By Jacob Seliga
Lead Writer
In the late hours of Saturday evening, the NBA witnessed one of the biggest transactions in its history.
The Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz agreed to a three team deal that centers around Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick going to the Mavericks for Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris. The Jazz will receive Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2025 second-round picks.
Instantly, the shockwaves were felt throughout social media as NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons made their feelings known and other NBA stars and media members were in disbelief as well.
The Mavericks are coming off a 2023-24 season that saw them reach the NBA finals led by Doncic before falling to the Boston Celtics.
With a slightly different core that featured new additions such as Klay Thompson and a plague of injuries that has kept Doncic, starting center Derrick Lively, and others out of the lineup for extended periods of time, this trade is viewed as a step to get over the hump.
As one of the premier “name brand” franchises in the league, the Lakers are always looking for a way to make a splash towards championship contention and with rumors in recent weeks of Davis feeling less than happy with how things were going, it’s no surprise that the Lakers feel they’re getting the best asset they can get for him in this deal.
Seliga’s Thoughts
The first thing that this deal tells me is that the Lakers are starting to prepare for life after LeBron James. Let’s face the facts, he’s a 40-year old who is fighting Father Time and with limited assets outside of Anthony Davis, Los Angeles needed to make this move to stay in some sort of contention in their mind while reshaping the roster for the future.
The concern I truly have is what’s the end goal for the Lakers here?
Your two youngest tradable assets of value are a 26-year old Austin Reeves and a soon to be 24-year old Dalton Knecht and your frontcourt is led by Jaxon Hayes. That doesn’t exactly scream championship contender to me.
Especially when a healthy Oklahoma City, a healthy Denver, and likely a healthy Memphis instantly are better than year and truthfully Dallas comes out of this deal looking better as a unit than you do.
Listen, Luka Doncic is a generational talent. Well on his way to becoming one of the greatest players of all-time… However, his defensive skills or more or less lack thereof leaves a lot to be desired and according to Tim McMahon who covers the Mavericks for ESPN reports that his weight has been in the high 260’s this season and that his conditioning was a big point of concern for the Mavericks.
If you’re a franchise that may have one of the greatest players of all-time and one of the best of his generation, you don’t make the deal unless those concerns have at least some level of validity to them.
On the flip side if you’re Dallas, this is a win now move that you have to parlay into at least a conference finals appearance if not a finals appearance this year.
When healthy, and that’s a big “when” a starting five of Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Anthony Davis at the four, his natural position, alongside Derrick Lively, is one of the best units in the league.
Defensively, the ceiling of Lively and Davis in the post is instantly one of the highest in all of basketball and Davis’ offensive skills help take the pressure off of Irving.
Instantly, the Mavericks look like possibly more than just a one year wonder with this lineup.
Granted, a lot of that hinges on Lively returning in late March/early April which is what his current injury timeline appears to be and Irving and Davis who have missed significant time in the past staying healthy long enough to see it through.
Does this deal catapult either team to the top of the Western conference hierarchy though?
Oklahoma City has been without one of its young stars for most of the year and has been a machine behind probable MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And after a slot start to the year Nikola Jokic and Denver looks like the unit that won a championship just two years ago.
To be fair, both teams know there’s still more moves that need to be made.
The Lakers desperately need to make a move for a center as their frontcourt suddenly looks very shaky and the Mavericks need guard depth badly especially at point with Kyrie shouldering the heavy load as the go-to guy now and they need to free up their logjam of wings.
Outside of Los Angeles and Dallas, the rest of the league is pondering a few things.
With how little a player of both Luka and Davis’ caliber received for a return, one has to wonder what some of the other top players on the market may go for prior to Thursday’s trade deadline?
DeAaron Fox from the Kings, Jimmy Butler from the Heat, and Zach LaVine from the Bulls are just some of the big names on the market this week and their value may’ve just reset which opens the door for many teams chasing after them.
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