Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont on Luka Dončić trade: ‘This was a decision about the future’

According to Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont, the Luka Dončić trade — in which they sent the face of the franchise to the Los Angeles Lakers just ahead of his 26th birthday in exchange for a star who was about to turn 32, a third-year wing and just one first-round pick — was about the future.

Dumont used the word four separate times during a speaking engagement put on by a Dallas-area real estate organization:

1. “This was a decision about the future. If you look at our roster today and who we have, we feel like we’ve positioned ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA. And if you’re a fan of basketball — I’ll just throw that out there — you have Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Anthony Davis and either Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively [II] as your starting five. That’s going to put fear into a lot of teams in the league, if we can get going.”
2. “The objective was, ‘How do we create a roster for the future that allows us to be the most competitive team?'”
3. “We want to win championships, we want to be a winning franchise for the city of Dallas and we want to be one of character, one of community involvement and one where we sort of carry on the legacy of the Dallas Mavericks in the right way. When you look at what Mark [Cuban] did, what Ross [Perot Jr.] did, I mean, everyone who has been involved in the team has done great things for the city of Dallas, and we feel an obligation to continue that stewardship. So we were really looking to the future.”
4. “It’s really just about improving the team for the future.”

Dumont made these comments a month ago, well before Irving’s torn ACL effectively rendered 2024-25 a wasted season for Dallas. The speaking engagement was after Davis had gotten hurt in his debut, though, and after Dumont had cited Shaquille O’Neal as a model of work ethic and single-minded focus (while implying that Dončić was not cut from the same cloth). It was also after the Mavericks had ejected multiple fans who had brought signs calling for general manager Nico Harrison’s firing to American Airlines Arena (on the same night that Dumont was booed as he sat down in his courtside seat). There had been plenty of time to come up with an explanation that made more sense than this.

Maybe Dumont was using the definition of “the future” that Harrison used at the post-trade press conference. The quote is already infamous: “The future to me is three, four years from now. The future 10 years from now, I don’t know, they’ll probably bury me and [coach Jason Kidd] by then. Or we bury ourselves.”

Dumont acknowledged that Dončić is a “phenomenal player” and a “generational talent,” adding that the trade was “hard” and “emotional.” He said the decision was not about the salary cap — Dončić would have been able to sign a supermax extension with the Mavericks this coming summer — and the franchise will not leave Dallas for Las Vegas or anywhere else. He was well aware of fans’ anger and sense of betrayal in the aftermath of the trade, and he pledged to try to earn their trust back.

“I heard from the fans, I respect their voices, I listened, we know that this wasn’t easy,” Dumont said. “If we lost any of our fans’ trust, it was hard and I apologize, but I hope over time we can regain that trust through hard work and that’s our plan. And hopefully people will believe in the long run that what we did was the right decision. Time will tell.”

That message, though, was delivered alongside a rationale for the trade that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. “Part of leadership is looking at risk and looking at all the factors of a decision and being willing to act at that time,” Dumont said. “And look to the long term and not only think about the short term or how it may be received immediately, but to think about the long-term benefits and what it may allow you to achieve if given all the right considerations.” Then he pointed to the 2024 trade deadline, at which point the Mavs “were not a playoff-bound team.” Trading for Washington and Gafford changed that, as they went on a late-season tear and advanced to the NBA Finals.

Before making the Dončić trade, Dumont said, “We looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better, but the teams that we competed against, some of which we beat [last season], did get better.” He said Dallas determined that the defending champion Boston Celtics had improved, too, so it needed to make a move.

Dončić was sidelined with a calf injury at the time, and the Mavs were reportedly frustrated with his approach to conditioning. The way Dumont frames it, they weren’t pleased with the way things were going and thought the trade would put them on a better trajectory. But this is not what taking the long view looks like. From a long-term perspective, with an all-time great still just approaching his prime on the roster, a slower-than-expected start in any one particular season does not warrant an extreme reaction. This is particularly true given that the team was mere months removed from a Finals appearance that served as proof of concept.

The decision to trade Dončić was about the future in only one way: Dallas made a massive, long-term bet against him continuing on the course he’s been charting since being named EuroLeague MVP at 19 years old. Despite making the All-NBA First Team every year since his second season and dominating several playoff series, Dončić was simply not the guy the Mavericks wanted to build around anymore.

Even if you accept the unprecedented conclusion that they came to, though, it doesn’t justify the move they made. As Cuban said on WFAA last week, “If the Mavs are going to trade Luka, that’s one thing. Just get a better deal. No disrespect to Anthony Davis, but I still firmly believe if we had gotten four unprotected [first-round picks] and Anthony Davis and Max Christie, this would be a different conversation.”

In light of Dumont’s attempt to explain the trade, another from that Cuban interview stands out.

“I think the biggest challenge that the Mavs have right now is there’s nobody who’s really outgoing to communicate,” Cuban said. “And it’s not so much what you do, it’s how you communicate why you do what you do.”