At this point, Mavericks general manager/rogue agent of chaos Nico Harrison might be the only person on Earth who doesn’t think trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers was one of the most baffling decisions in NBA history.
From the start, everyone figured there had to be more to the story than Harrison simply preferring a 32-year-old injury-prone Anthony Davis to a 25-year-old generational talent. Doncic must’ve demanded a deal. How else could this be explained?
Count Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards among those totally bewildered by the trade.
“They say that nobody knew about the trade. That’s crazy,” Edwards said while sitting at his locker after the Wolves’ two-point loss to Sacramento on Monday. “At 25 [years old], they traded probably the best scorer in the NBA. And he didn’t know about it. There’s a lot more digging somebody’s gotta do to find out why he got traded. Because you don’t just trade him at 25. He just went to the Finals. I feel bad for Luka, man.”
As details about the trade have continued to emerge, it appears that Harrison, as impossible as this is to believe, really did just want to be out of the Doncic business. He didn’t even shop Doncic around and was willing to take what can only be described as an extremely weak package in return (how on earth did Rob Pelinka whittle him down to just one future draft pick?) for a guy who has, in the first seven years of his career, already made more All-NBA first teams than Stephen Curry.
Even in a world where it can be reasonably be argued that the Mavericks are still in good, if not actually a little bit better, position to compete for a championship in the short term with Davis, nobody can wrap their head around the decision to just give away potentially another decade-plus with one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen — who hasn’t even hit his prime yet — at the helm of your franchise.
Mavericks GM willing to accept burden of Luka Doncic trade: ‘Ten years from now, they’ll probably bury me’
Brad Botkin
On Monday night, the 23-year-old Edwards was asked, or was about to be asked, if seeing someone of Doncic’s status get traded puts even a player of his age, caliber and organizational standing on alert. It sparked a lighthearted plea to Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly from Edwards.
“Everybody get informed,” Edwards blurted out mid-question before joking about his own security in Minnesota. “I’m scared. Tim, if you’re going to trade me, let me know, dawg. When Luka got traded, anybody is able to get traded.”
Edwards speaks for everyone here. Even as all these details continue to come out suggesting Harrison was on a solo mission to trade Doncic, it still feels like there has to be more to this story. If there isn’t, then Harrison better hope the Mavericks make good on what can’t be more than a 5-10% chance of winning a championship. Honestly, I don’t even think that would excuse giving up Doncic for the next decade. His relationship with and connection to Dallas has left a bigger hole than even a Larry O’Brien trophy can fill.
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