Rating of the amazing Lakers-Mavs Trade: Who won Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis Swap?

On By Littum

GOOOOOOOOD MORNING, NBA fans!

Under the front of Night, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks decided to shake up the world of basketball and carry out a trade that most people wouldn’t even dare to pull off the NBA 2K.

Lakers acquired Luka Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris from Dallas, who sent Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first round in 2029.

(Utah Jazz was slapped in as a third team that received Jalen Hood-Schifino and two elections in 2025.

Of course, this trade is about Lakers and Mavericks. No one so allegedly this coming. Be honest. Who made Maxi Kleber be traded on their bingo card?

Joking aside, let’s judge the trade.

Mavericks allegedly approached Lakers to move from Dončić, one of the best players in the NBA and an international superstar at the beginning of his starring role.

Maverick’s general manager, Nico Harrison, told ESPN that he thinks defense wins championships that are a fine ideology if you still live in 1989. Yes, Davis is undoubtedly a top-5 player in the league and at worst A top -2, two -wall player when it comes to defensive and offensive influence. That said, and with Davis deserving any superlative under the sun …

Huh?

Davis is about to turn 32. He and Kyrie Irving will have a short window to win a title, and if they don’t win, it will have cost Mavericks – who made the final last year with Dončić, by the way – a 25 -year -old superstar, who would have had at least another 7-8 years of elite games in him.

This is an extremely strange trade from Mavericks, even when taking into account the reported conditioning problems that Dallas experienced with Dončić during his career there.

But looking back is meaningless. It is now about the future, both the immediate and the long -term. And Mavericks abandoned it all for a limited shot on a title, in a league where there are no guarantees.

No, there were no guarantees with Dončić either, but at least he had age on his side, and at least he helped them to the final last year.

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Mavs have To win the whole damn thing for this to not blow up in their face. It all boils down to whether we believe in their project and let’s just say that there are questions ahead.

How do you give a team A+ for a season (this) and AC for the next five years? That’s the challenge we’re up against here.

This is the most fluent B- in the story of characters.

You can’t go under an A here, and probably not even under an A+if we assume Dončić will be the same playoff murderer he has always been. The conditioning problems are fair, but until we see that these problems prevent him from playing at a ridiculous level, you cannot use them as a real argument.

How is Lakers still gone away with this?

This organization just made one of the biggest trades this year, with the help of a great player, yes, but one who approaches the end of his prime and an unknown choice of 2029 to acquire a player – Nay, The player – to transfer them from LeBron James Era.

This is obviously a great sludge -dunk for lakers, even including potential conditioning problems.

Did they get better for the rest of this season? It depends on how Dončić returns from an injury. He has been out since Christmas, after going down with a calf injury against Minnesota Timberwolves.

It is safe to say that they got better in the long term, and for Lakers it might have been motivation all the time, even if it comes at the expense of James’ last year.

What will be an interesting sub -plan for all this is how Dončić will see this situation. He, like Davis and James, was reportedly not informed of the trade until it happens, and it is unknown if he is even interested in being a lacquer long -term.

Maybe he is and everything is okay. But Dončić can opt out in 2026 and seek his wealth elsewhere. After experiencing being traded, it is more likely that Dončić will no longer believe much in loyalty from teams and thus decide to cut his own path.

Maybe he could ask his old friend in Denver to force the organization to clear Cap space for that summer?

Whatever happens, one thing is for sure. The NBA world was just shaken to its core. If Luka Dončić from all players can be shopped, all is fair game.

We could be in a hell of a trade deadline.