Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[Scott41theMavs]

Hi all. I left this place after first 10 games of this season but admit I started lurking around again some 10 days ago, as it is a great place to get up to date news on anything going on. Thanks to everyone doing the effort to make it that way. While I enjoyed some conversations and really respect some people here, the overall negative attitude was not to my liking. At this stage in life I prefer to focus on the positive.

I am absolutely stunned by this trade. I went to bed late yesterday, probably just minutes before it happened and found out later today. I had to triple check that this is really serious. Some 10 hours later I still can't understand the rationing behind it. Even if one trully doesn't believe in Luka (after they just played in finals last season), they imho should at least give him another chance and explore the best possible trade in the summer. I am fully in camp with everyone being in disbelief how little they got in return.

I am really dissapointed, because I hoped Luka would stay in Dallas for his whole career and leave an ever lasting impact. To lose trust in a player of such caliber so soon, is really mind boggling. Even more so, one can argue they were able to put a good team around him for exactly a season and a half, while he was busting his ass off with mediocre teams in years before that, dragging them to WCF. And for that only season they put a good team around him, they immediately went to the finals. I just can't accept trading him was the only possible solution.

I am not worried about Luka. Everytime he was hit, he came back stronger. This just might be a push for him to find even additional motivation. One thing for sure, he was stunned, he feels betrayed and he will certainly hold a grudge for the rest of his career. It will be difficult thing for me to shift focus on Lakers. I was never really the showtime fan. While I respect LeBron, I was also never really his admirer, Jordan is the GOAT .

Mavs now imho have a couple of years window to win it all. It will be very interesting to see what Kyrie does in the summer. Can we be sure he wants to stay? Assuming he does, AD and him will still have some value left after a couple of years and Mavs will have some flexibility to pivot, but getting a generational star is extremely difficult. I am worried about long term future.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to a very eventful time with Lakers. That team is not built for Luka. LeBron is aging and will be less and less valuable each year as father time is unforgiving. Reaves is not a great fit next to Luka, perhaps as a 6th man. Other than that they have a couple of interesting role players, but not much more. Their asset chest is pretty empty as they only have one tradeable FRP and one SRP and they imho desperately need a good two way guard and a center. However, Lakers always find a way to attract the talent.

Tonight will be one of the very, very rare Mavs games I missed in last 5 or 6 years. I need to find a good Lakers board now I wish you all luck and happines in your lives.

Thank you for all of your contributions over the years. The reason I am no longer an NBA fan and not just no longer a Mavericks fan is that I cannot root for the Lakers no matter who is playing for them.