The Aftermath Of The Luka Doncic Trade

What comes next after the most baffling trade ever?

So… that happened.

I didn’t believe it at first. No one did.

Because the Mavericks were never going to trade Luka Doncic. And if they did, they weren’t going to trade him to the Lakers. And if they were, they weren’t going to trade him for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and one first-round pick.

You trade Luka Doncic after a trade demand. You trade him when he says he doesn’t want to be there. You can trade him under cover of darkness, but you get five offers from the teams with the best assets, you tell them you have 48 hours and you tell them the players that are absolute musts in any offer. If they leak it and you find out, they’re out.

You trade him for eight first-round picks and swaps. You trade him for Amen Thompson and the Suns’ picks. You trade him for Stephon Castle, one of the other good players, and all the Hawks’ picks. You trade him for Jalen Williams and four picks. You trade him for Jaren Jackson Jr, Desmond Bane, and every pick in Memphis’ future.

But also… you don’t trade him. You just don’t. You don’t trade him because of how good he is. You don’t trade him because of what he means to a generation of fans that instantly bonded with him as “The Guy.” You don’t trade him because of the attention, money, and power that having him brought you.

But they did.

So where does the league we go from here?

THE BUILD PROBLEM

Let’s move on from the catastrophe that is just “trading Luka Doncic.” Let’s try and assess Nico Harrison’s “defense wins championships” approach.

The problem is that this entire roster build was built with Luka in mind. Kyrie Irving was added as a secondary playmaker next to Luka Doncic.

Dereck Lively and Daniel Gafford were added to provide Luka Doncic with rim-runner pick-and-roll weapons.

Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, and Nnaji Marshall were added as wing defenders who could shoot around Luka Doncic.

The whole build was around Luka.

Does a Kyrie-AD pick and roll present a good base structure? Sure. Except that Kyrie was dust and largely ineffective by the conference finals.

I’ve outlined all the limitations of Davis before. Defensively, he fits nicely because he doesn’t want to take the physical assignments and now just gets to weak-side rim protection and looks awesome against smaller opponents, his comfort zone.

But you can’t give Davis the ball and ask him to create offense consistently.

Of the 140 players with at least 200 jump shots this season, Anthony Davis ranks 123rd in eFG%.

You can run spread pick and roll with Kyrie and Davis… but can you do that over and over again over the course of the back half of the season and through the playoffs? Can Klay Thompson and Marshall give you enough? How is the spacing with Gafford and Lively?

Dallas is going to need more changes, and almost immediately. Now the good news is they have all the picks from the Luka trade to… oh, wait.

The Mavericks ducked under the tax with this move (which is hilarious, by the way). Whether that changes their willingness to retain Quentin Grimes is a good question. Will they move Daniel Gafford and filler for Nikola Vucevic, something they’ve talked to Chicago about in recent weeks?

Here are some more questions. What does Kyrie think of this? He came to play with Luka. He signed his deal, but what happens now? Klay Thompson signed on to play with Luka. What happens with him now?

Where does Dallas go from here?

THE GROUND BENEATH KLUTCH’S FEET

There have been jokes about how LeBron had to know and made this deal. But let’s be very real: Luka Doncic (for now) is not a Klutch client. He’s with Bill Duffy.

Anthony Davis is, and the Lakers shipped him out. Would Klutch have kept this quiet if it meant splitting up AD and James, sending AD away from LA?