Los Angeles, Dallas and the reshaping of basketball's power structure.
One of the biggest NBA trades in recent memory (perhaps ever) leaves as many questions as it answers.
Let it be decreed once more, for the record: even the trashiest of TLC’s reality TV shlock has nothing on the eyebrow-raising spectacle that the NBA has made its social-media age calling card.
An ecosystem all its own, totally detached from the fundamentals of the game itself, players, clashing with the suits (and fans) almost as much as they battle each other on the court.
Personal strife, vendettas and petty grievances, all on full display within the framework of a billion-dollar enterprise.
Drama, never in short supply.
But behind the smoke and carefully curated mirrors, well, sometimes all it takes is a trade of truly seismic proportions to render such background noise exactly that.
Case in point, as the news broke online with such bewildered fervour on Saturday night, it seemed, at first, like a series of misprints.
‘Twas not.
As part of an absolutely massive three team deal, as outlined by NBA.com, the Association’s Western Conference has seen itself be notably realigned, here now, as the season moves firmly into its second half.
In the interest of clarity, here is the trade in full, as reported.
To the Los Angeles Lakers:
Luka Dončić
Maxi Kleber
Markieff Morris
To the Dallas Mavericks:
Anthony Davis
Max Christie
2029, 1st round pick
To the Utah Jazz:
Jalen Hood-Schifino
2025, 2nd round pick
2025, 2nd round pick (via the Los Angeles Clippers)
Now, to the outside observer, the hoopla (get it?) as it were, may seem somewhat unwarranted.
That’s the business, so it goes, players, money, futures, all moving hands with a well-practiced precision. More so in the NBA, for which stars changing colours has become pretty commonplace over the past fifteen-odd years, players and their camps, leveraging an incredible amount of capital when compared to their immediate sporting peers.
But it is the sheer magnitude of the deal’s centrepiece players - Anthony Davis and Luka Dončić - which has drawn the lion’s share of the basketball world’s attention (so it shall be: eat your heart out, Jimmy Butler).
Both, superstars, All-NBA fixtures, already cemented as all-timers in their own ways, changing sides (mid-season, no less), in a relatively top-heavy West.
Davis, an NBA 75 man, has spent his thirteen seasons thus far establishing himself as one of the most well-rounded, two-way forces in modern basketball. Be it on the defensive end, where he is a five-time All-Defensive member, three-time block leader or a constant threat on the boards - all that, paired with an offensive touch that has seen him average just a shade over 24 points-a-game per his career (and just under 26, as of this writing, in 42 games this season).
When he’s healthy, there is little he can’t do on the court, as evidenced by Dallas GM Nico Harrison, speaking on his reasoning on bringing “AD” into the Maverick’s fold.
Not without uncertainty, to be fair.
Contrasting that above point relating to his health, injuries have become an unfortunate byproduct of Davis’ game (to the point that Charles Barkley, never one to hold his tongue, has infamously referred to him as “Street Clothes”). He’ll be 32 in March and in pairing the big man with Kyrie Irving (32 himself), Dallas is clearly banking on, if nothing else, a singular run for the ages.
However one may (foolishly) dispute the legitimacy of the Lakers’ title in 2020, next to LeBron James, Davis has proven he can run a star-in-support act to the ultimate goal, even if Los Angeles, in the end, couldn’t recapture that momentum (and in the post-wake of the trade, it seems that James, who is often held up as a de facto GM of his clubs, was left completely out of the loop, as was Irving).
There is a more pressing sense of risk for Dallas, yes but that doesn’t mean Dončić doesn’t arrive in the City of Angels without a few question marks of his own.
From the moment he arrived in the NBA as a teenager, albeit, as a fully-formed professional, Dončić has taken hold of basketball’s collective imagination with a startling focus.
Rare, in a time where every player has some share of the spotlight.
He won’t turn 26 until later this month, completely in the thick of his prime, a career that has seen him, already, collect a scoring title, rack up five consecutive, top-ten MVP finishes and see him lead the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, in fully ascending to the mantle as Dirk’s heir apparent and a top-five player League-wide to boot.
Range. Footwork. Strength. Handles, all of it, portraying a player in complete control of every facet of his offensive game, the lynchpin of the Mavericks since that history-making rookie year.
But questions regarding his defensive effort and conditioning have long dodged Dončić, as further highlighted by CBS post-trade, even with everything he brings on the other side of the ball considered. He has played just 22 contests this year, has been out with injury since Christmas Day and would’ve cost the Mavericks well over $300 million with a potential supermax extension this summer (per Forbes, he is no longer eligible post-trade).
So that, perhaps, is where the deal lands in this, the still-processing aftermath, an outcome that can’t really be properly graded, evaluated, not yet.
Dallas, parting ways with one of the sport’s most offensively gifted talents for the player six years older but with far stronger defensive pedigree - this, as they look to parlay what is, presently out-of-the-playoffs seeding into something greater, as the back half of the season looms (with Los Angeles, conversely, trying to ease James’ ever-present burden as they look ahead to both the playoffs and inevitably, a LeBron-less future).
It is a gamble, it is wild, it is, given the raw parameters, hard to wrap one’s head around, a move that should put the rest of the NBA on notice.
Just where it might lead, well, who can say just yet.
But after all, that’s part of the fun.