also makes sense for a franchise that has always prioritized having the biggest stars wearing purple and gold.
It seems a bit counterintuitive to say that the Lakers a) made a trade that nearly any other team would have jumped at, b) almost certainly “won” the trade and c) that it could very well derail any momentum they had been building towards an NBA championship this year. But that’s my initial take. Before the trade, the Lakers roster was a couple of pieces away from true championship contention. And that’s due in large part to a newly embraced identity as a swarming, defensive minded team. That identity was forged by a combination of factors, including an earlier trade for a pitbull of a wing in Dorian Finney-Smith, the return of defensive savant Jarred Vanderbilt, the meteoric rise of Christie, and, most importantly, leaning into the strengths of Davis, one of the best defensive players in the league.
Christie and Davis have now been traded for Dončić, a player who, on his best day, is a “meh” defender. Even so, the Slovenian is only 25 and one of the best players in the world, thanks to his offensive wizardry. But the team, and its nascent and promising identity, has been flipped on its head overnight.
And then there’s the truly fascinating case of where this leaves LeBron James, who is 40 and arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, a precarious combination in and of itself. There is plenty of nuance to be found here: James and Davis, who won a championship together in 2020, had grown extremely close in their years as Lakers teammates, and share an agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. It has been widely reported that James and Davis were kept entirely in the dark about the trade, and that LeBron was blindsided with the news while at a family dinner.
It would be understandable if James – known for his desire to have a say in how his teams are run – was upset at being left out of the planning for the trade. And Dončić, who shares many playing traits with James, is clearly being brought in to ultimately replace him as the face of the Lakers franchise when LeBron retires. But James has also made no secret of his admiration for Dončić, singing his praises in the most public of forums. Brian Windhorst, ESPN’s resident LeBron expert, even reported that James has long “dreamed” of teaming up with Dončić and explored ways to make it happen in years past. In some ways, this could sink James’s last chance at a championship, while ending a close partnership with his friend Davis. In others, it’s a dream come true. To say James is experiencing mixed emotions is an understatement.
The Dončić trade, though, ultimately isn’t about James, and it isn’t about this year for the Lakers. It’s about the future, which, until this weekend, looked mightily unclear for one of the world’s marquee sports franchises. The Lakers have found their next superstar, their next face of the franchise, and they had to give up a lot less than most would have imagined. If that chance is available, you take it, even if it’s half blindfolded and drunk on Slovenian wine. If the Lakers want to stay in the mix as a contender this season, they’ll need to use their miraculously intact remaining assets to upgrade at center in Davis’ absence, and the Dončić/James pairing will probably be a clunky fit to start. But with Dončić in their arsenal for the indefinite future – and some great supporting cast members still around, such as Austin Reaves – the Lakers’ Showtime shows no signs of a curtain call.
