Tag: Baffles

By Howard BeckFeb. 3, 2:45 pm UTC • 5 min

Amid the many, many (good lord, sooo many) blistering critiques of the Dallas Mavericks’ sudden, shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic over the weekend, came at least one breath of sincere praise:

“Great fucking job—helluva job keeping it under wraps,” a Western Conference team executive told The Ringer on Sunday. “It’s incredible. I take my hat off to Nico.”

Nico is Nico Harrison, the Mavericks’ team president, who consummated the stunning deal late Saturday night sending Doncic, the 25-year-old basketball maestro and perennial MVP candidate, to the Los Angeles Lakers for a remarkably modest package built around veteran star Anthony Davis, who is six years older than Doncic and not nearly as talented.

The deal was complete before rival teams even knew Doncic was available. It was negotiated under a virtual cone of silence, by two longtime friends, Harrison and Lakers executive Rob Pelinka, without a word leaking—a rare occurrence in today’s NBA. The secrecy was absolutely elite. The actual dealmaking by the Mavericks? Er, not so much.

“A nightmare,” wrote Tim Cowlishaw, the longtime Dallas Morning News columnist.

“The return sucks. Your job is to get the best return,” said another Western Conference team executive.

“It’s shortsighted,” said an Eastern Conference team executive, adding: “If you want to do this, shop the guy. The deals you could have gotten for him are ridiculous.”

By Harrison’s own telling at a press conference on Sunday, this was always a two-team negotiation. He made no other inquiries, solicited no other offers, before making the deal. Which raises the obvious question: How rich a return could the Mavs have netted if they’d actually done their due diligence? We’ll never know, of course, but rival executives had no shortage of reasonable suggestions that could have topped Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick.

Start with the San Antonio Spurs, who surely would have loved the chance to pair Doncic with Victor Wembanyama, and who could have offered some combination of talented young players (Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan) and oodles of first-round draft picks (they had 12, before their Sunday-night trade for De’Aaron Fox).

Or look to Brooklyn, where the Nets have their own massive supply of first-round picks (they have 15). “You’re telling me Brooklyn wouldn’t have given up every pick they have, Cam Johnson, and Nic Claxton?” said the Eastern Conference executive. “I think it’s irresponsible the way [the Mavericks] acted.”

Or look to the Houston Rockets, another team flush with young talent and first-round picks, including the rights to valuable Phoenix Suns picks in 2027 and possibly 2029. Could the Mavericks have pried loose Amen Thompson and Jalen Green?

Oklahoma City seemingly has everything it needs—including MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander—but would the Thunder have hung up on a Doncic trade offer? Would they have parted with Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, and some portion of their 13 first-round picks? “They would have considered it,” said the Eastern Conference executive.

Cleveland is having its best season in years, fueled by three All-Stars, though none as gifted as Doncic. What if the Mavericks had asked for Darius Garland and Evan Mobley?

The Miami Heat are at a crossroads, and could trade Jimmy Butler at any minute. Would Pat Riley have offered Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and picks for Doncic?

What if the Mavericks had asked Minnesota for Anthony Edwards? Or offered Doncic to the Sacramento Kings—who passed on Doncic in the 2018 draft—for Fox and Domantas Sabonis?

Utah played a facilitator role in the Doncic-Davis swap, netting Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks. But what if the Mavericks had instead offered Luka to the Jazz and asked for some portion of Utah’s 11 first-round picks? Or waited until this offseason so they could include Lauri Markkanen?

“I’m not exaggerating here,” said the second Western Conference executive. “It probably would have been the biggest haul in NBA history,” if the Mavericks had canvassed the league for the best offer. “This dude is a perennial MVP [candidate] at 25, most likely heading into his prime. It would have been four firsts, three [pick] swaps, two awesome players, one young guy who may hit.”

Said the Eastern Conference executive: “Every team in the league would have offered everything they could.” And the Mavericks had the luxury of knowing they had an offer they liked, from the Lakers, already in hand as a fallback.

One executive pushed back a bit on the “shop for better offers” approach, noting that it increases the risk of talks leaking to the media. If that happens, he said, “You raise a million flags, and open yourself up to scrutiny. You give the player the ability to dictate terms.” But, other executives noted, it is possible to target at least a few teams and keep discussions quiet.

Until now, Harrison—who in 2021 left a longtime role as a Nike executive to run the Mavericks—had enjoyed mostly positive reviews for his leadership of the franchise. His bold trade for Kyrie Irving in February 2023 was a defining moment, a risky move that initially drew criticism but was ultimately vindicated when Irving helped get Dallas to the Finals. Along the way, Harrison’s front office also made shrewd moves to obtain the draft rights to Dereck Lively II and to acquire key veterans P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, all of whom became essential contributors to that Finals run.

But the return for Doncic looks abysmal compared to the draft capital in other recent blockbusters trades—from Donovan Mitchell (three first-round picks and two swaps) and Rudy Gobert (four firsts, one swap) in 2022, to Kevin Durant (four firsts, one swap) in 2023, to the Mikal Bridges deal (five firsts and a swap) last summer. 

Even the executive who praised Harrison’s secrecy conceded, “I just wish he had gotten three more picks” in the deal. The Mavericks acquired just one, the Lakers’ first-round selection in 2029, plus Christie, a promising defender who will turn just 22 next week. As some sources reasoned, the Mavericks surely viewed Davis—a nine-time All-Star and five-time All-Defensive team selection—as being worth four first-round picks himself.

But that was among the more generous interpretations that rival executives offered on Sunday. The fact is, Dallas swapped one of the best players on earth—still in his pre-prime and less than a year removed from leading the Mavs to the NBA Finals—for an oft-injured big man who will turn 32 in March. Davis should boost the Mavericks defense, as Harrison said on Sunday. But the Mavericks offense will now be almost entirely reliant on Irving, who will turn 33 next month and who has never succeeded in the postseason without a bigger star next to him.

With Doncic, the Mavericks had a 10-year window to build a contender. Now, as Harrison himself awkwardly noted in Sunday’s press conference, “The future to me is three, four years from now. Ten years from now, I don’t know. They’ll probably bury me and [coach Jason Kidd] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”

It might not take that long. Figuratively speaking, Harrison’s peers already have the shovels out.

Howard Beck

Howard Beck got his basketball education covering the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers for the L.A. Daily News starting in 1997, and has been writing and reporting about the NBA ever since. He’s also covered the league for The New York Times, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He’s a co-host of ‘The Real Ones.’