Luka Doncic rumors: Mavs remarkable misplay, mystery team revelation, GMs take shots

Yes, somehow, this really did happen. The Dallas Mavericks, for reasons their fans will never be able to comprehend, traded Luka Doncic before he even reached his prime to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that netted Anthony Davis. Obviously, Davis is a great player, but he's not Doncic, and he also happens to be six years older.

This is one of the most fascinating trades in professional sports history. Nobody outside of the respective GMs and probably a handful of others knew this was going down. Even LeBron James, a player often referred to as "LeGM," apparently had no idea this was in the cards. Plus, how often do we see superstars swapped in a deal for one another, especially when neither of them even requested to get traded?

The latest Luka Doncic rumors add a little more insight into what exactly went down on Saturday.

Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like it, share it with an enemy!

Luka Doncic rumors: Anonymous executive fires massive shot at Mavericks for underwhelming trade return

Perhaps the most surprising detail of this trade is that nobody knew it was coming. Doncic did not request to be traded, and the Mavericks never showed any desire to part with their young mega-star. With that in mind, there was no bidding war that took place.

Knowing this, when one anonymous NBA executive was asked about what he'd be willing to offer in a deal for Doncic, his response was "everything."

Now, this executive might've been running a team like the Chicago Bulls, devoid of many exciting assets to offer a team like Dallas, but still - pretty much any NBA team would've had this mindset. The opportunity to trade for a 25-year-old top-five player in the sport is not one that comes along ever.

If this was the best Dallas could've gotten for Doncic, so be it, but they did not even seem to try to get more. The Mavericks could have run the most exciting bidding war in NBA history and completely changed the trajectory of their franchise in the process. Instead, they wound up shrinking their window by acquiring an injury-prone 31-year-old and only one first-round pick.

At the very least, it feels as if the Mavericks could have gotten the other tradable first-round pick that the Lakers had to offer, and/or younger players like Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht. Instead, since they passed on a bidding war, they wound up with an extremely underwhelming package.

Luka Doncic rumors: Mystery team Mavericks reached out to before Lakers for Luka trade has been revealed

While the Mavericks refrained from a bidding war, they did, reportedly, reach out to one other team before settling on Anthony Davis and the Lakers. According to NBA insider Jake Weinbach, that mystery team turned out to be the Milwaukee Bucks. The Mavericks had their eye on Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Trading Doncic would've disappointed Mavericks fans no matter what the return they got was, but had that return been a player like Antetokounmpo. it would've been an easier deal to digest.

Antetokounmpo might only be one year younger than Davis, but he's a player that even Mavericks fans would acknowledge is probably better than Doncic right now. Sure, he isn't much of a shooter, but Antetokounmpo is still averaging just a shade under 32 points per game this season to go along with 12 rebounds and nearly six assists per night while also chipping in with All-NBA-caliber defense.

With Antetokounmpo, the Mavericks would've added a player who can score seemingly just as much as Doncic while also providing a massive boost on the defensive side of the ball. Unfortunately, the Bucks evidently were not interested in this swap, which isn't a huge surprise.

Luka Doncic rumors: Dallas traded Luka Doncic for player Lakers were unwilling to extend

It's being reported that one of the reasons why the Mavericks traded Doncic was because they did not want to give him a super-max contract. That makes some sense, considering his injury history and conditioning concerns, but still - he's a 25-year-old superstar. Paying him makes a whole lot more sense than not.

Instead of simply paying him, the Mavericks traded him for a 31-year-old who the Lakers reportedly were unwilling to give an extension to.

That's right, the Mavericks traded their 25-year-old because they did not want to pay him, only to trade him for a 31-year-old that the Lakers did not want to pay.

Davis is extension-eligible after next season, and the only way they can possibly begin to justify making this deal would be by extending him. The Mavericks really would rather extend Davis into his mid-to-late-30s instead of Doncic into his prime years?

Doncic has his concerns, but it's not as if Davis doesn't. The Lakers did not want to extend him because of those very concerns. Doncic is going to continue to improve as he approaches his prime, and chances are, Davis will only begin to regress by the time he reaches his mid-30s. The Mavericks inexplicably shrunk their championship window, and might have even gotten worse right now as well, by making this trade.