This is quite possibly the worst trade in NBA history. Here’s why
1) “Improve our defense”
13th in defense is not that bad, not worth sacrificing elite offensive production for
2) reduced championship window
With a 25 yo Luka, we had a 10 year championship window. He’ll age decently, giving mvp/all nba production for 10 or so years. With 30+ yo kyrie and ad, we have MAYBE 2 years to win a championship before we go full rebuild
Luka is Luka, but a 2029 1st could be anything, even Luka! So I guess that’s what we are hoping for after our championship window. After 1.5-2 years, we’ll have to blow it up and trade be stars, go into a hard rebuild, and come out with anything close to as good as Luka
3) “we don’t want to pay a super max”
Cheap new ownership is capping the upside of this team. Luka is too good to not pay him whatever he wants
4) Luka is too good to trade
There’s a reason nothing like this has EVER happened in NBA history, maybe even sports history. He’s not even 26 with a crazy resume, already a first ballot hall of famer. Luka is one of 28 players in NBA history to have at least 5 all nba teams, and one of only 5 active players. LUKA ISNT EVEN 26 YET. HES JUST GETTING STARTED
You don’t trade an mvp caliber player not even in his prime yet. You just don’t. It just doesn’t happen. Especially just because of athleticism issues that have been present his whole career, even with our finals run last year
5) We made the finals just last year
And they’re already panicking. Luka’s been hurt for a month and a half but new ownership says that’s too long. We just won the West, give them some more time to recover. This was our first time going to the finals in 13 years, and after a below average start, we just go and restructure the team?
6) Only the Lakers
WHY did the Mavs not even entertain any other offers? They reached out to the lakers and immediately got the deal done. We could’ve gotten Jdub, or some other young star and some picks. But no, we got one first and an old star. This should’ve been a bidding war for weeks to trade Luka, get the best offer, and have a future past 2 inconsistent stars.
7) He/They didn’t want to be traded!
Luka was happy in Dallas! 2 years ago, 2 deadlines ago, we made a desperation move to keep Luka happy and stop him from requesting a trade by trading for Kyrie. Now, it worked, we made the finals, and we are happy, and then we trade him. Luka isn’t happy, AD isn’t happy, LeBron isn’t happy
The age of player empowerment is over. It’s GM/Owner empowerment now
8) Pitifiul return
We had Luka. Face of the franchise, 30 ppg 10 apg 25yo star, we should be controlling the trade market surrounding him. And we’re the ones GIVING a second? We couldn’t even get Knecht? We couldn’t even get the 2031 first, which was available? This 2029 pick won’t even be good - Luka will be on the team.
In moneyball, Billy Beane says that any time a team says they have to make a trade today, they end up making a bad trade. That’s exactly what the Mavs did, new management rushed to trade the face of the franchise and fan favorite and they messed up. There’s no true justification for this.