Luka Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.
Twenty-five-year-old Dončić for 31-year-old Davis.
This trade is bad. So bad that you can’t even make it in NBA2K.
On the surface, it makes absolutely zero sense for the Dallas Mavericks to make this trade. Dončić wasn’t just the face of their franchise – he was the face of Dallas sports. They must have known trading away the generational superstar who led them to the NBA Finals just last season would inflame their fans.
Dončić is simply that large of a staple in the team – the Mavericks trading him does not make sense in the same way that the Lakers trading Lebron James or the Warriors trading Stephen Curry does not make sense. You just don’t trade that kind of player out of the blue, especially for a considerably (although talented) older player such as Davis.
While the Mavericks’ front office seem to believe this trade is for the best, saying that they were worried about Dončić’s conditioning and health and that Davis better fit the team culture, this trade is nothing short of a disaster for the Mavericks – and could spell the end of an NBA team in Dallas.
Although this may sound extreme, the financial pains of this trade cannot be understated. Dončić was the Mavericks’ golden child and money-making machine, not only bringing fanfare because of his excellent playing skills, but also having ranked sixth overall in jersey sales for the 2023-24 season – significantly higher than any other Mavericks player.
With whispers of large-scale NBA expansion placing Las Vegas at the forefront, the Mavericks now find themselves in a terrible position. While these rumors have created a hunger for a basketball team in Las Vegas, the NBA’s all-time low ratings and plans to expand into Europe put them in no place to create a new team in Vegas.
At this point, the only way that Vegas could get a team is if the NBA were to move a pre-existing team. But of course, we know that would be impossible today. For the NBA to move a team to Vegas, they would need to find a team whose owners already have large capital and connections in the city and whose popularity is on a massive decline, and frankly, I cannot think of a single NBA team that fits that bill.
Unfortunately, that “impossible” scenario is found in the Dallas Mavericks. Not only is their owner, the Adelson family, that of the world’s third-largest casino company in Vegas by revenue, but the “team culture” that they wanted to protect is actively suffering because of the trade.
They are a team with no clear identity. A star with a torn ACL and their management is currently facing one of the largest uproars since Seattle lost the Supersonics, with fans actively disrupting games to call for the removal of general manager Nico Harrison. Seeing as the Mavericks have a near-zero chance of making it to the playoffs, Mavericks fans are going to be left angry for a long time – which will only continue this cycle of declining ticket sales and negative press.
The fact of the matter is that other than Irving’s injury, all of these issues presented stem from the choice to trade Dončić. This is largely a reflection of poor team management from the Mavericks, because in reality, trading away one player should never affect a team as drastically as this has.
Although Harrison continues to deny a transfer to Vegas, his words ring of the same sentiment of Clay Bennett, the Oklahoma City businessman who was responsible for moving the Supersonics after nearly a year and a half of denying plans to do exactly that. Whether it’s Harrison’s choice or not, there’s a lot of reason to believe in a Mavericks move.
If the NBA wants to please its fans nationally that consistently show a want for a team in Vegas above anything else, there’s only one logical way they can make it happen: ditch Dallas and move the Mavericks.
All because of one bad trade.
