NBA Insider reveals 5 ‘real’ reasons why Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to Lakers

Each NBA fan is still trying to make sense of the movement that Dalla’s Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers made exactly nine days ago that changed the field for both franchises in the coming years. It was arguably the most shocking trade of time, as fan bases from both sides had no idea it came.

Dallas traded Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to Los Angeles for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a unique first round, and Maverick’s fans have been in a rebellion ever since the trade went down and tried to find out why Nico Harrison wanted to Make this step and why he settles for the little return if he was really ready to move on from Doncic. He had just brought the Mavericks to the NBA final last season, and he approached a return to the hardwood when he was dealing with a left calf stem, which he suffered on Christmas Day. He was ready to return before the All-Star break (when he makes his Lakers debut tonight), and rather than riding it out and see if Doncic could take them to the promised land again, they traded him.

This step came out of nowhere when Harrison and Rob Pelinka worked in silence (outside of updates with owners Jeanie Buss and Patrick Dumont), and no matter how hard fans think of this trade, no one can give a full sense of it. The logic seems deficient at the surface level, and Maverick’s anger over this trait may never go away.

Insider reveals five important reasons for Dallas’ shocking doncic -trading

Dallas gave up a generation of 25-year-old superstar prematurely, and when time goes by, we continue to learn more about Harrison’s thinking behind this shocking move all the time. NBA -Insider Marc Stein released a massive Piece about trade with Doncic-Davis (subscription required) on Sunday and his reporting revealed part of the real story of why Dallas made this step.

Stein had a faq part of this intel-packed piece, and one of the questions if there was “what was the real reason for the trade?” While Stein made it clear that “digging can, will and must continue” when it comes to the rationale behind the trade, he gave five clear reasons why Harrison would move in a different direction. Ever since Dallas’ loss of five games to Boston Celtics in the NBA final last season, Harrison “has increasingly believed” these things about Doncic.

5. Harrison did not believe that Doncic would change his conditioning and diet

One of Doncic’s biggest banks in the last few years has been his conditioning, and it was clear at night to trade that this was one of Harrison’s biggest reasons for making this controversial step.

Stein reported that Harrison thought Doncic “would not improve his commitment to conditioning or his off-Court dietary discipline” and thus went on. Different reports indicate that Doncic’s weight would fluctuate vigorously during the season, and although this remains true, it does not change the fact that Doncic’s conditioning was good enough to play 40.9 minutes per day. Fight in the final game last season and lead Mavs all the way to the NBA final.

A lot of accusation of this trade on his conditioning has been an interesting tactic when he came from the best season of his career, but Harrison did not think he would ever take this part of his game seriously.

4. Harrison doubted Doncic’s leadership

One of the biggest quotes from Harrison’s press conference after the trade last Sunday was that he thinks there are “people who fit the culture and there are people coming in and adding to the culture,” he thought he thought that Davis and Christie would add to that culture while it refers to Doncic just fitting the culture.

Dumont supported this point when he recently referred to believe that Doncic did not fit into the Mavericks culture and that his work ethic was not good enough to win a championship.

Stein’s reporting further supported Harrison’s mindset on this part of Doncic when Harrison thought he “would not improve as a leader or cultural setter.”

Doncic’s leadership had definitely improved in the two years he spent playing with Kyrie Irving, and although it was clear that Irving was the true leader of the team, Doncic followed right behind him. If Dallas needed a big bucket, the ball was almost always in Doncic’s hands, and his expertise on the field trumped any concern that the team might have about his leadership. Doncic and Irving had grown tremendously close to the field for the past two years, and they didn’t even give him the chance to reach his full leadership potential with Irving’s help and grow more.

Doncic’s leadership had grown significantly in front of everyone’s eyes since his rookie year, but clearly not enough for Harrison’s taste.

3. Harrison thought Doncic complained to the judges would not improve

One of Doncic’s biggest critics from fans and the media has been his complaint to judges. It at times threw him from his game, but Maverick’s fans learned to live with it, no matter how frustrating to see it at times.

Harrison thought Doncic “would not improve his well -crowned comportion problems with the judges,” according to Stein, and it has been clear for some time now that Mavericks was tired of this part of his game. His teammates “asked” him to make this change during the playoffs last season, and Harrison thought he would never change.

Giving up a franchisee because of the way he spoke and behaved against the judges is impervious, and although it was inevitable to get to the point where it was a problem, considering that he was consistently one of League leaders in technical violations, it’s still not enough for a reason to trade him.

Each superstar player has some of their games that need to be better. Teams almost always find a way to live with these problems, but Dallas had enough.

2. Harrison did not believe that Doncic could remain healthy over the years

Doncic has treated an abundance of injuries in the last year or so, but it did not significantly affect his availability before this season. He fought through countless damage on the way to the NBA final last year to the point that he had to receive a pain -relieving injection during the final against Boston as he employed Give everything to Dallas.

Doncic said this calf injury was the first time he was actually taking the time for the wounded calf to heal rather than hurry back and try to return before he was 100 percent healthy, and Harrison acting him to stay healthy during his career.

Harrison thought Doncic “would not be able to stay healthy as he got older,” and although his injuries this season has been well, his injuries in the first seven seasons of his career have not been a major problem. He played about 67 games per year. Season for the first six seasons of his career, which is equal to approx. 81 percent of the matches.

You take your superstar playing in 81 percent of games every day of the week, but Harrison probably thought his injuries would just get worse.

1. Harrison would not give Doncic SuperMax -expansion

Doncic was due to a SuperMax contract extension this summer, but Mavericks would not give it to him.

Stein reported that Harrison thought Doncic “couldn’t, after Mavericks and Dončić struggled with these issues since Harrison arrived in June 2021, got the five-year SuperMax agreement worth nearly $ 350 million, which he expected in July . ”

Doncic made it clear that he was planning to sign this expansion with Mavs during his Laker’s introductory press conference, and no one from his camp ever referred that he would not sign that expansion. He would be a maverick for life and would bring the city of Dallas a championship, but Harrison did not feel comfortable making that type of commitment.

Any other team in the league would probably have given Doncic this contract as he deserves more than it, and leaders from other teams would have thrown on the chance of Harrison spoke only with Pelinka, no other team had a chance.

The details of this trade continue to be more confusing when time goes on, and possibly the only things that would ever make this trade worth it would be Davis who brings a championship to Dallas and Doncic struggling with each of the questions that Harrison traded with him for the rest of his career. Even then, it is mildly to trade with a 25-year-old superstar for a 31-year-old superstar, to put it mildly, and Mavericks’ window to win shrink from the next 10 years to the next four years.