NBA Trade: Lakers Acquire Luka Dončić From Mavericks for Anthony Davis

• The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks pulled off a blockbuster trade
• Luka Dončić goes from Dallas to LA in exchange for Anthony Davis
• The deal significantly boosts the Lakers’ standing for a championship run

With the Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis trade, the Lakers and Mavericks dropped the equivalent of the dinosaur-killing meteor on the NBA.

The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 6 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Usually, the biggest deals with the most prominent stars do not happen until the pressure to get something done is the highest. It can happen earlier if there are ancillary concerns such as injuries, overt unhappiness, a crescendo of problems, contractual problems, or outright desperation.

This trade dramatically changes the landscape with the betting odds for another Lakers NBA title markedly increased. They are now +1000 to win the NBA Championship, one of six teams at +1400 or less.

The Lakers Epitomize “We Want, We Get”

There are sports fan bases and even media contingents who function under the impression that certain teams are “supposed” to get what they want and win championships, just because. The Yankees, Manchester United, the Patriots, and the Lakers fall into this category.

Among those teams, the only team that gets exactly what they want when they want it is the Lakers.

Is it their location, the history, the brand, that the league wants it that way? All of the above? No matter what, few teams have had extended championship runs spread over different eras as the Lakers have.

The Patriots did, but it was with the same key player and head coach, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

The Yankees? They haven’t won a championship in 16 years. Their last “dynasty” of winning five championships in 14 years came after an 18-year drought from 1978 to 1996.

Manchester United is having trouble adapting to the new landscape of other teams having money to spend, a deep and well-organized infrastructure, and players not automatically wanting to play there just because they’re Manchester United.

But the Lakers do it again and again with different players. Of course, they have had that one star — Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James — but have surrounded that star with Star 1A plus Star 1B and other key contributors.

Anthony Davis was Star 1A to LeBron. And Davis, 32 in March, was sent off to Dallas for Dončić in what looks like a trade a 16-year-old Lakers fanatic posted on X. This is why 16-year-olds root for the team to begin with.

How Could This Trade Happen?

The Davis for Dončić trade came as such a shock that insiders and analysts struggled to come to grips with why it happened. The consensus is that Dallas was desperate to get rid of Dončić and maximize his value as much as they could while getting a piece that could help them stay competitive. It’s difficult to believe they could not have gotten more for this level player had they made their intentions clear.

The Slovenian point guard is a 5X NBA All-Star, 5X All-NBA, was the 2023-24 NBA Scoring Champ, was Rookie of the Year and has never finished lower than eighth in the MVP voting. Very quickly, the why came out, believe it or not.

If these justifications are legitimate and the Mavericks were worried about Dončić’s conditioning, attitude, and willingness to go all out, Davis has not exactly been the picture of health throughout his career. He has played in more than 62 games in a season once since 2018-19. He is a future Hall of Famer, a 9X All-Star, 5X All-NBA, 3X Block Champion, and an NBA champ from 2019-20. He’s six full years older than Dončić. Dallas is a good team — the defending Western Conference champ — and Davis is a two-way player that Dončić is not.

Regardless, this is a “get this guy outta here” trade with Dončić, for whatever reason.

How Do You Think This Trade Alters the NBA Landscape?

So, what’s your take on the Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis trade? Will it mean another run for the Lakers or is it the latest in a history of desperate moves that didn’t work? And what about the Mavericks? Will they regret trading Dončić?

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