The Dallas Mavericks just made the biggest mistake, possibly in NBA history, more specifically Mavericks general manager, Nico Harrison.
On Feb. 1 the Mavericks shockingly traded away their superstar player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick.
This trade shook the entire sports world, as it is being labeled as the biggest trade in NBA history.
After it was announced officially, many fans questioned how was this possible, and why would the Mavericks trade the face of their franchise.
Harrison says that he believes defense wins champions, and acquiring a player like Anthony Davis will give them a better chance to win a championship, now and three to four years down the line.
Dallas also started to have concerns about Luka’s conditioning and weight issues going forward in the future.
With all that being said, this trade still and will forever make absolutely zero sense from the Mavericks perspective.
In no way, shape or form, should they have traded away a player who is only 25-years-old, in the prime of his career, and is guaranteed to make your team a title contender for the bare minimum next 8 years.
In seven years, Doncic has been named a five-time first-team All-NBA, a five-time All-Star, has averaged 28 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for his career so far and has also averaged 30 points a game in the playoffs.
He has led the Mavericks to two Western Conference appearances, and in the 2024 season, he led the team to an NBA finals despite being “overweight” and having “conditioning issues.”
Even the Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka was baffled by the trade offer because nobody in their right mind would even think of trading a player like Doncic.
Anthony Davis is a great player, someone who could play at an elite level on both sides of the ball, but he is 32-years-old and has a history of being injury-prone.
To Davis credit, he has been a lot more durable in his last three seasons with the Lakers but if acquiring him means that a team has to get rid of a top-three player in the NBA, they should never do it.
That’s because players like Doncic are generational, and there is a very high chance the Mavericks will never find a replacement for him.
Doncic was supposed to be a Maverick his whole career, win a championship for the city of Dallas but Harrison set back this franchise for a decade.
In the short term, one could argue that the Mavericks are a better team than the Lakers right now, and it wouldn’t be crazy to say that.
In the long run, the Lakers have found the new face of this historic franchise for the next decade.
