Not many people herd talk basketball much, but this trade is a shocker.
I’m hearing people say the Mac’s got robbed. I don’t follow basketball closely, but Luka is a top player and only 25.
From what I have read, I have seen three points made:
- Doncic doesn’t play defense well at all - if at all
- The Mavericks had concerns about his conditioning
- He is due to be a free agent in two years, and they may have been worring about losing him for nothing
I also read an article that this trade makes the Mavericks a stronger team in the short term, so if they are in win-now mode it made sense in a way. Long-term, though, the Lakers got the younger player who doesn’t get injured nearly as much.
My initial thought was that Dallas got robbed, but they made the trade willingly. Also, regarding point three, the Mavericks have traditionally had problems recruiting free agents to play in Dallas. As many sports writers have said, that did not make all that much sense. When Mark Cuban owned the team he wanted to win and he had a pretty good reputation as an owner. Plus, the Mavericks played in a nice arena in a major metropolitan area in a state with no state income tax. Still, every free agency period you saw many players choose not to sign with Dallas. They may have been concerned this coudl have spilled over to Doncic, even though, as I understand, the NBA CBA allowed him to sign a more favorable maximum contract to stay in Dallas than go elsewhere.
Hell, I didn’t even know he sold part of his stake in the team.
I don’t know enough about the NBA to make an intelligent statement on the trade one way or another. But the consensus is that the Lakers basically stole from the Mavs.
The conspiracy is that Cuban did it on purpose because he is leaving and going to be a GM for another team.
That is tin foil hat material. Cuban sold his majority share a few years ago and no longer runs the team. He had no role in the trade. Also, Cuban was never a GM.
100% agree, was just sharing the conspiracy.
Here is a good take on how there must be more to the story.