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Late in the evening on the first night of February, the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers put the finishing touches on a trade that will continue to send shockwaves throughout the NBA for the foreseeable future. For the first time in league history, a trade involving a pair of reigning All-NBA performers — Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis — took place in the middle of an ongoing NBA season.
One of the first things that went through my head, and likely the heads of many NBA fans (and players) whose brains were scrambled in the aftermath of this deal, is how the hell did the Dallas Mavericks keep this quiet? Well, as more details continue to emerge, including the tasty nugget courtesy of Shams Charania that it was the Mavericks who initiated the deal, we're starting to get a bit of a clearer picture, but even that didn't immediately answer that initial question.
Let's leave it to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein to give us the answer we're looking for:
“(Nico) Harrison made the decision, supported by new Mavericks majority owner Patrick Dumont, to pursue (Anthony) Davis and pretty much no one else. The Mavericks did not make Dončić available to interested teams for the richest possible haul of draft picks. Sources say that the Mavericks are convinced that this move brings back a top-10 player in the league as well as a 2029 first-round pick from the Lakers.”
This provides some much-needed context as to how the Mavericks and Lakers came together to stun the sports world. Dallas was never shopping Luka Doncic to the highest bidder, which would've left room for someone to inevitably spill the beans that Doncic was available. Nico Harrison was pursuing Anthony Davis specifically because of a belief that Davis keeps the Mavs championship window open for the next few years, and a 2029 1st round pick sets Dallas up for the future. Then again, doesn't a 25-year-old who has made five straight All-NBA teams and just carried your team to the NBA Finals set you up nicely for the future too?
Clearly, there was some animosity brewing behind the scenes in Dallas. The Mavericks weren't pleased with Luka Doncic's conditioning or his lack of interest in playing defense, which was made crystal clear in Nico Harrison's first public comments after the trade, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon:
“I believe that defense wins championships,” Harrison said of the rationale for the trade. “I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future.”
Nico Harrison better hope so, because this likely won't be a very popular trade in the Lone Star State.
