Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[mvossman]

Nope, not buying that. This trade will ultimately be judged by "who won titles as a result, and who didn't" and style points and excuses won't push the needle.

The prior year? It will be long forgotten. 

FWIW, neither team was the same team at the time of the trade as they had been the prior year. In fact, by the time of the trade, the Lakers were demonstrably looking to be the better team, looking like one of the top teams since the DFS trade, and still ascending, while Dallas had been sinking like a rock. LA was in 5th, having won 7 of their last 10, while the Mavs were struggling, in 9th and dropping, closer to 11th in the standings than to LA.

The narrative probably will only look at titles because that's how narratives work.  The reality is it will be much harder for Luka to win a title with the Lakers (at least in the near term) than with the Mavs.  The Mavs were more talented and built specifically around Luka.  The Lakers were on a nice little run before the trade (ironically mostly without AD) and it continued after the trade.  The Mavs were sinking like a rock due to massive injuries (which was exacerbated by the trade).  

I don't really care what the narrative ends up being.  As a Mavs fan we already lost the trade.  I see very little hope this team can contend for a long, long time.  I was already skeptical before the Kyrie injury, but now its pretty much dead.  With Luka still on the roster I had reasonable hope for the foreseeable future.