Other GMs’ Stunned ‘, Call Maverick’s’ secret process to trade Luka Doncic to Laker’s’ card -sighted’

Everyone was shocked When news broke Saturday night that Luka Doncic had been is traded to Lakers for Anthony Davis: Fans, players on other teams and even the players involved in the trade and their agents had no idea this happened before minutes before it was completed.

Also in the dark: other general leaders and front offices – and they are cursed over it.

These other GMs see this as Dallas GM Nico Harrison neglects his duty by not shopping Doncic around to extract the most value in trade instead of lasing in on Just Davis and Lakers. Here’s what some leaders told howard beck at The Ringer.

“The return sucks. Your job is to get the best return, ”said another Western Conference Team Executive.

“It’s short -sighted,” said an Eastern Conference Team Executive, adding, “If you want to do this, shopping for the guy. The offers you could have received for him are ridiculous. “

Espns Ramona Shelburne and Tim Macmahon Mentioned leaders were “furious and jealous.”

Incredible, ”a Western Conference Executive told ESPN.

“I’m stunned,” an Eastern Conference Executive texted.

From the Dallas perspective there were two parts for this trade. Around the league, team leaders and fans are still trying to wrap their heads around both of it – what so much from both of them.

The first was the decision to move on from Doncic in the first place. Teams don’t trade away a 25-year-old, first-team All-NBA five years in the process of top-five players in the world who enter their prime unless forced to do so. Doncic forced no such thing; He is literally just closing Escrow on a new $ 12 million home in the Dallas area. Doncic planned to stay with the team both because he wanted to win in Dallas – he had visions of following the footsteps of Dirk Nowitzki, where he played his entire career with the franchise – and because they were the only team that could offer him a supermax contract This summer of five years, $ 345 million.

It was the contract that gave Dallas a break.

“There are some unique things about (Doncic’s) contract that we had to be aware of,” Harrison said at his press conference. “There are other teams that loaded. He would be able to decide (as a potential free agent in 2026), to his own decision at a time whether he wants to be here or not whether we will supermax him or not or whether he wants to opt out. So I think we had to consider all that and feel that we were coming out in front of what could have been a stormy summer. “

“Tumultuous Summer” is interesting formulation of Harrison.

In theory, the SuperMax contract was designed specifically for teams like Dallas to hang on their superstar players, like Doncic, and not make him romp to another market that offers similar money. The idea is to keep the best players with their team by incenting them with larger pay days.

However, Dallas seemed to have been afraid of the big SuperMax number, especially when he was tied to Harrison’s concern about Doncic’s commitment to conditioning. Doncic has never shown the obligation for conditioning that other stars like LeBron James have. There was a feeling that the calf tribe that has held Doncic sideline since Christmas this season could be the new norm, so for that and other reasons there was friction between Dallas and Doncic.

At that reasoning, Harrison talked about shopping Doncic now on what was supposed to be the top of his market.

Apart from Harrison, did not get a highlight of market returns, which is the second part of this trade that no one understands – and that is the part over which other GMs are angry. Why are mavericks setting for so much less than they could have been given?

Dallas landed Harrison’s top target-all-NBA-Tovejscenter Anthony Davis-and they also got Lakers’ 2029 first round. However, Mavericks did not require Lakers’ second available first round (2031) or a young player of quality as Dalton Knecht or both. Knicks gave up five The first round of choices to get Mikal Bridges last summer and while he is a good player, he is no Doncic. Many other GMs would have wanted the chance to beat Lakers’ offers.

On the other hand, Harrison had his reasons for keeping this quiet, starting with the chaos he knew would follow if Doncic was available. And he understood that there would be a massive setback from fans.

More than just fans, if Word of the Trade came out, Doncic himself would have complained, fans would have been sitting with him, and Dallas’ new ownership would probably have gathered for any trade. Former Maverick’s majority owner Mark Cuban (who sold his majority share last year) would undoubtedly have objected and killed the deal.

So Harrison went into stealth mode and only worked with Laker’s GM Rob Pelinka. Even Danny Ainge, the Utah director, who was the third part of the trade by taking on Jalen Hood-Schifino, did not know the most important players involved until less than an hour before the deal was completed.

Harrison got her husband and Dallas did not get dramatically worse in the short term – and they would claim they were getting better. Harrison wants to build a defense-leading team and culture, and Davis fits so much better in Harrison’s mind, although AD is six years older than Doncic and nowhere near the offensive strength.

“I just want to say there are levels for it,” Harrison said of how players gather in a team culture. “And there are people who fit the culture and there are people who come in and add to the culture. And these are two different things and I think the people who came in adding the culture. “

This culture must be strong because in the NBA talent wins most of the time, and Dallas Mavericks did not get enough talent back to send Doncic.