The Surreal Life: the Mavericks Trade Luka Doncic

I’m baffled. You’re baffled. Everyone but Nico Harrison is baffled.

David Lynch’s use of surrealism made him one of the most important popular artists of the 20th century, but even he couldn’t have conjured this up. The Dallas Mavericks have traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a single first-round pick. When all of your mental facilities are presented with something so shocking, so illogical there’s nothing you can do but let the warm waves of absurdity wash you away in an ocean of dreams.

Everything about this trade feels surreal. The first thought I had was this must be Centel’s magnum opus. Then the reports from real, living, breathing journalists came pouring in. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon got a statement from Maverick’s general manager Nico Harrison talking about how “defense wins championships,” and the organization’s general concern over committing a supermax to Luka with his continuous conditioning concerns. Marc Stein reported that Doncic had not requested a trade. LeBron and Anthony Davis were in shock. Literally, everybody in the NBA world was left dumbstruck.

It has been more than 12 hours since the trade, and it still doesn’t feel real. And how could it? Luka Doncic is 25, soon to be 26, has five All-NBA first-team selections, and just led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals. Players like this are simply not traded unless they demand it. Franchises have existed for over a half-century and have never employed a player as good as Doncic, and the Mavericks actively moved off of him. This is a trade you see on the easiest difficulty setting of your younger sibling’s 2K save. Trading Luka Doncic, regardless of the return, is absolute nonsense, but the return is even more absurd.

Anthony Davis is an excellent player. He has made five All-NBA and All-Defensive teams in his career, was the best player on a Championship team, and has received numerous Defensive Player of the Year and MVP votes. However, he is not at the level of Luka Doncic and he’ll turn 32 11 days after Doncic turns 26. From the reporting, the Mavericks had no interest in opening this process up to the rest of the league. They felt Davis and a single first-round pick in 2029, when Doncic will be 29, was enough to lose one of the greatest offensive talents in the history of the sport.

This is the ultimate malpractice. I don’t agree with the sentiment, but I understand the idea of trading Doncic now when his value will be highest if you believe his best years are behind him. However, the Mavericks didn’t extract maximum value in this trade, and that’s a serious problem. Over the past two seasons, the Mavericks have quietly been reckless with future first-round picks. No one paid much attention to it because they had Luka, presumably for the next decade, and they made a run to the NBA Finals. But let me remind you, the Mavericks owe first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 and swaps in 2028 and 2030. That’s not the abyss, but this is now a team built around a soon-to-be 32-year-old Anthony Davis and a 33-year-old Kyrie Irving. The future is not bright in Dallas without Luka, but it could have been.

If the Mavericks had opened up the bidding for Doncic, the possible returns would have been as silly as the idea of trading him. The Rockets could have offered them picks galore, Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, and any other young player not nailed down. The Thunder could have overwhelmed the Mavericks with picks, Jalen Williams, and a host of functional role players. Would the Grizzlies have offered Ja Morant and more than one first-round pick? How about the Heat with Jimmy Butler? The Kings are exploring moving De’Aaron Fox, surely they’d want a redo with Doncic. And the Celtics could have sent you two All-Stars and picks. The Lakers got the deal of the century not because they’re smart, but because the Mavericks were incomprehensibly stupid.

As if this trade wasn’t dumb enough, the Mavericks suddenly have one of the weirdest rosters in the league. With Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, and Derrick Lively, the Mavericks now have three players whose best position is center, with only Davis capable of faking it at power forward. Davis might want to play power forward, but the Lakers won the 2020 title because they played him at center in the moments that mattered. Kyrie Irving is still excellent and can run an offense, but he’s better suited as a secondary option. Without Doncic, the Mavericks need Spencer Dinwiddie to play meaningful minutes in the playoffs, if they make it there.

There is no defense of this trade. It was bizarre to want to trade Luka in the first place, and the utter pittance of a return compounds the decision into the darkest depths of despair. The Mavericks made a win-now trade where they sent away their best player for a lesser player, created a positional log-jam, and are now thin at the most important position in the sport– lead ball handler. Simply put, this trade makes them worse in the short and long term, and the Lakers have made out like bandits.

For as great of a trade as this is for the Lakers, I don’t think it’ll pay immediate dividends. Prior to acquiring Luka Doncic, the Lakers’ biggest problem was their defense. Now, with Davis gone, that problem has only gotten worse. But that doesn’t matter. Doncic is 25 and the Lakers have plenty of time to build a functional roster around him. Their offense has the potential to be insane when he returns, and finding a defensive-minded center who can rim run is one of the easiest roster holes to address. When a top-five player becomes available at a yard sale price, you pounce and figure everything out later.

The final thing that needs to be addressed is the Mavericks’ willingness to trade Doncic. It’s beyond odd, which should raise your antennae. No organization knows more about his lifestyle, work habits, and physical condition than the Mavericks. If they don’t want to pay him a 35% supermax for his prime years, they clearly have serious concerns. Luka has always been heavier than is ideal, isn’t shy about his fondness for adult beverages, and has a long history of injuries to his left calf. Despite that, he has been one of the five best players in the world for the last half-decade, which leads me to believe these issues are more pronounced than the public realizes. You’d only make this move if you believe these issues are not only unsolvable but generally self-destructive, right?

I have no earthly idea the real reason the Mavericks decided to trade Luka Doncic. I doubt we’ll know for some time. What I do know is that in the moment, it broke my brain. When something real is so outlandish your only cognitive defense is disbelief. I still don’t fully believe it. It’s as if we’ve all tumbled into an unending interconnected slumber. But this is in fact real. This is a seismic moment in NBA history, and the Mavericks pursuing the losing side is where our disbelief stems from. We’re not all crazy, they are. And all it takes is one crazy person for you to question your very reality. Perhaps, in time, we’ll all understand, that the Luka Doncic trade was the ultimate surrealist art.

For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.