If you really squint, you might be able to see the logic behind the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic. Maybe they know something about his calf that we don’t. Maybe their fears about his conditioning prove accurate and he never gets into great shape. Maybe they were worried about him forcing a move later — either by walking for free in 2026 free agency or by signing for the supermax and forcing a bad trade down the line. It is generally inadvisable to trade a 25-year-old All-NBA player coming off of a trip to the NBA Finals. This really isn’t an exception, but if you had to explain it, well, you could at least do so halfheartedly.
But the way in which they traded Doncic was indefensible. Only time will tell if they truly lost the trade, but they absolutely lost the negotiation. It seems almost unfathomable that the Lakers would have walked away from the table if, say, the Mavericks had demanded the inclusion of rookie sharpshooter Dalton Knecht. Or their 2031 first-round pick. Or, well, both. The Lakers might have drawn the line at Austin Reaves, whom they seemingly view as untouchable. But basically anything else had to have been on the table, and if it hadn’t been, the Mavericks could have at least made the Lakers sweat up until the deadline on Thursday. This offer wasn’t going away.
It almost certainly wouldn’t have been the best offer, either. General manager Nico Harrison confirmed during his press conference Sunday that the Mavericks didn’t speak with other teams. The league-wide response was of bewilderment. Plenty of teams were equipped to make competitive offers if they’d only been given the chance.
So let’s rewind a little bit. Let’s imagine a world in which the entire league had been informed of Doncic’s availability and given a few days to put together their best possible offers. Here are five teams that could have put together better trade offers for Doncic than the Lakers did with the caveat that all of our acquiring teams need to have held some appeal to Luka himself. We’re not sending him to Charlotte or Washington, but there would have been plenty of winning teams capable of outbidding the purple and gold.
Mavericks receive: Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Hartenstein, Nikola Topic, four first-round picks (two most favorable of their own, Houston’s and the Clippers’ in 2026, and Denver’s in 2027 and 2029)
Thunder receive: Luka Doncic, Daniel Gafford, Dante Exum
Oklahoma City is the one team that might have turned up its nose at Doncic if given the opportunity. The Thunder already have a team capable of winning in the short- and long-term, and more importantly, their risk is spread among a wide group of players. As it stands right now, they could conceivably bounce back and still compete if, say, Williams dealt with major injuries. The same goes for Chet Holmgren. Their only truly irreplaceable player right now is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They can trade for whatever else they might need. This would be putting a lot of eggs in the Doncic basket.
But that’s a pretty good basket to put your eggs in. We’ve seen how effective a timeshare between Doncic and another elite creator can be. Gilgeous-Alexander is better than Irving. The center situation here would be as favorable as Doncic has ever experienced. In Gafford, he gets his typical, favored lob threat. In Holmgren, he’d have the spacer Dallas hoped to give him with Kristaps Porzingis. Oklahoma City would still have Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace to man the perimeter defensively. They’d get worse on that end of the floor, but they’d still be stellar. Mark Daigneault would have to rethink how his team plays a bit, but from a talent perspective, this is a no-brainer. Oklahoma City would be the championship favorite for the next several years at least.
Dallas wanted a defense-first star and that’s how it landed on Davis. Williams is a defense-first star who’s eight years younger. Hartenstein is an upgrade over Gafford and could even conceivably play alongside Dereck Lively a bit if Lively’s jumper comes along as hoped. Topic is the linchpin here, a developmental ball-handler that will never be Doncic, but could grow into Kyrie Irving’s eventual replacement at point guard. He’s likely boxed out of the role he’ll need offensively in Oklahoma City, but on this team, he’d have the room he’d need to grow into the best version of himself. Wiggins and Joe round out a Dallas bench that would be among the deepest in the NBA. Four first-round picks is plenty.
Both sides would probably be hesitant here. In a normal, “Doncic isn’t getting traded” world, both may say no. But under the parameters of this experiment, this is a deal that makes some sense for both sides. If nothing else, it’s better than the deal the Lakers made.
Mavericks receive: Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, Fred VanVleet, Cam Whitmore, five first-round picks (the two most favorable of of their own, Dallas’ and Phoenix’s in 2029, Phoenix’s in 2027, Houston’s own in 2027 and 2031)
Rockets receive: Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Naji Marshall, Dwight Powell
Houston has been adamant that it plans to play out the season with its current roster before considering major moves. Doncic would have challenged that stance if the Rockets had known he was available. He’s exactly the sort of shot-creator they’re lacking, and for all they’re giving up here, they’d have quite a bit left in the cupboard.
Doncic, Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green is a stellar offensive core. Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason are around to maintain the defensive culture Ime Udoka has developed over the past few seasons, and Marshall would add to it. This would obviously be an enormously talented roster, but it would be a young and balanced one as well. There’s plenty of upside to a team like this.
The tricky part about building a deal like this is that VanVleet earns just as much as Doncic does, and most of Houston’s young players are relatively expensive as high draft picks. That means Dallas has to include extra salary to make this work, which is why Marshall is in the deal in the first place. The Mavericks would prefer to keep him. Smith is a better long-term replacement. If they’d prefer No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard, that works for Houston as well. There are also potential constructions in which Houston sends Jalen Green to Dallas instead of VanVleet, but that would affect the draft compensation Dallas would have received. The Rockets have so much firepower from a trade perspective that there’s plenty of room to tinker with the exact return.
The basic premise, though, is that Amen Thompson and a mountain of valuable draft picks would be coming their way. Thompson, like Williams, projects as a long-term star that emphasizes defense without the age-related drawbacks Davis carries. Dallas could slide him into their lineup at power forward alongside a starting perimeter trio of VanVleet, Irving and Thompson that has more than enough shooting to support him. The Mavericks would need to eventually find a perimeter star to replace Irving, but one of the benefits of this trade for Dallas is that it would give them control of multiple Phoenix picks. The Rockets are waiting to use those picks to extract Devin Booker when things go south for the Suns. In this scenario, Dallas would occupy a similar lane. Getting Cam Whitmore would just be a bonus.
Mavericks receive: Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle, Jeremy Sochan, five first-round picks (Atlanta’s in 2025 and 2027, San Antonio’s in 2025 and 2029, Minnesota’s in 2031), two first-round swaps (Dallas in 2030, Boston in 2028)
Spurs receive: Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyama on the same team. Folks in San Antonio could have started measuring their ring fingers now (and, frankly, their thumbs and pinkies given how dominant that team would have been). If things don’t work for Doncic in Los Angeles in real life, keep an eye on San Antonio is a potential poacher down the line. In our scenario, they don’t take any chances.
If Doncic had been available, the Spurs would have pulled out all the stops to get him. They don’t have an obvious future star like Thompson or Williams, but they can send three high-end youngsters to Mavericks alongside a diverse portfolio of first-round draft assets. Castle is the best prospect of the three, a possible Rookie of the Year with excellent athletic traits and uncommon playmaking upside. He needs to develop as a shooter. So does Sochan. But both project as excellent long-term defenders that can do almost everything else on offense. If nothing else, Vassell covers some of their shooting woes.
The draft picks are just as appealing. These are not insignificant throw-ins. Atlanta’s pick in 2025 would be No. 10 overall right now, and with Jalen Johnson out for the season, it could easily slide. If things don’t improve in Minnesota, Anthony Edwards could be long gone by the time by the time that 2031 pick comes around. Dallas gets control of its own 2030 pick back in this arrangement. It also gains the right to swap with Boston, which is notable because it currently owes swap rights to the Thunder. This would be a chance for them to gain back some ground in 2028.
San Antonio would be spending the bulk of its capital on a single player, but think about where the Spurs really sit right now. They have Wembanyama on a rookie deal for two more seasons. They’d still control five of their next seven first-round picks and would have valuable swap rights in some of those years. That’s more than enough to build around what might be the best young duo in NBA history. This is a no-brainer for them, no matter the cost.
- Mavericks receive: Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, Eric Gordon, three first-round picks (Clippers’ in 2028, Philadelphia’s in 2031, least favorable of Philadelphia’s, Houston’s or Oklahoma City’s in 2026), one first-round swap (from Philadelphia in 2026).
- 76ers receive: Luka Doncic
No, Tyrese Maxey is not the defense-first star the Mavericks seemingly preferred to acquire. This is a relatively simple calculus for them. Maxey is worse than Doncic, but he’s younger, healthier, better-conditioned and cheaper. The idea here would be to try to use the picks acquired in this trade to either put a dominant defense around a Maxey-and-Irving backcourt now, or to hold onto them to find another core piece to pair with Maxey and Lively later. This would largely be a reset around a different star, though also landing McCain, the Rookie of the Year favorite before he got hurt, would be a very nice sweetener.
Philadelphia would have an obvious motive for making this move. Daryl Morey is the NBA’s most aggressive star hunter. Who cares about the rest of the roster with Doncic and Joel Embiid in place? Yes, Embiid’s health remains a major risk. What better way to manage his work load through the regular season than to pair him with an even better teammate? If the 76ers could just keep the two of them healthy and in shape (big if, I know), they’d have the most talented duo in the NBA.
But there’s a quiet motive for Philadelphia that makes this deal even sweeter. Embiid is hurt right now. Doncic is hurt right now. Maxey is the only thing keeping this team afloat in the short-term. That matters because Philadelphia owes its top-six protected first-round pick this season to Oklahoma City. Right now, that pick is slated to come in at No. 7. Let’s say, hypothetically, Doncic and Embiid didn’t return this season. Philadelphia could try to tank its way into keeping that pick and getting a great young, and more importantly cheap, supporting piece for its superstar duo. They’d need assurance that Doncic would extend beyond next season, but if they could get it, they’d have a chance to set up a very quick turnaround next season.
- Mavericks receive: Ben Simmons, Cam Thomas, seven first-round picks (Brooklyn’s in 2025, Milwaukee’s in 2025, Philadelphia’s in 2027, New York’s in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031
- Nets receive: Luka Doncic
Sure, Cam Thomas has value. He’s a young 25-point scorer and certainly worth a flyer. But really, this trade aims to answer the very simple question of “what is Luka Doncic worth in a trade whose value is built primarily around draft assets.” This feels right. It’s not just seven first-round picks, but where those first-round picks are coming from.
That 2025 Brooklyn pick? Right now, it’s in line to be No. 6 overall. If Dallas trades Thomas and Doncic is out for some meaningful period of time, it continues to plummet. In all likelihood, Dallas would wind up with a real shot at Cooper Flagg on lottery night. That’s a premium draft asset. Milwaukee’s 2025 pick is in line to come in at No. 20. Not too shabby. The Philadelphia pick carries only a top-eight protection, so it could be fairly valuable as well especially if Embiid’s health remains a problem. The Knicks look really good right now. How are they going to look in 2029 and 2031 when this core ages out of contention?
I generally wouldn’t suggest a team trade a player like Doncic without receiving major player value back in addition to pick value. This is more of a thought experiment. How many high-value picks would it take to get a player like him? This seems like the right ballpark, though considering who we’re talking about, asking for a seventh or eighth pick wouldn’t be out of line.
The question for Brooklyn would have been who it planned to get to play alongside Doncic. Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton are great supporting pieces, but the Nets would need another star to keep him long-term, and most of its assets would be devoted to landing Doncic here. In all likelihood, they’d try to build for 2026 free agency in this scenario, with Doncic, Johnson and Claxton as their only significant salaries moving forward. It would be an enormous risk, but Doncic is the sort of player you take that risk for. The Nets have been linked to far lesser players lately. If they’re willing to dip their toes back into the veteran star pool, Doncic would have been the sort of player they should have done it for.
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