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The Dallas Mavericks’ inexplicable decision to trade Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick may have ultimately been an ownership call.
Colin Cowherd said during his podcast on Tuesday that a person who has known Mavs’ general manager Nico Harrison for over 20 years said the decision to trade Dončić “came from above and beyond the general manager,” [2:00 mark].
So why exactly would the Mavericks want to get out of the Dončić business? Why ditch a five-time first-team All-NBA selection, who just led you to the NBA Finals, during his prime years?
On Monday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon reported that “the Mavericks’ frustrations with Dončić’s habits on and off the court were well known in league circles. Head coach Jason Kidd frequently expressed concerns publicly and directly with Dončić about his conditioning, weight fluctuations and constant arguing with officials. Dončić had mostly taken the criticism without complaint, but it never resulted in a significant change in his habits.”
The most feasible explanation for trading him, then, is that Mavericks were concerned that Dončić may not age well given his conditioning habits and didn’t want to saddle themselves with the five-year, $345 million supermax extension he would have been eligible to sign this summer.
As Shelburne and MacMahon reported, team governor Patrick Dumont saw the trade as “a business decision that would preserve the Mavericks’ financial flexibility for the long term, team sources said, and he trusted Harrison’s vision of how Davis would be a culture-setter and give the team a new defense-minded identity.”
They added that “team sources say they were as afraid of Dončić signing the [supermax] deal as they were of him not.”
Even so, Harrison could have advocated for opening up trade talks behind just the clandestine conversations with the Lakers. He could have created a bidding war for Dončić rather than settling for a solitary first-round pick and a 32-year-old star who will shorten the team’s window to compete for titles. And he could have kept Dončić in the loop rather than blindsiding him with the trade, a decision that could come back to bite the Mavericks in the future when other superstars have to decide if they want to align themselves with Harrison and the team’s ownership. Agents have long memories.
In the short term, perhaps the duo of Kyrie Irving and Davis will fare well together, and perhaps the Mavericks have more moves in mind. For now, however, the decision to trade Dončić—whoever’s decision it ultimately was—was handled in questionable fashion.
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