NBA Trade Grades: Mavericks send Luka Doncic to Lakers for Anthony Davis in mega-blockbuster
By Quinn Everts
Yes, you read that right. We think. According to Shams Charania of ESPN, the Dallas Mavericks are trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. The deal also reportedly includes Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to Los Angeles, and a 2029 first-round pick to the Mavs. Utah is also part of the deal, and will receive Jalen Hood-Schifino.
Few notifications have ever made me think I'm dreaming more than this one just did.
BREAKING: The Dallas Mavericks are trading Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, sources tell @ShamsCharania. Three-team deal that includes Utah. pic.twitter.com/joU6bXqnBJ
— ESPN (@espn) February 2, 2025
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Trade grades: Lakers somehow, apparently, truly get Luka Doncic
I'm going to venture to say that there's a lot of information we don't have quite yet, so I'll withhold full judgement until we get the whole story. But for now... the Lakers got Luka Doncic? Gonna go ahead and give that high marks, considering it's Luka Doncic. Who is now teammates with LeBron James. And the Lakers are pretty much immediately NBA Finals contenders.
We're going to see an awful lot of Jaxson Hayes and Christian Koloko in the postseason, but I think Lakers fans will be just fine with that considering they somehow just upgraded from Anthony Davis.
According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, the Mavericks are concerned about Doncic's conditioning and the potential of paying him a supermax extension this summer, which led them to approaching the Lakers about this deal.
They were scared of paying... Luka Doncic?
The Mavs had major concerns about moving forward with Luka Doncic due to his constant conditioning issues and the looming commitment of another supermax contract extension this summer, sources told ESPN.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 2, 2025
I don't even know how to grade this for Dallas. They didn't want Doncic (a bizarre sentence to write) and got an All-NBA center in return, but... why didn't they want Doncic? Giving a team a failing grade for acquiring an All-NBA player feels wrong — but this grade isn't just for this season, it's for the next ten seasons.
NOTE: I originally graded this a C for the Mavericks, under the assumption that Luka Doncic had asked for a trade to Los Angeles. Now knowing that wasn't the case — in fact, it's basically the opposite — this becomes one of the more baffling trades in NBA history. AD will be great as a defensive anchor in Dallas because he's still Anthony Davis... but this franchise has voluntarily taken itself out of Finals contention for years to come. That's a failure.