Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[mvossman]

With DAL/Nico, they never said they have an issue with paying the supermax itself. They've explicitly made it clear. They just couldn't justify committing to LUKA that huge amount, and in so doing being on the hook to him for SIX seasons, in light of his questionable personal habits for an elite athlete, and his apparent unwillingness to alter them.

No other player would be putting that sort of financial noose around the Mavs neck (not just the amount in a year, but the extreme number of years too.)

When you talk about that noose, I would argue that going all in for the short term and then going into a 4+ year window where you have no control of your first round picks is at least as big of a noose.  

This is why AD is not the direction I would have gone, although I do realize there were limitations to what teams made sense to trade with.  If they continue to build around AD/Kyrie with young pieces then I may back off this stance, but if they send most of their young players and future assets for KD then this argument that they were concerned about the future will hold no water for me.