5 Things I Did Not Like About the Luka Dončić Trade
How it was Handled:
Okay, if you decide you’re going to trade an All-NBA certified-bucket-getter who literally bleeds for your team, do it the right way. Have a conversation with him. Be honest and up-front about your decision. Say the words “we don’t want to pay you.” Own it, and allow him to make plans for him and his family. DON’T let him find out along with the rest of the world when he’s already made plans to buy a $15 million house AND was looking forward to signing a supermax deal. DON’T talk shit about his conditioning when he averaged 37.5 minutes in the 23-24 season. DON’T say he doesn’t “fit the culture” when he is literally Dirk Nowitzki’s anointed heir. The NBA is a business as many are wont to say, but I believe the way you handle said business is important. How you treat superstars in the NBA matters. Honestly, I’ll take it a step further and say how you treat people who are loyal matters. When you make a trade so shocking that everyone thinks the person breaking it was hacked and then give a flippant press conference about it, your organization looks bad. When you passive aggressively insult a player who was integral to your FINALS run in the previous season, it not only makes your management look bad, it makes you look petty.
The Logic of it All :
What do you mean this was a “win now” trade? You just had a winning season. You made it to the NBA Finals or as Dumont called them: the Championship Games. Only two teams do that. You were in the mix to make it back. Even though the Mavericks were not really close to beating the Celtics in that series, they were in the mix. The team they had this year was arguably better barring injuries. Success in the NBA is so precarious. Completely overhauling your team that was strategically and beautifully (might I add) built around Luka, a generational player, is not a “win now” move. It takes time to create a team that not only has the necessary pieces to win but also the chemistry. The Mavericks had struck a delicate balance and obtained that, and then Nico Harrison threw a bomb into the center of it and tried to sell the shrapnel to the fans. Meanwhile the Mavericks are the 11th seed, bordering on irrelevancy, with the majority of the roster in street clothes. Is the “win now” in the room with us?
Being Robbed of a Run-it-Back Season:
Usually when a team makes it to the Finals, the front office looks to make changes on the periphery while keeping the core intact. There are exceptions, but the general consensus is if it’s not broken then don’t fix it. The Mavericks had built a fantastic and well-constructed team, in part because of some risky moves Nico Harrison made. They were successful, competitive and fun to watch and root for. Then, they added pieces like Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes and Naji Marshall in the Summer. Mavericks fans were going into this season optimistic that with the addition of these new pieces and the core intact, with Luka and Kai at the helm, the Mavs had an even stronger team for contention. Despite injuries that team was built to dominate. Everyone thought the Mavs would run it back and let that core group of guys make another run at the Finals. But we’ll never truly know what that group was capable of: a Western Conference Finals championship team blown to bits by ego.
The Loss of the Hermanos:
Watching Luka and Kyrie play basketball together was a treat. They had so much chemistry off the court, and it translated to buckets and joy on the court. As a fan you could just tell that they had such love for one another and respected the other’s game immensely. Having Kyrie in a happy basketball situation for the first time in years was amazing. There was this intangible quality about the way they played off each other on the court, and it was electric to watch. Also, their brotherhood was sweet and endearing to witness. It’s not rare to have two stars on an NBA squad these days, but it is a rarity when they truly like and respect one another. I’ll miss watching them play together, and I’ll also miss seeing their sweet friendship on a regular basis.
The Inexplicable Hubris of it All:
Seemingly Nico Harrison thinks because he was friends with Kobe Bryant, he is the arbiter of all things related to Mamba Mentality. So much so that he traded Luka Dončić : a 26-year old superstar who was supremely loyal to the Dallas Mavericks organization, who wanted to win for the Dallas Mavericks organization. And he traded him because he didn’t fit this imagined culture he envisioned in his head. I think he traded him because he didn’t like him enough to pay him the supermax. Ultimately, I think that’s what it boils down to. Nico Harrison didn’t like Luka and instead of pulling up his big boy pants and learning how to deal with the flawed but brilliant magic that is Luka Dončić (and forking over the money), he sent him away. He unilaterally made the decision that Luka wasn’t good enough according to his standards, nevermind the actual facts of the matter, and sent him packing to the fucking Los Angeles Lakers. He took the heart of the organization and ripped it out because he knows better. Now, the Dallas Mavericks are wrestling with the horrible Phoenix Suns for the 10th seed. The player who Niko does like has only played for 30 minutes in a Mavericks uniform. And a fanbase that was expecting another Finals run this year is praying for their beloved team to tank, end the season and put everyone out of their misery.
