Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[KillerLeft]

I think people are underestimating the toll having your whole life unexpectedly flipped upside down takes. Add to that he’s coming off an injury and learning how to gel/play with a brand new team, it’s pretty understandable that he’d be off to a slow start. Even though the consensus here seems to be that the trade was bad, feels like people are nitpicking or looking for ways to downplay Luka’s skill and talent

Are you sure they're "looking for ways?" Maybe some are as a means of coping, sure, that's fair, but you actually don't have to "look" very hard, and we've been having these same discussions about Luka for the past 2-3 years at least, which I think proves those opinions existed prior to the trade. I know mine did. 

Hoping and believing he'd get the conditioning and the ref thing figured out is one thing, but denying that those issues exist or brushing them off as "nitpicks" is another. For me, those are HUGE issues that were beating me down and starting to make following the Mavs less fun over time. Now, I didn't predict or want THIS as a solution, but I also didn't like the direction Luka or his game were heading. It was and still is a complicated situation for me. I love Luka, love the Mavs, but was finding his act harder and harder to stomach. 

Either way, you can't expect everyone just to talk nonstop about how great Luka is, especially not now. He's not even a Maverick anymore.