Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[audiosway]

It's an interesting thought experiment. 

Your SGA/Durant thing is a good, extreme example, but even then, we all have a built-in bias that SGA is going to win a championship with OKC at some point. And, we really don't KNOW that. In your scenario, we'd NEVER know that, but it would sure feel to OKC fans that they were trading away tons of chances at it.

I think the difference here is that there's a plausible reality in which Luka would never have won a championship here, and some of us have had that sneaky feeling for a while. Is the club giving up on him confirmation that the feeling was fair, or is the club giving up on him "Stockholm syndroming" us into forgetting how great Luka really is? I have oscillated back and forth for the past two weeks, but what's clear is that for some, Luka winning multiple championships here seems to have been a "when" more than an "if." Those are the people struggling the most with this, I think.

When Luka first got drafted to Dallas I thought for sure this kid will win a championship. Then, after his rookie year I thought Dynasty. As time went on though I started to wonder. The team would get down early in games and have to claw back to win. Luka got slower and slower. He would come into camp with Fat Luka memes flowing. They made the WCF and it was amazing.

Then, the next year they tank at the end after the Kyrie trade and get Lively. They make it to the Finals and get blown out. Luka comes into this year overweight and out of shape/injured. He plays and gets out again (now we know it was to lose weight) plays, gets hurt yet again and is out for 6 weeks and traded.

I've had my doubts this year about him. I started worrying more about Luka last year. The complaining to the refs was getting old. The constant missing free throws was getting old. The not playing defense was getting old. (And I know from playing competitive basketball in the past that defense is about energy. You don't play it if you don't have it). I started getting hints of Harden. I hated watching Harden because of the complaining and being so out of shape. You are a professional basketball player paid millions. Is it really that hard?

The trade caught me off guard and gave me quite a bit of emotional back and forth. However, after processing it I understand it. I am not sure I would have had the gumption (trying to keep it PC ) to do it but I definitely understand it. I also think it's the right way to give this team a chance at a title.

In 45 years the Mavs have been to the Finals now 3 times. They have 1 title with the greatest Mav ever in Dirk. I was even starting to wonder if Luka would win one. And that's coming from someone that predicted he would be a generational player in the draft. Go back and look. I have him as the overall best player followed by Jaren Jackson Jr.