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On Saturday night, we got our second trade of the season. In a three-team deal between Sacramento, Cleveland and Chicago, the Cavaliers sent De’Andre Hunter to the Kings for Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder. Dario Šarić went to the Bulls with two second-rounders. This is mostly a salary dump for the second-apron Cavs. They’ll save somewhere between $45 million and $50 million in luxury tax money. I like this more for Sacramento than I do for Cleveland. It shows that the Cavs don’t believe in their team this season.
However, there’s one trade on our mind today — and it isn’t Giannis Antetokounmpo …
One year later
The Luka trade is still hard to believe
One year ago today, the Mavericks shocked the world by trading away 25-year old Luka Dončić to the Lakers. Luka was sent with Markieff Morris and Maxi Kleber in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and one first-round pick in the 2029 draft. That’s it. That’s the entirety of the deal.
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From the jump, it sounded like such a fake trade that everybody assumed our old colleague Shams Charania had been hacked. The deal came out of nowhere. No indication that the Mavericks were looking to trade him. No putting feelers out into the trade market. Nico Harrison simply reached out to Rob Pelinka and the Lakers. Why? Because Harrison really liked then 32-year old Anthony Davis. Harrison used to be an executive at Nike and worked closely with AD.
There was no trade market for Luka, because Harrison didn’t want to field offers. He just wanted to acquire Davis. It was instantly the worst trade in NBA history.
Some people will try to get cute. Tell you it’s not that bad. Tell you the Lakers have yet to get any closer to a title than when they made the trade. And technically, that last part is true.
However, it’s the single greatest mismanagement of trade value in league history. Put Luka on the open market a year ago, and the number of draft picks coming in could be added up with one of those money-counting machines in that infamous “Scarface” montage. The Mavs also didn’t get Austin Reaves. They didn’t grab more draft capital. They just made a historically bad trade. Harrison went from one of the most respected executives in the league to a complete outcast.
This is some of the fallout since:
- Davis has played in 29 of the 79 Mavs games since the trade. Dallas is 16-13 with AD.
- He and Kyrie Irving have played 25 total minutes together.
- The Mavs are 32-50 since the trade. The Lakers are 51-32.
- Luka is averaging 31.4 points, 8.3 assists and 7.9 rebounds in 68 games with the Lakers.
Harrison said at the time of the trade that he was going to be judged in three to four years, not a full decade. He also said after the Mavs inexplicably won the No. 1 pick in the lottery and drafted Cooper Flagg that fans could finally start to see the vision. The vision of trading away Luka for a defensive big who can’t stay on the court and then hoping your 1.8 percent lottery odds would land Flagg?
Harrison was fired 11 games into this season. There are rumors you still hear the echoes of the “Fire Nico!” chants in certain corners of the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Again, I reiterate: the absolute worst trade in NBA history. You see the vision, though.
Luka says the Lakers are in a good spot one year later, Dan Woike writes.
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The last 24
😡 No Kidding. Speaking of the Mavs, Jason Kidd isn’t having criticism of his coaching. “I know what the f— I’m doing.”
🦌 Be patient? The Warriors are desperate to trade for Giannis. The Bucks would be smart to wait.
🤔 Bad moves? It rarely works out when a team goes all-in for a star trade. It’s the Superstar Trap.
🤝 Another trade. The Blazers just acquired a much-needed shooter. Vit Krejci is going to the PNW.
🗣️ Sticking with it. Doc Rivers has been very direct in his criticism of ICE. He’s not walking any of it back.
🗽 King of New York? LeBron James should play for the Knicks next season, Ian O’Connor writes.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Who got snubbed?
LeBron makes All-Star Game; Kawhi doesn’t
The All-Star reserves were voted on by the coaches and named during the NBC/Peacock broadcast yesterday. Here are your East All-Stars:
- Starters: Giannis, Jalen Brunson, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham.
- Reserves: Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Duren, Karl-Anthony Towns, Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell, Scottie Barnes.
And your West All-Stars:
- Starters: Nikola Jokić, Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry
- Reserves: LeBron, Chet Holmgren, Jamal Murray, Deni Avdija, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant
We have six first-time All-Stars named, all from the reserve category. Johnson, Duren and Powell are first-timers in the East. Holmgren, Murray and Avdija are all first-timers in the West. LeBron extended his record for All-Star selections with his 22nd nod.
Who got snubbed? That’s what everybody wants to know and opine on. In the West, my two biggest snubs would be Alperen Şengün and Kawhi Leonard. You can also make a case for Dillon Brooks, and Rudy Gobert’s defense had him in the mix. Did he deserve it more than Julius Randle on his own team, though?
You’d either have to argue for one of these West snubs getting in over Holmgren (not happening with the Thunder so far ahead in the West) or LeBron (he should absolutely be there for his potential last All-Star Game).
In the East, my biggest snubs would be Brandon Ingram, Joel Embiid and Bam Adebayo. For the most part, I think the East reserves were pretty dead-on. Siakam has been awesome, despite his team’s awful record. But I don’t understand the Towns selection. His numbers (20.0 points, 11.8 rebounds) are good, but his shooting is the worst since his rookie season, and he’s had a lot of issues in New York this season. I’d have either Ingram or Embiid over Towns.
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We’ll get the full setup with rosters from the NBA tomorrow. We know Giannis will have to be replaced in the East, as he is out with a right calf injury. Towns (Dominican Republic) and Powell (Jamaica) both have FIBA ties to international teams. We don’t know if the league will pick someone from the East to replace Giannis or if it will rule that one of those guys are international players for the game’s new setup, explained here.
NBA Stock Report
Knicks, Hornets are trending up
📈 Knicks (31-8). Remember when the sky was falling in New York about two weeks ago? The sky is back up! The Knicks have won six straight, and five of them have been double-digit victories. The Knicks have held their opponents under 100 points four times in these six games, and the Lakers scored exactly 100 on Sunday in MSG. New York is allowing just 27.1 percent from 3 during this stretch. It’s outscored opponents by 114 points at the 3-point line. In six games!
📉 Bucks (18-29). We pretty much know the Giannis era is coming to an end in Milwaukee. This Bucks team is horrendous without him on the floor, so this is going to get ugly in Milwaukee. The Bucks score 105.4 points per 100 possessions when Giannis isn’t on the floor. To put that into context, that would be the worst offensive rating in the NBA over the last four seasons. The good news is the Bucks will have a pretty good draft pick with the way this is going.
📈 Hornets (22-28). Winners of 15 of their last 25 games, the Hornets are currently on a six-game win streak. They’re just 1.5 games behind the Hawks for the 10th spot in the East. In their last 25 games, the Hornets have the NBA’s best offense. More importantly, they have the ninth-best defense. The emergence of Moussa Diabaté has helped bring the defense together. Diabaté is averaging 8.6 points, 9.4 rebounds and just over a block per game and the team is plus-208 in the 22 games he’s played.
📉 Trail Blazers (23-27). The Blazers are losing grip of the rope a little bit. They’ve now lost five straight and have fallen to 10th in the West. They hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the Mavericks and Grizzlies. They’re the worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA but take the fourth-most 3-point attempts. Of their top-10 3-point shooters, only Jerami Grant (36.6 percent) is above league average (35.9).
📈 Timberwolves (31-9). The Wolves have won four straight games. The highlight of this streak was the win over OKC last week, when they played the type of physical, overwhelming defense the Thunder usually deploy. They’re fourth in defensive rating, fifth in effective field-goal percentage allowed, ninth in 3-point percentage allowed, third in second-chance points allowed and eighth in fast-break points allowed.
📉 Kings (12-39). Nine straight losses for the Kings. Remember the whole “Light the Beam” gimmick? I’m not sure they even know where the beam button is at this point. They just don’t fit together at all, and on so many nights Doug Christie is running out of timeouts early as he tries to stop the bleeding. This is their longest losing streak since 2021. If they lose at home to Memphis on Wednesday, it’ll be their first 10-game losing streak since 1998.
(Check out the full NBA standings here, and read the extended version of the NBA Stock Report every Monday in my NBA Rewind.)