Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[KillerLeft]

I don’t really care what Nico says, I am forever going to be mad that we didn’t get to see this team with Luka in the playoffs

We all are, my dude.

[Jym]

But back to the Kidd thing
If he was given 2 options: A) Davis B) tanking and future picks
Then yeah I think he would choose Davis and would be aligned with Nico's view of putting together a "win now" team

Maybe that's the disconnect. I do not think that Kidd wanted Luka shipped out tho

[Smitty]

I think a final appearance, or a close WCF appearance will keep him protected. It isn't a massive failure in either those cases.

Mavs are currently 9th in the West and no longer have a generational player. Bold to be talking about conference finals appearances. I wouldn't be shocked if they missed the playoffs entirely.

[hakeemfaan]

Well, if you're right, that's going to come out. 

I think they're aligned and will both work here for exactly the same amount of time.

Hopefully both out soon. Along with Dumont.   

With Stephen A you have to parse out what is real and what is not. In the segment for the trade there was a throwaway line about when Luka would be back from his latest injury, but that the Mavs didn’t know because Luka had his own team handling that and the Mavs were not in the loop. 

I am sure Luka was not pleasant to deal with behind the scenes. I also remember how he took shots at RC when the whole gambler thing was going on.  If you are not going to respect RC as a coach who would you respect!  The story that he was upset at RC because RC screamed at Saleh seemed bs. 

At the same time this guy was a true offensive savant. Plus he is mentally tough. You get that package and the guy wants to stay here. At that point you forget all his warts and just hope the brain clicks one day wrt conditioning.  You are never going to get a player like him because so few like these exist and if they do and land in Dallas there is no guarantee they would want to stay here.  There was so much focus on his warts that we took the other things for granted.  Great ball movement and defense doesn’t help when you don’t have an alpha who can’t go off at will. So you are back in the same position or even worse.  Given that selfishly I would have preferred Luka to be here and hope the organic growth of players like Lively and some smart acquisitions would put us over the hump. 

As DMN said, He was Ours.

[hakeemfaan]

Front page story on espn with more details.

What a tool Nico is. He was so worried this would be leaked that he approached the only guy he had any sort of relationship with and one who trusted would keep it a secret . That itself goes against the narrative that they were only focused on AD because of ability. Nico wanted Luka out and if the Lakers offered Hachimura, he probably would even have take that because he was too afraid to go to any other GM lest the details leaked.

Unbelievable.

[DallasMaverick]

Damn.

Why didn't they bring in Dirk and be like tell your boy to start taking care of his body?  It feels like once Cuban left, the entire relationship was severed.

I kinda suspect that many, many different avenues and messengers have been tried in an attempt to change his habits. Including Dirk.

[hakeemfaan]

REPORT: The Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade originally included multiple firsts and Dalton Knecht, per @kirkgoldsberry

“A deal got whittled down, and I think Rob Pelinka was able to convince the Mavs that Luka is a lot of risk… His drinking, his weight problem…”

WTH???? Can we fire Nico TODAY!??? Luka must be the greatest of all time if he is a fat slob, drunk and still have a high usage rate and take his team to a WCF and a Finals. Despite all these problems Pelinka magnanimously agreed to trade for him.

This keeps getting worse and worse.

[DallasMaverick]

Also has to be terrifying for players too 
I know I'd be apprehensive about signing a long term deal if the money elsewhere was anywhere close. You know he'd trade your ass out of here on a whim without a second thought

I’ll bet that the players understood the trade pretty well.

They’ve seen Luka up close and personal for quite awhile. Their emotions probably swing between “wow, what an incredible offensive player!’ to “dang, he’s an undisciplined jerk”.

Just like us fans, but with a clearer view of his warts.

[SleepingHero]

This is by no means praising the trade or an admission that I like it at all. I don’t. I hate Nico. I truly mean that.

But with that said, AD is the primary reason why the Lakers are 25-19. When healthy, he is a lethal scorer and one of the best paint protectors in the league. While not as mobile, he is still able to guard in space well. He is a fantastic player. He is just not Luka.

[ThisIStheYear]

It’s silly coming off a season where the team was on a 60 win pace once they made their trades and pretty solidly got through the tough Western conference to decide that you can’t build a title team around Luka. That history makes building around Luka just an incremental step. Blowing up the star and completely changing the style of play is the more difficult, nearly impossible path, especially when the new star is older, plays a position of diminishing value, has never been a #1 on a championship quality team, and just isn’t as good to begin with. It’s a crazy decision. The Mavs just weren’t able to handle the bright lights that go with having a player with as much star quality as Luka. Trading your best home grown player with deep roots in the community for a mercenary will not work. It’s basically like the old days when the Mavs traded players in their primes for Dantley and Herb Williams and then went down the tubes. It’s over for the Mavs. Their best path now is to make and win the lottery.

[hakeemfaan]

This is by no means praising the trade or an admission that I like it at all. I don’t. I hate Nico. I truly mean that.

But with that said, AD is the primary reason why the Lakers are 25-19. When healthy, he is a lethal scorer and one of the best paint protectors in the league. While not as mobile, he is still able to guard in space well. He is a fantastic player. He is just not Luka.

I would have given up Lively and some picks for him.  That would have been a fair deal.  No need to give more.   We gave Luka Doncic

[Jym]

[SleepingHero]

I would have given up Lively and some picks for him.  That would have been a fair deal.  No need to give more.   We gave Luka Doncic

And I am totally with you there brother.


Luka was untouchable. Or was supposed to be untouchable. But we had a double agent working for us the whole time

[hakeemfaan]

It’s silly coming off a season where the team was on a 60 win pace once they made their trades and pretty solidly got through the tough Western conference to decide that you can’t build a title team around Luka. That history makes building around Luka just an incremental step. Blowing up the star and completely changing the style of play is the more difficult, nearly impossible path, especially when the new star is older, plays a position of diminishing value, has never been a #1 on a championship quality team, and just isn’t as good to begin with.  It’s a crazy decision. The Mavs just weren’t able to handle the bright lights that go with having a player with as much star quality as Luka. Trading your best home grown player with deep roots in the community for a mercenary will not work. It’s basically like the old days when the Mavs traded players in their primes for Dantley and Herb Williams and then went down the tubes.  It’s over for the Mavs. Their best path now is to make and win the lottery.

I never thought of that.  You are correct.  Franchises like Boston and LA know how to handle megatalents.The Mavs were overwhelmed fro the start. They gave the keys to Luka too soon and then spent the rest of the years trying to take some of the keys back.  When Barnes and Wesley Matthew tried to get him to play a team style they were shipped off. When teammates took last second shots and missed like when DSJ did, Luka pouted. When RC tried, Luka took shots at him and RC was let go.

Then as it kept spiraling was there ever any internal suspension for a few games?  Luka was treated with kid gloves. Then Nico comes and fires all his close confidants and Luka just goes out and hires his own. Was there a conversation between all sides?  Mavs seemed to be afraid of any direct interaction. 

So the first real disciplinary thing they do is go and trade him away. Reports are he cried when he first found out.  He is not a bad guy and wanted to be here.  Yes he could have changed himself but maybe a spanking here and there would have also woken him up. The Mavs should have been more strict and lived with the consequences.  They were so worried that he would ask out that they seemingly never imposed any sort of punishment and then just cut ties one fine night. 

A franchise that has dealt with a ton of stars handles this so differently.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Excerpt from Shelburn and MacMahons new article on the details of the crumbling relationship between Luka Doncic and the Maverics

If Doncic wasn't going to change his ways, the Mavericks figured they would prod him by making changes around him. In August 2023, the team fired former director of player health and performance Casey Smith, who has since been hired by Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks. After last season, the Mavs fired strength coach Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler. All three had been with the team since before Doncic was drafted and had strong relationships with him.

"They get rid of everybody I like," Doncic griped in recent months, one source said.

The plan backfired.

[hakeemfaan]

Excerpt from Shelburn and MacMahons new article on the details of the crumbling relationship between Luka Doncic and the Maverics

If Doncic wasn't going to change his ways, the Mavericks figured they would prod him by making changes around him. In August 2023, the team fired former director of player health and performance Casey Smith, who has since been hired by Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks. After last season, the Mavs fired strength coach Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler. All three had been with the team since before Doncic was drafted and had strong relationships with him.

"They get rid of everybody I like," Doncic griped in recent months, one source said.

The plan backfired.

Was this when Cuban still owned the team?

[michaeltex]

One interesting tidbit I heard somewhere...

Supposedly, AD waived his NT kicker for the deal to happen. Probably needed to happen to make the money work, but doesn't that imply that it wasn't just Perlinka and Nico just doing the deal in a vacuum? Wouldn't AD have had some prior notice as well? And agreed to move to DAL?

[cow]

Excerpt from Shelburn and MacMahons new article on the details of the crumbling relationship between Luka Doncic and the Maverics

If Doncic wasn't going to change his ways, the Mavericks figured they would prod him by making changes around him. In August 2023, the team fired former director of player health and performance Casey Smith, who has since been hired by Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks. After last season, the Mavs fired strength coach Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler. All three had been with the team since before Doncic was drafted and had strong relationships with him.

"They get rid of everybody I like," Doncic griped in recent months, one source said.

The plan backfired.

And Nico wonders why he and team aren’t involved in Luka’s current rehab. ” Look at the big brain on Brett.”

[hakeemfaan]

Bob Sturm today.

https://bobsturm.substack.com/p/the-case...al-binding

[Fuerza1]

Nico couldn't wait to get this done. No king's ransom. Just premature ejaculation with the first girl he talked to. On paper, this is the worst trade in history of the NBA. I literally thought someone hacked ESPN.

That being said, games aren't won on paper. Long shot, but maybe Nico is right, Luka is addition by subtraction. Despite his greatness, Luka had his flaws on/off the court, and he needed to evolve. Last year was lightning-in-a-bottle, the peak. The only thing changing the championship calculus was a locked in, healthy Luka. It didn't happen, and the MBT reached their boiling point, and it was time to move on.

But there is still no justifying the return. Nico, Finley, whoever was involved made this personal. The Assassination of Luka Doncic by the Coward Nico Harrison authored by Sasa Doncic.

Putting my Mavs (and Kentucky) hat on, Anthony Davis in a Mavs jersey is going to be sweet, and Christie has some upside. AD was probably the best player on the Lakers this season. He arguably could have been the MVP of the Lakers' bubble championship. Does Anthony Davis have a Walton/Dirk/Hakeem playoff run in him? That's the only way this works (or if Luka crashes and burns in LA) and quite frankly I don't enjoy those odds.

The Mavs will have their middling moments then become a bottom dweller feels more likely. Nico being a fraud feels more likely. Luka getting fired up and making perennial playoff runs in LA feels more likely. Thankfully, I am not a betting man, but perhaps the Adelsons are. Vegas any one?