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In a world where the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade Luka Doncic away, one would think that anything is possible. When the option to acquire Doncic is only made available to the Los Angeles Lakers, however, one is immediately doused with the cold water that is some teams are simply more privileged than others and are more predisposed to success. But the Los Angeles Clippers have shown over the past decade or so that they won't give up the fight for LA supremacy.
Perhaps in an alternate universe, the Clippers would have gotten the opportunity to trade for Doncic. This wouldn't have just robbed the Lakers of their franchise cornerstone in the post-LeBron James era, it also would have set up the Clippers for a decade of contention, extending the team's contending window around Kawhi Leonard.
ESPN's Bobby Marks imagined a world where every team would have gotten an opportunity to put their best offer for Doncic on the table, and this is what he came up with on the Clippers' end.
The trade:
Clippers trade: James Harden, Terance Mann, 2030 first-round pick swap, 2031 unprotected first-round pick
Mavericks trade: Luka Doncic
Clippers get away with grand larceny and highway robbery (whatever you want to call it)
As if the trade package that the Mavericks got from the Lakers wasn't panned enough, this offer from the Clippers, had it been accepted, would have fans calling for a veto from commissioner Adam Silver. That's how lopsided this trade is, and this is a deal that the Clippers take ten times out of ten without any semblance of hesitation.
For starters, James Harden, as good of a player as he is, is already 35 years of age, and he'll be turning 36 prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. Harden has already endured a plethora of injury problems over the past few seasons, with his hamstring issues notably sapping him of the athleticism that made him an unstoppable scorer in his heyday.
To his credit, Harden has been brilliant this season. He's averaging 22.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.6 assists per game, earning himself a well-deserved All-Star nod after keeping the Clippers afloat amid injury woes to Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell. But Harden is clearly on the downturn of his career, and Lawrence Frank and company will have no second thoughts whatsoever about trading him away in a deal that would bring back Luka Doncic.
The pick swaps later down the line won't matter as much in this scenario; Doncic is good enough to carry the Clippers on his back for the next decade or so, which depresses the value of those first-round picks. Terance Mann is going to be the de facto Max Christie in this scenario, and Mann possesses even less upside than Christie, with the former being six years older than the latter.
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Doncic would function similarly to how Harden controls the Clippers' offense, and he'd be able to do so at a higher level for a much longer period of time. This is a no-brainer for the Clippers, and anyone who says no to this on their end must be sent packing from the organization immediately.
Grade: A+
Mavericks throw away future in a worse way than they actually did
When the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic away, they spun it as a move that shows their prioritization of defense. And in a way, it made some sort of basketball sense; a frontcourt of Anthony Davis and Daniel Gafford/Dereck Lively II is hard to score against, and they still had Kyrie Irving to commandeer the offense anyway.
This James Harden trade with the Clippers is somehow an even worse disaster for the Mavericks than the actual trade they pulled off. As mentioned earlier, Harden is nearly three years older than Davis. And a backcourt of Harden and Irving is very old and susceptible to injury, which is not a recipe for success in today's NBA.
There is also no way the Mavericks can spin this move as a defensive one; Harden, as improved of a defender as he is, is not much of an improvement on that end of the court over Doncic, and trading away a 26-year-old star in the middle of his prime for a 34-year-old who does everything Doncic does but on a worse level is downright inexcusable.
In 2018, a backcourt of Harden and Irving would have torn up the league. But it's 2025, and the Mavericks better find a way to travel back in time to make this pairing work, especially when this duo has already spent some time together on the Brooklyn Nets and couldn't seem to make it work.
Grade: F
