With Nico Harrison having been fired by the Dallas Mavericks, the Luka Doncic trade's case as the worst deal in NBA history has only grown.
More than nine months after Harrison, the Mavs general manager, shockingly pulled the trigger on sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas owner Patrick Dumont dismissed Harrison after nearly constant calls for his job by fans and analysts alike, as well as a 3-8 start to the 2025-26 NBA season. Meanwhile, Doncic and the Lakers, at 8-3, have been flourishing.
And while most harshly criticized Harrison at the time of the trade, there were some who held back on going too far in lambasting the executive due to the evident weight fluctuations of Doncic, as well as reported instances of a poor work ethic and alarming health habits off the court. But Doncic, who is noticeably slimmer this season, is playing very, very well in Los Angeles, which popular podcaster Bill Simmons was something Harrison simply didn't account for before executing the trade.
“Now that it’s almost 10 months later, and you look back — this was really a ‘We don’t think Luka can be a face of our team' trade, and what’s the best we can do, and almost like we might be getting one over on the Lakers if we get this trade for him now because they don’t realize what they’re buying,” Simmons said on his podcast. “But the part they missed, which I said at the time, you’re lighting a fire under somebody who — the one thing you could kind of ding them on was, well, he’s not in great shape yet, he’s a little bit of a diva. All things that by trading him, you’re just lighting this massive fire under him to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to f—-ing show you.’ So it was the greatest thing that ever could have happened to him, which people said, including me, at the time. And that was the part he didn't factor into the trade. What is the potential of what I'm giving up? What happens if this guy goes up a level, which is what is happening?”
Doncic, who said he was blindsided by the trade, seemed to take it personally, and the subsequent reports in which Harrison and his allies attempted to justify the trade almost certainly did not help. Except it did help the Lakers, who replaced the injury-prone, 31-year-old Anthony Davis with, at worst, an out-of-shape 25-year-old Doncic. And while it did not ultimately pay off in a big way last season, Doncic has been white-hot for L.A. to start this season.
Although he's missed four of the team's 11 games, Doncic is averaging 37.1 points, 9.4 rebounds, 9.1 assists, and shooting career-highs or near-career highs from the field, at the free-throw line, on two-point shots, and his true shooting percentage would also be a career-high. Because of the stellar play of Doncic, as well as Austin Reaves, the Lakers are half a game back from second place in the Western Conference even without LeBron James.
Doncic and the Lakers are set to play the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder tonight in OKC at 6:30 p.m. PT.
