“I don’t get that. I don’t understand that. … One minute he’s gonna take on the whole world, and then, 12 hours later, he’s sucking down pills. Why?”
“Why? 'Cause people are f-----g incomprehensible. (That’s) why.”
Marty Bach, “Michael Clayton,” 2007
There is rarely a surprise in the NBA. When a coach is about to be fired, a lot of people know it’s coming, starting with the coach. When an elite free agent is about to enter the market, the smart people in this league know 18 months ahead of time where he’s going.
The connected, often incestuous network of players, families, friends and working partners to the stars, along with executives, high-powered agents and agencies, TV networks and reporters rarely fails to unearth scraps of intel that, inexorably, provide a road map to the next big transaction.
But Saturday’s seismic deal sending Luka Dončiċ from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in a package that sent Anthony Davis to Dallas caught everyone — everyone — in the well-connected Association off guard. Dallas general manager Nico Harrison and Lakers GM Rob Pelinka worked this out without even bringing in the high-powered agents for Dončiċ (WME’s Bill Duffy) and Davis (Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul) to facilitate the deal that cut against the grain of the modern NBA, where the top agents and agencies decide where their clients play next.
“Two GMs doing business on their own. Old-school style,” one Eastern Conference executive texted Sunday afternoon.
Multiple NBA executives reached by The Athletic on Sunday had the same reaction: shock. The notion that Dallas would unilaterally move Dončiċ, the 25-year-old superstar who’d just led the Mavs to the NBA Finals eight months ago against the Boston Celtics, was stunning. (In fact, one GM said just that: “Stunning!”) Whatever the issues with Dončiċ — poor conditioning or something else — the notion that Dallas would cut bait, and accept Davis and a 2029 first-round pick from the Lakers, sent shock waves through the league.
“He took them to the finals. That’s the goal,” an Eastern Conference executive said of Dončiċ.
The executives, who were granted anonymity so they could speak freely, expressed caution, though, at automatically castigating the Mavericks and Harrison for the move. You might think they’re protecting their own, and maybe they are a little. But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong. Harrison has a longstanding relationship with Davis dating to his days as a Nike executive, and he’s known Pelinka since the latter was the late Kobe Bryant’s agent for SFX.
“We need to assume that (the) Mavs know Luka better than anyone — so what should that say? Easy for outsiders to say, ‘They should have done X,’” another Eastern Conference general manager texted Sunday.
The executive pointed to the $345 million supermax deal that Dončiċ surely would have signed with the Mavericks after this season, had Dallas not preemptively opted to trade him. A new ownership and management group, which didn’t bring Dončiċ in and thus didn’t have the emotional ties to him but which needed a superstar around whom to build and sell tickets, decided he wasn’t worth that kind of financial outlay going forward.
And that may be even more important in time than whether or not the Lakers can build a championship roster around Dončiċ.
“Is that a sign of things to come even for the face of (a) franchise?,” the GM asked.
One Eastern Conference executive texted, “Luka has the ability to take a franchise to the highest level and has shown that. He is a winner, but it seems that Dallas knows something that others might not know and made a decision that they feel is best for now and their future.”
Another executive from a Western Conference team said he was, “stunned like everyone else,” but also cautioned to wait for more information in the coming days.
“Seems Luka’s immaturity and diva behavior played a big role,” the executive texted. “Possibly ego and emotion played a part with Dallas leadership along with the fact that they are big believers in AD. The return they received for a 25-year-old, five-time All-NBA superstar seems very light, but they know the guy much better than anyone else. It was a no-brainer for the Lakers, although he could walk in a year. If you’re Dallas, you probably need to win a championship this year and/or next, or you better be right that paying Luka $345M would be the wrong thing for the franchise long term.”
Indeed, most executives who responded had less issue with Dallas trading Dončiċ than with focusing solely on the Lakers and Davis as the team and player to reach out to to get a sizable return — and that the Mavericks didn’t insist on getting L.A.’s 2031 first-rounder along with the 2029 first in the package.
“Hard to believe they would trade him let alone not get both of the Lakers firsts,” the Western Conference executive texted, “but they’re good at their jobs, so I’m sure they have sound reasons. Shocking.”
Ideally, several executives said, the Mavericks could have, by publicly stating their intentions rather than limiting themselves to a single trade partner, traded Dončiċ to another team for multiple assets — picks and/or pick swaps, along with a young player or two — and then offered some of those picks and players back to the resource-starved Lakers as part of a deal for Davis. But not all of them. You’d still get the guy you wanted, along with more future assets than just the Lakers’ 2029 first.
“You just gotta think there is a much better way of asset optimization,” the Western Conference executive said.
Another GM concurred.
“Even if only to drive up Lakers’ price, if that’s who you’re targeting,” that executive texted. “Only thing is these days, once you do that, the player starts eliminating teams where he won’t go, and you cast your team into disarray while you’re going through that. It’s not as though Luka asked for this. (Sacramento) is doing that with (De’Aaron) Fox, but if (San Antonio) is the only place he wants to go, how many teams are really going to step up knowing he doesn’t want to be there?”
One Eastern Conference executive, though, was more sanguine about the trade from the Dallas perspective.
Yes, the Mavs’ contention window is shortened significantly by trading Dončiċ. But getting Davis, a five-time NBA All-Defensive team selection, opens up a legitimate window to win a championship now. Davis will be playing alongside bigs Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, and wings P.J. Washington and Naji Marshall, in units that should be much more disruptive defensively than the Mavericks’ previous roster, which was just above the middle of the pack in defensive rating.
Assuming Dallas can keep Kyrie Irving, who has a player option for the 2025-26 season at $43.9 million, and Davis together long term, with the others, it’s a path forward, that Eastern Conference executive said.
“Dallas decided that they wanted to get the best center, the best defensive center we can get,” the executive said. “We have a window to win; who’s the best center we can get? The top tier is Wemby (Victor Wembanyama), (Nikola) Jokić, Davis. Probably not (Joel) Embiid anymore, because of the health. And then Bam (Adebayo), (Evan) Mobley and (Domantas) Sabonis are the next tier. The only guy that’s probably available out of that tier is Davis. I’m not there, it’s not for me to say. But it seems they said, ‘We have a lane to go, with either Luka or Kyrie,’ and they chose Kyrie.”
Another Western Conference executive agreed … to a point.
“If you ignore return on Luka, Dallas has an incredibly big, long, athletic frontcourt that enables them to play any wing/guard they want,” the executive texted. “Defensively, they can be the equal or better than anyone in the league in the short term. From (the) Lakers POV, (it) was a no-brainer. Insanely discounted price to pay for a 25-year-old star quality of that magnitude. Far more to Luka’s story than is out there, I am sure. Dallas had to at least get both firsts from (the) Lakers. Just has to be far more there.”
Required reading
(Photo of Nico Harrison: David Sherman / NBAE via Getty Images)
#Luka #DončiċAnthony #Davis #trade #floored #executives #NBA
