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I’ve been a Dallas Mavericks fan for close to 25yrs. I’m also a native Angeleno, never leaving LA. This trade was the final straw for me, personally, and I’ve switched over my fandom to the LA Lakers. It sounds easy, but it’s really not… I’ve built a lot of disdain for the Lakers (and especially their fans) over the past 2 decades. I’m getting borderline pretentious messages from family & friends giving me the old ‘welcome aboard’ when I know 80% of them are fair weather fans and can’t tell me what a take foul or 2-3 zone is.

This hurts so bad. I feel especially bad for the folks who live in Dallas or who have young children that follow Luka and the Mavericks. I tried to imagine the Mavs trading Dirk after 2006 or 2007 - would I just follow Dirk to the next team? Am I really a fan of the teams or the player?

I think what makes it worse is the fact that Luka himself was blindsided. He didn’t demand a trade. He wanted to be here for his career. Normally when a star player of his caliber leaves, they exhaust the fans good will - this just feels like he was ripped away from us. Almost feels like I’m grieving a death.

Had some friends reach out about the Luka trade because they saw all the hubbub online but, not being sports fans, couldn’t really make sense of what was going on.

I couldn’t come up with a good “It’s like if…” explanation. Hoping r/nba can help.

“Spurs refused to give up Castle which nearly killed the De’Aaron Fox trade!”

https://foxsanantonio.com/sports/max-sports/spurs-land-deaaron-fox-a-masterclass-in-front-office-wizardry

Couldn't sleep last night and crafted this for no reason. With the Lavine trade, the current Sacramento Kings starting lineup looks so much like last season's Bulls starting lineup. What do you think?

The 23/25 Sacramento Bulls

PG: 

Malik Monk - 6'3" - (18p/4r/6a)

Coby White - 6'5" - (19p/4r/5a)

Electric and streaky point guard who is more of a shooting guard. Confident shooter with some ability to facilitate. Can yam on someone at the rim occasionally.

SG: 

Zach Lavine

Zach Lavine

SF: 

DeMar DeRozan 

DeMar DeRozan

PF: 

Keegan Murray - 6'8" - (12p/7r/1a)

Patrick Williams - 6'7" - (10p/4r/1a)

A young prospect who isn’t that young. Quiet bordering on timid. Solid defensively. Good 3-point shooter. Underperforming expectations.

C: 

Domantas Sabonis - 6'10" - (21p/14r/7a)

Nikola Vucevic - 6'10" - (18p/11r/3a)

European big man. Double double threat every night. Good passer. Liability on defense. Theoretically good 3-point shooter.

For league ratings, to renew Boston/Lakers rivalry, etc, for whatever reason?

Strange teams like Portland never get trades like this.

I was shocked that Nico admitted he didn't call a single other team.

I keep seeing comments mentioning that Silver should veto this trade for the good of the NBA or to prevent setting such a bad precedent of trading away a young superstar for no reason. Just FYI, the CP3 trade veto was in a completely different situation. The NBA owned the Hornets and was looking for a buyer after buying it from the previous owner for $300MM. The CP3 trade would’ve tanked the value and made the team even harder to sell. That was the “basketball reasons”.

The Dallas Mavericks are privately owned by the Adelsons. They are not owned by the NBA league.

So unless the Adelsons have a sudden change of heart or grow a brain, this trade isn’t getting vetoed. As long as the trade follows all CBA rules and the players’ physicals pass, the trade is going through.

I haven't watched any lakers game this season. But I have watched Luka all through his career being a now undecided MFFL. In order to cope with the loss I might catch up a game or two of my pookie bear in lakers uniform. Although timing might be a problem with lakers games starting at the very last. Here's the lineup I would go for if I were lakers coach integrating Luka and maximizing our team potential. Bare in mind I haven't watched the lakers play.

C - Hayes/whoever they acquire in trade PF - Lebron James SF - Rui Hachimura SG - Dorian finney smith PG - Luka Doncic

I am sorry but Austin Reaves will have to start from the bench. To be honest this is a pretty good big line up with Luka being the shortest guy.

Here is a place to have in depth, x's and o's, discussions on yesterday's games. Post-game discussions are linked in the table, keep your memes and reactions there.

Please keep your discussion of a particular game in the respective comment thread. All direct replies to this post will be removed.

Source: https://imgur.com/a/hZATw8x

The Mavs fans treating this like a death and they’re not wrong

Ironically both 3 teamers (Pelicans were the 3rd team in the Siakam trade), both seen as underwhelming for the team trading the star. Let's focus on the team giving up the star player because it's obviously a win for the team that got the best piece in both the Siakam and Fox trades.

For a quick refresher, here is what the Kings got from the Spurs and Bulls earlier today:

-Zach LaVine

-Charlotte's 2025 1st rounder (Lottery protected)

-San Antonio's 2027 1st

-Minnesota's 2031 1st

-Sidy Cissoko

-Chicago's 2025 2nd

-Kings 2028 2nd

-Denver's 2028 2nd (Top 3 protected)

-16.8 million trade exception

Some quick notes:

• The Charlotte 1st is all but guaranteed to become a 2026 & 2027 pair of 2nd rounders due to its heavy protections. If the other two picks have protections, it hasn't been confirmed. They may both be unprotected. Either way, those will be two of the more valuable 2nd rounders given the curse the Hornets have seemingly had cast upon them
• The Kings did also get off of Kevin Huerter's contract as part of this deal which allows them to make further moves using it as a trade exception as per the new CBA. Also Jordan McLaughlin got sent out to the Spurs. Either way, Huerter's salary off the books is what created the trade exception

For a more distant refresher, here is what the Raptors got from the Pacers on January 17th, 2024:

-Bruce Brown

-Kira Lewis Jr.

-Jordan Nwora

-The worst of OKC's 2024 1sts

-The Pacers own 2024 1st (Top 3 protected)

-The Pacers 2026 1st (Top 4 protected)

-$10.1 million trade exception

Some quick notes:

• The worst 1st was moved with salary to acquire Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk from the Utah Jazz
• The Pacers pick was tied for 16 thru 19 in the draft. It ended up 19th via the tiebreaking draw. The pick was then used to pick Ja'Kobe Walter 19th overall.
• The trade exception was used to absorb the salary of Sasha Vezenkov and Davion Mitchell in a salary dump. This included the 45th pick in the 2024 Draft (Jamal Shead) and a 2025 Portland 2nd. Around $5 million of the remaining exception expired a few weeks ago.
• To make this deal official, Christian Koloko was waived. It came out shortly after that Koloko's extended absence was the result of blood clots which put his career into jeopardy though thankfully he was cleared to rejoin the NBA and is currently on a two-way via the Lakers.

The Bulls will generate a $26 million trade exception for Zach LaVine by taking Kevin Huerter into the existing exception from the DeMar DeRozan trade with Sacramento, and by taking Tre Jones into their unused nontaxpayer midlevel exception.

Chicago will need to waive two players before this trade can be completed. Talen Horton-Tucker, Chris Duarte and Torrey Craig would seem the most likely candidates.

The Kings will need to add one more player in the next two weeks to meet the 14-man roster floor. If my math is correct, it also appears they will generate a $16.8 million trade exception for Huerter.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/live-blogs/nba-trade-deadline-luka-davis-trade/TCQ1VIMH3cPt/SccYLo3rbVYR/

Bulls are poised to feast on some delicious bad contracts for picks between this massive trade exception and Lonzo Ball's expiring salary, and the Kings can very easily add/sign their 14th man once the trade is made official.

Fox being traded to Spurs would have been the most blockbuster trade this deadline if not for the Luka - AD mega trade.

But, this really change the outlook of Spurs core.

Wemby is always the Main Piece in their rebuilding Core.

They have Castle, Vassell, Sochan as the pieces being revolved around Wemby.

There were discussions in the past whether Castle or Vassell will be the Future lead Guard of Wemby.

Now, With Fox on the helm. He will be the Main PG this season (with Cp3 who will retire or leave spurs soon anyway imo). And also for the Future.

How do you think Fox arrival impacts Castle and Vassell?

Do you think one of them is tradeable now with Fox on the board?

Maybe not now, but in the near future?

The full quote goes like this: "If we don’t win a championship, I might get traded". On a serious note, this is the job. It’s the profession that we’re in. At any given moment, if you don’t succeed, that might be it for us. It was the same way with the previous coaching staff, and the year before, the players before. … If you don’t do a good enough job, you’re out.”

People laughed this off at the time, thinking Giannis has infinite power on the Bucks organization, and some even thought he was joking or maybe trying to pressure the Bucks. But regardless of what his intention was, basically the exact thing that he said happened with Luka Doncic: someone who was the face of a franchise and a superstar and who nobody ever thought would be traded, was voluntarily traded by a team without him even knowing or asking out. He sort of foreshadowed one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, and this just shows the transactional side of the NBA, and that teams are capable of doing anything that their ownership and GM want.

Here is the source if anyone is curious: https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/giannis-antetokounmpo-if-we-dont-win-a-championship-i-might-get-traded

I thought it was fake news. It's insane. Obviously, I've played against Luka a lot of times and AD and all the people that were included in the trade. This is the world we're living in. It's a business, you have to understand nobody's safe, nobody's safe. If a five-time All-NBA first-team, a 25-year-old, a guy that just made it to the Finals seven months ago, a guy that led the league in scoring, a guy that finished second or third in MVP voting, a guy that scored 70-something points one time, a guy that had a 60-point triple-double, a guy that knows how to play the game of basketball, I can keep going and going, an All-Star, not just an All-Star, an All-Star starter, a guy that averaged 34/9/10, but I'm not here to talk about Luka and how good he is, I think everybody in the world knows he's one of the best players in the league

At the end of the day, l've said this in the past, you get evaluated every single day. You don't take nothing for granted. Being an All-Star, you don't take it for granted, Being able to go out there and put the jersey on and represent your team, you don't take that for granted. Being out there and representing your family, you don't take that for granted. Every second that you play in an NBA game, I love it, I try to play with joy. And at the same time, I understand the business of basketball, that sometimes teams need to make the best moves that are good for their organization and for their position and for their own pursuit of greatness and championships. But at the same time, it goes both ways. You cannot have a double standard here.

When the teams make the best moves for them and they believe they can get another player to win now. when a player believes that he can go to a different team and he believes he can have a chance to win a championship, we cannot crucify the person and say that he's not loyal and he didn't do the right thing and he let everybody down. Because history has shown you, you have to do what is best for you and your family. You have to do what's best/most important to win.

Okay, let's say something funny because I took it and spoke very very serious...Now that a European will be, I believe, the face of the Lakers, this is something new for Europe. It's never happened before. We had Pau Gasol. Obviously, he was a great player. And how do you say - Vujacic? Sasha Vujacic? - great guy, one of my close friends, but I mess up his name all the time. Now, I just love it.

You know what I want? I want Luka to the Lakers, I want Jokic to the Knicks. I want all the Europeans to go to all the big markets to see something incredible. This is what I want. This is my dream. But again, I wish both teams the best of luck, wish all the players best of luck with their journey moving forward.

Sorry for the lengthy post, thought this was interesting.

Source-https://imgur.com/a/mNyjhzt

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/the-luka-doncic-trade-latest?r=1m9zg&utm_medium=ios

You've probably seen the social media post from noted NBA trainer Drew Hanlen by now pointing out that Cuban once said in an interview that — faced with losing Dončić or exiting his marriage — there would be no choice but to look for him "at my lawyer's office prepping for a divorce."

Cuban was obviously joking in that instance, but it is naturally presumed — as a key participant in the draft-day machinations that enabled the Mavericks to acquire Dončić's rights from Atlanta in 2018 — that he would have been strongly against trading him away had he retained the control over basketball operations that he anticipated when he sold the franchise to the Dumont and Adelson families in November 2023.

In an interview in November 2024, you'll recall, Cuban revealed to The Stein Line that he no longer had the say in basketball matters that he anticipated.

Asked Sunday to react to the trade, Cuban passed on the opportunity to comment publicly beyond saying: "Go Mavs."

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/the-luka-doncic-trade-latest?r=nuq3a&utm_medium=ios

Irving, by all indications, remains on course for a new multi-year deal in July. He turns 33 on March 23 — which is the same day Kidd turns 52 — and holds a $44 million player option for next season on the last year of his original three-year, $120 million contract to form a duo with Dončić that was also widely questioned when Irving was initially acquired from Brooklyn.

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/the-luka-doncic-trade-latest?r=nuq3a&utm_medium=ios

Dallas has likewise said to have cooled on its star's insistence on hiring his own team of training experts — even though it was done at his own expense — to handle the bulk of his medical and nutritional needs separate from the club starting with the 2023-24 season.

Dončić actually began assembling that team shortly after Dallas' disastrous 38-44 season in 2022-23 in which the Mavericks followed up a wholly unexpected trip to the Western Conference finals by slipping all the way into the lottery. But his handpicked team quickly took on a role of even greater prominence than envisioned when the 2023-24 season began in the wake of the Mavericks' abrupt removal of the team's longtime athletic trainer Casey Smith — one of Dončić closest allies in the organization — from day-to-day duties in August 2023. Smith was brought in this season by the Knicks as their new vice president of sports medicine … with a strong recommendation from a certain former Maverick named Jalen Brunson.