Emergency Pod | Luka Doncic Traded To Lakers For Anthony Davis!
50:08 Share

This show is sponsored by Liquid IV and I couldn't be happier about the timing. The calendar year turning to 2025 means your boy has officially started Boston Marathon training again. Yep, here we go. Looking at speed runs on the treadmill, tempo runs here in hilly Atlanta, and long runs over the weekend. And my go-to hydration before, during, and after each training session is Liquid IV. The reason is simple.

Just one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone. Powered by Live Hydra Science, Liquid IV is an optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins, and clinically tested nutrients to turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration. It delivers three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink.

And can we just keep it real here for a second? Liquid IV is leading the way in flavor innovation.

I legit like 'em all. I've tried 'em all! But my favorites right now are the six delicious sugar-free flavors: Raspberry Lemonade, that's the best, White Peach, shockingly tasty, Green Grape, let's go, and there's Lemon Lime, Raspberry Melon, and Rainbow Sherbet. Bangers after bangers. Embrace your ritual with extraordinary hydration from Liquid IV.

Get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to liquidiv.com and use the code NODUNKS at checkout. One more time for the people in the back, that's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code NODUNKS at liquidiv.com. Hey,

Hey, sports podcast fans. Did you know Discover is accepted in 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide? That's right, 99%. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. That could mean earnings rewards when you buy those last-minute tickets, those overpriced concessions, and that takeout you ate at home after you bailed on meeting your buddies at the bar.

Well, wherever you spend game day, remember, it pays to discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card. This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax.

Taxes was getting frustrated by your forms. Now Taxes is uploading your forms with a snap and a TurboTax expert will do your taxes for you. One who's backed by the latest tech, which cross-checks millions of data points for absolute accuracy. All of which makes it easy for you to get the most money back, guaranteed. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. ♪

Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Sunday, February 2nd, 2025. I'm Jay Skeets, here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, putting in some overtime work, is Tass Mellis. Basketball lovers, this is definitely for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy.

Trey Kirby. Hey-o! And over yonder, making the magic happen, I apologize for calling you early this morning, J.D. It's Super Producer. No need to apologize. Tis the season. Tis the season. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Shout out to everybody joining us live right now on YouTube. We love to see that. Hit the like button, subscribe. Podcast listeners, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review if you haven't. In a deal, well, hold on. Let's go to the Southern lawyer himself. This is a big one. Have at it, good sir. Oh!

Oh, geez, he's riding a horse! We got ourselves a horse! In a deal so shocking that many assumed it was fake when it was first reported the Los Angeles Lakers have acquired Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in a blockbuster three-team deal that sends Anthony Davis to Dallas for...

So the move sends Luka, Maxi Kleba, Markeith Morris to the Lakers in exchange for AD, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. The Utah Jazz getting in on the fun. They receive Jalen Hood-Cefino and two 2025 second-round picks. My God, Tass Mellis. Again, this one, when it happened last night, people were like, is this real? Did Shams get hacked? What the hell's going on here?

Luca to the Lakers, 80 to the Mavs. How surprised were you, I guess, is an insane question to ask. But what do you think? I think the question to ask is why? Why did the Mavs do this? Why exactly? Yeah, why? We need Brian Windhurst here. What do the Mavs know? That is the question. I've tried to talk myself into reasons over and over and over again.

It's that he is leaving in what could be a year and a half. They must know that he was departing, I suppose, and this was the time to actually go for it.

As a title contender, I suppose, which I agree with. You might as well go for it right here, right now with Anthony Davis and others, if you're going to lose Luca, but why not just keep Luca around for that? It's the other question. Okay. And then the flip to that is okay. Be in the, in the back channels. Luca said, Hey, I don't like it here. I want to be moved. I want to go. Okay. Maybe, maybe we learn of that. Right. But then if that's the case, don't you say to every other team in the association, uh,

Who wants Luka Doncic? Let's hear your best trade package. And you'd get more than Anthony Davis in a pick? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'd have basically every team imaginable lining up, giving you their best offer for a guy that's not even 26 years old, who's made all NBA basically every year, who averages 28-9-9 in his career, who's perennially an MVP favorite. Every team would line up to offer you a better deal than AD, Max Christie, and one pick.

I know we don't have other offers on the table. I do think, though, that this is the year to go for it in the Western Conference. Who do you think is going for it here? I would say, this is the question, who would you rather have right now in a series? Lucas, the answer. No, that's not the question. Mavs versus Lakers right here, right now.

In a series. Everybody's healthy. The Mavs might be better for the rest of the season. I agree. But this is not a move for this season for the Lakers. This is a move for the next 10 years of their franchise. They say, we got Luka. He's the next LeBron. You thought AD was the next face of the franchise? Nah. He's in Dallas now. Luka is our next face of the franchise. We're moving forward here. But what I'm saying is, if the Mavs were going to trade Luka, they know it. They know he's leaving. Or they know he's injured. Whatever it is. It's one of those two. We'll get to the injuries.

What year should they go for it? And I do think it is sooner rather than later. Just because OKC hasn't been there in the finals and then if you drop past OKC, it's a big drop off. This is the year to go for it. And whether or not there's a better deal. There really isn't a reason to give up Luka Doncic. This guy's an MVP candidate every single season. I'm just trying to talk myself into it. And they have talked themselves into it.

Somehow. Like, we will find out later on why they doubt Luka Doncic. I'm not talking myself into this one. There's no possible way. Kevin Pelton gave this an F. Kevin Pelton is like the most level-headed dude in NBA media over at ESPN. He gave this an F. And this feels like an F to get one pick back.

yeah it's not a good deal another pick they could throw in here i i agree that the mavs are already all in that was the thing they built an awesome team around luca the reason that kairi irving is in dallas on an extension is because luca donchich was there they've traded all their picks away already and now they're going to be running a team out there with two centers pj washington at the three they might be really good defensively but they would be a better team in the postseason if luca donchich was there if and anthony davis was not they went to the finals last

year i know it's crazy this is a bad trade for the mavericks and it might go down as the worst trade we've ever seen in nba history i do think though i'm it's a series right now i i don't know how you justify it as the maps but in a series right now i would take this new mavs team over the lakers team the lakers still have to get better in a bunch of ways center wing whatever luca is the best player in this deal i don't there's not a question yeah

I'm just trying to talk myself into how you give up the best player. Why? Why? Why? Why? Somebody has to know. Brian Windhorst has to know. Somebody has to know why they did this right now. And again, now is the time to do it. I suppose. It's strange. I don't get that. I don't get that reasoning. Why now is the time to do it? Because the West is going to be better next year. Again, if it comes out that Luka was not going to sign any sort of contract extension or want it out, and sure, we'll probably get that news at some point because that's the only thing that makes sense.

Or he's constantly injured or something is going on with his injuries. Right. Forget about the cat. He's never going to play basketball again. If that comes out and the Mavs like nailed it on that, then yes, a good trade, I guess. Well, you know, pretty far fetched. Well, yes, we don't know. In the finals last year, he was getting pain injections before every single game. He was limping in every single playoff series last year. Again, those are the only two reasons.

Yeah. I mean, you're not trading for a workhorse in Anthony Davis as well. That's the weird part. But these are the best Anthony Davis years, this one. It's weird that they didn't get another super-duper star. I mean, that's the weird part. I think, like, Bill Simmons' analogy here that he was using was, like, in terms of just trading the Lakers and not opening it up for other offers was, like, yeah, you have your house and you, like, want to sell it.

And you just decide, like, before you even put it on the market, you're just like, hey, man, I got a million. I guess I got $100 million. I got a $345 million house here. And the Lakers are like, we'll give you $100 million for it right now. And you're like, good, I'll take it. And you're like, oh, maybe a real estate agent would say, maybe, you know, $300 million.

get some other buyers in here, have a look at it. You probably could get more than a hundred million for it. That's what it feels like. And then, so my flip to that to keep the weird analogy going, is it like, is it possible that the, the Mavericks with this house in Luca, no, Holy crap. This is this where we built this house. It's going to fall off a cliff. You know, it's going to crumble. We have a problem in the basement and it's like, we'll just take whatever right now because we know something you don't, but still you can get more if you take it to the market. That's the perplexing part to me, the return here is,

for one of the greatest players we've seen over the last five or six years. So you're saying this is a Tom Hanks money pit situation? I guess so is what I'm getting at. They know what they're getting into. Maybe the Lakers don't. And maybe it's just Nico Harrison we've heard from a lot of reporting has a relationship with Anthony Davis from Nico's time with Nike. Like he's the guy that signed him to a Nike deal. Anthony Davis is still a good player. He's a top 10 player in the league. He's better than Luka this season because he's been more available recently.

maybe there isn't a better player they could get out there the problem though is that they didn't get the additional stuff with it max christie a decent prospect that like will be a helpful guy in their rotation but they should have at least gotten the lakers 31 pick considering the mavs don't control like what they don't i don't think they have 26 27 28 or 30 uh i'll

of their own draft picks because they've given them up for like P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, the Kyrie trade, stuff like that. They've traded away a lot of their future to build around Luka Doncic who had the torch passed to him from Dirk Nowitzki. You know...

don't that doesn't happen all that often where you have a franchise icon who retires and it has the perfect overlap with your next franchise icon I think prior to yesterday all of us would say Luka Doncic maybe has the best chance of anybody of being a one-team superstar in the NBA mm-hmm and now he's gone yeah by the trade deadline he was the MVP favorite coming into this season

He got traded before the trade deadline. As he was the year before. Yeah, it's nuts. He has had some infighting with his organization and his team before they got good. People wondered, was he leaving? And Nico, here's an amount of big, great moves. We all applauded. We were like, holy crap, great work at the deadline last year, bringing Gafford and Washington. And it worked. They go to the finals. I wonder how long the Mavs have been talking to teams because it is extremely weird if they just say, well,

Whoa, trade deadline's on February 6th? We got five days. Okay, here are Lakers. Let's make this work. They haven't talked to teams. We wouldn't know about it. Sam Amick said they approached one other team, right? And the other team turned it down. Well, that is the absolute weirdest thing. Yeah, it's super weird that the Mavs are pulling the plug. Because, I mean, that's all of the reporting. That's the same thing Windhorse was saying was that the Mavs are the team approaching and saying, we want to trade Luka. They went to the Lakers.

and did it not the other way around, not like the Lakers kicking the tires on it. The Mavs decided we're done with Luka Doncic, despite the fact that he's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's maybe not even in his prime, and he's a five-time All-NBA player? No, he's an MVP candidate every single season. He was an MVP candidate the second season until now, his second season until now. It's just, Nico Harrison's made great moves around him.

How? How? I can't believe that he only called one or two teams to make this happen, and then that's it. Yeah. I don't get that. That makes absolutely no sense. There have to be calls that are happening behind closed doors, behind what people are able to report. There has to be. No, I don't believe that because, like, I guess if he wants to get out of the Luka business, you almost – the opposite of, like, hey, everyone –

Luka is for sale, basically. Like, give us your best trade packages. You imagine the blowback that we are now doing, but you imagine... But they'd get more for it. I know! You just gotta... Maybe. Maybe they would. Maybe they would. Maybe they have called everybody in. Here's the thing. If Luka is saying, I'm going to the Lakers in 2026, maybe this is the best the Mavericks could do. Maybe they're that over the barrel on this sort of thing. Like, if you're the Spurs, are you trading all of your future to get Luka for 18 months? I don't know.

If you're the Thunder, are you trading your second best player in all of your picks to have Luka for 18 months? Sorry, he's not sticking around Oklahoma City. He's not sticking around San Antonio, where he already lives in Texas, and he's ready to get out of there. The Lakers are a glamour franchise. This always works out for them. They always have one of the generationally best players in the league. He was going to LA. I mean, I think this is a terrible move for the Mavericks. I think this is very dumb, and we're going to look back on this as a major L for Dallas Mavericks fans, but...

If he said, I'm going to the Lakers, he's going to the Lakers. When you think about red hot businesses like Allbirds or Skims, they have a lot in common, a great product, a cool brand and brilliant marketing and a business supporting them along the way to make selling simple. That's where Shopify comes in.

Nobody does selling better than Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet and the not-so-secret secret with ShopPay that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going through.

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whenever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout that those businesses I mentioned at the top use. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash theathletic.com.

all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash theathletic to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash theathletic.

Hey, sports podcast fans. Did you know Discover is accepted in 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide? That's right, 99%. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. That could mean earnings rewards when you buy those last minute tickets, those overpriced concessions, and that takeout you ate at home after you bailed on meeting your buddies at the bar.

Well, wherever you spend game day, remember, it pays to Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Ever feel like everything's getting more expensive? Groceries, rent, even breathing. And let's not forget car insurance. It just keeps creeping up.

But here's the thing. Insurify makes one part of life easier. It's an insurance comparison site that finds real-time quotes from dozens of top insurers. Insurance companies compete for your business, driving down prices. It's like having a friend who knows all the best deals but without the smug grin. You could save as much as $1,025 a year, and you might even cut your bill in half.

The best part, it's all online. No phone calls, no spam, no nonsense. You can be covered in as little as 10 minutes. And with an excellent star rating on Trustpilot, saving feels less impossible. So why not give it a shot? Visit Insurify.com and see how much you can save. That's I-N-S-U-R-I-F-Y dot com.

Average potential savings based on initial quotes received by 183,234 customers seeking insurance through Insurify. Actual savings may vary depending on state of residence, individual circumstances, coverage selections, and insurance provider. Savings results are not guaranteed.

Tim McMahon said last night 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. That was going to be the gargantuan Supermax, right? That's the five-year $345 million. He would have signed the biggest contract in NBA history. And he was ready to leave.

And then Mavs GM Nico Harrison told ESPN, quote, I believe that defense wins championships. I believe that getting an all-defensive center and an all-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We're built to win now and in the future. So that's, you know, you've got to have a response to, like, why the hell did you just trade Luka Doncic? Defense. That's his reason. Yeah, he started a defense chant. Yeah, but as a...

I don't, we shouldn't get into the money things because we don't understand it as well as everybody else. But our own John Hollinger said he's no longer eligible to sign a Gargantuan super max this summer. It can only extend for 30% of the cap beginning in 26, 27. And then he would do that three year minimum deal or sorry, excuse me, that three year extension. Yeah. So he could go get it in 26 and 29. I guess it is. Yes. Um, this is, so he's having a lot of money left on the table right now, right now. Um,

I don't buy this conditioning thing. I mean, the injuries, yes, we don't know about that. But as far as, oh, he's too fat to play basketball, that is absurd. He just dragged a team, a basketball team, with four guys beside him to the NBA Finals, and he's still super young here. Yeah.

And it's also like this is nothing new with Luka Doncic's body. He's basically been like this sort of since he was 17 years old. This is who he is. Okay. It's like the Mavs read Twitter and said, oh, people don't like Luka's conditioning and they don't like his defense. Throw that out there as a reason that we traded him. There's no possible good reason to trade Luka Doncic. He could weigh 350 pounds and still be the best player on the court. Yeah. Well, again, we...

We don't know about his injuries. We're talking about a guy who's not playing right now. He has a calf streak. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, we saw, I was out in San Francisco with Ash for a Mavericks game. He was getting worked on before the game for literally an hour for just his leg to get ready. So clearly there's something wrong with his leg, but fix his leg. Fix his leg. Don't trade him for Anthony Davis.

Who, by the way, is also injured right now. Well, right now, yeah. But he's been fairly healthy over the last little bit. He's literally hurt right now. Yeah. Oh, man. Okay. Do you think this is setting up another Lakers move? You know, you're seeing a lot of like, you know, now they have their franchise cornerstone for the future here.

Is there any possibility to – is LeBron the next huge piece? Does he find his way to Golden State to team up with Steph for one final run, and they get other pieces back to then build around Luka? Or is that very far-fetched, but maybe everything has to be in play at this point? I don't know. Well, I mean, literally everything is in play if Luka Doncic is getting traded. Yeah. I think you can – any dumb trade proposal you can come up with that works in the trade machine, put it in, and it's going to seem less ridiculous than this actually happening last night. Right, right.

The Lakers need to make some more moves. Their starting center is Jackson Hayes or Christian Coloco, so they've got to make some sort of move. Bucci, come on over, baby. Jonas Valanciunas, come to L.A. We will see. I think that Luka and LeBron will at least play out this season, and if you're the Lakers, they should want to keep LeBron at least for the rest of this year and say, hey, teach Luka how to be in shape. Teach Luka how to have a 20-year NBA career. He's not going to do it,

but he can learn some stuff from LeBron. That being said, it would not be surprising to me to see LeBron move on from the Lakers in the summer. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think the Lakers are probably looking for another center. Yeah, the Jackson Hayes, Christian Coloco, they got Maxi Kleban to steal, but he's more injured than the other two guys that we've been talking about for 30 minutes, and he ain't a center.

That's why this Lakers team, yeah, it's got plenty of questions. Yeah, I think Luka beside LeBron, the 40-year-old and the 25-year-old making it work is good off the floor because LeBron will say, hey, I pay a million dollars to get in great shape every single season. I'll give him to you for 900K. How about that? I don't know what the deal is, but he just has to get in better shape every single month. I guess that's what they're looking at.

I don't see why he does. I don't get this reasoning. He just goes out there and kills. He just needs to be on the court. It doesn't matter how in shape he is as long as he's on the court. Well, he's 25 to play until he's later. LeBron could maybe convince him. Maybe. Could convince him to say, look at

I'm a 40-year-old man playing basketball. If you play like you, you can't do that. But if you have a trainer, maybe you could. I was getting ready to queue up a tweet last night that was going to say the Lakers could feasibly go from having the all-time leading scorer in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to LeBron James to Luka Doncic, but he ain't playing that long.

long. Like that's not a guy that's going to play until he's 40. Same as Kareem did. Same as LeBron has done. Yeah. That's on. It's very, very unlike. It is amazing where we are here. Like we were hearing like league and team sources were basically suggesting when it came to Lakers, like temper your expectations here coming up to the trade deadline. Like they only have like these like sort of mid-sized salaries to trade. They have the two picks and,

But, you know, what are they really going to get? Maybe they'll get AD some center help. Maybe Valanchunas will be there or whatever other piece you talked yourself into, smaller piece.

And now here we are on Sunday morning and it's goddamn Luka Doncic is there. It does like the Lakers can't keep getting away with this. They will always keep getting away with this. They're the most famous franchise in the league. And this is literally why they give Kobe Bryant the gigantic contract at the end of his career when they were not a playoff team. They paid him $50 million a year. Everybody's like, what? This guy's retiring. It looks awesome. It makes players want to go there. They got LeBron first. They got AD next. And now Luka Doncic is there.

They always have a superstar and they always find a way to acquire them via trade or via free agency when it looks like they're down and out. The Lakers are not down and out anymore. It's not going to be this season that they win the championship, but they're going to be vaulting up the rankings. I know their odds changed last night from what, like 40 to one to 20 to one or something like that. Sure. That's a fair chance. Maybe there's a 5% chance that the Lakers win the title this year, but next year, who knows who decides to come and play with at

At least Luka, maybe LeBron and Luka. We'll see. And to do it without exhausting your supply of draft picks is absolutely wild to me. That part I can't wrap my head around. Like you said, they had other picks where Dallas should at the very least be like, you got to give us more, man. You got to give us everything. We are giving you Luka here.

And they're like, no, we don't have to. Cuz, seems like you think this, TK? He's like, he's coming to us eventually, baby. So here's our low ball offer. I mean, you still get one of the greatest players of all time in AD and has played well and has been generally healthy. I get that. He will help them. Although they have a lot of good, talented big guys too, so that weird fit. But anyway, that's my favorite part of this whole thing.

Maybe the Lakers got so tired of Anthony Davis saying, hey, man, I need a five. Hey, man, I want to stop playing five. I don't want to be a center anymore. No more, man. And they're like, oh, God, would you shut up already? Just trade him. Trade him to the Mavericks. They got a couple good centers. See if he likes it. But baffling. Baffling that they did not get more for Luka Doncic is what I get at. Anthony Davis had to be the best player to get them where they want to get this year that they could get, I assume. That they could possibly get in a trade.

Because you look at their team now here on paper with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving as your guys. And Klay is there as your championship history. And now you have Derek Lively starting beside Anthony Davis, getting the center that he wanted. I know they have way too many with Daniel Gafford there. That's the confusing part. But you throw those guys in with great wing players and great hardcore tough players in P.J. Washington. And then you throw in your Quinton Grimes and Max Christie as a player and your Najee Marshalls.

They have a team I think could be a contender if they all play together. And this is the season. I know it's not – it doesn't happen automatically. But if there is a year, it's this OKC where they haven't proven to be together.

And all that excellent in the playoffs. And then there is a drop-off with the young teams in the Rockets and the Grizzlies who haven't gotten all that far, but they're still a damn good team. And then it drops off to the Nuggets and Clippers and others. But it's got to be seriously hard for them to do it. And your two guys that you listed as your star players are older. This is the youngest they'll ever be. This is the youngest they'll ever be. Right this second. Oh, the last second. So they're 31, 32 now. They're turning 32 and 33. Yeah.

Klay's getting older. And they don't have a lot of their own draft capital, as TK said. It has to work. And that Lakers pick ain't going to be that good, probably. There's that part of the equation as well. All those future Lakers picks are suddenly not maybe as exciting or enticing if Luka's the cornerstone there. I mean, just look what happened with the Hawks when they did the trade for DeJounte Murray to the Pelicans. They got back a Lakers pick from them, thinking this is going to be nice. It's going to be a top 10 pick. It's in the middle of the 20s, and this is not a great Lakers team.

Who knows what Rob Polinka is going to be able to cook up. Nobody expected this coming. I guess that Rob Polinka is going to have a job for life now with the Lakers. It seemed like he already did, and he wasn't making great moves. He's bringing in Luka Doncic to the next era of the franchise. Incredible stuff. So who knows what they're going to be able to do between now and 2029, the kind of players they're going to be able to lure, saying, look, we got –

the next superstar ready here. Maybe LeBron will stick around. You can learn a little bit from him. They got Austin Reeves will be a nice player next to Luka. They got some good creators out there. It's kind of weird. I feel like the Mavericks have zero creators right now. They got Kyrie, who's good, but they don't have any shooting if they're going to be starting

Lively or Gafford and then AD and PJ Washington, their defense is going to be good, but their second best playmaker is Spencer Dinwiddie. So I don't know how realistic that is. On the other side, the Lakers have all playmakers and no defense. So what's going to happen there? They're going to be fun to watch. And JJ Redick must be beside himself with joy thinking about the plays he gets to draw up here. He's got the two smartest dudes in the league and Luca and LeBron outside of Jokic. So I don't know, man, this is, this is just crazy stuff.

Luka's going to be on the Lakers. He's probably going to get a statue with the Lakers. Probably going to get his jersey retired with the Lakers. You're probably right. Lakers got, what, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in their prime. They got Shaquille O'Neal in their prime. They got Pau Gasol in his prime. And I know that trade coming up a lot because of the date it happened.

compared to this one, February 1st, and just sort of a shocking, oh my god, that's all it took to get that type of player. Anthony Davis, they got in their prime, though that took way more to actually get AD. Now, that was a trade request, that was a well-known one, three promising young players, that took Ball, Hart, Brandon Ingram, number four pick of the draft.

two unprotected first round picks so that's a much bigger haul really when you look at it uh and now they got luca and of course they've had kobe bryant that was different circumstances they draft get him in the draft yeah it's just nuts they always have one well we'll go back then yeah yeah it's uh also a pretty unbelievable in the nba history pretty unbelievable um what else

The Jazz! Just kidding, just kidding. But this is kind of amazing because LeBron has always been a Luka fan. Coming out of, coming into the draft, LeBron wanted Luka to be like the first guy to wear his shoes. He chose Jordan Brand.

Instead, he's been after him for a long time. Kyrie Irving wanted to play with Anthony Davis back in the Boston Celtics days. Danny Ainge must be like, I finally did it. I finally united Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. Of course, it wasn't Boston. Six years later in a completely different spot after two separate teams for both of those guys. But it's happening. Yeah, I did like all of the takes from people last night saying that the Mavericks have put together the best team of sidekicks ever assembled.

Kyrie, Klay Thompson, and Anthony Davis. They got a lot of number two guys. Scotty Pippen, come on down. That's fascinating. I see, like, there's some similarities, if I remember correctly, to Luka leaving here in a trade to Steve Nash moving on from Dallas back in 2004. Not a trade at the time, but he was playing well. He was a two-time All-Star. He was two All-NBA selections with Dallas at the time. And then they

They declined to offer Nash a new contract that summer Mark Cuban famously does Because he was concerned about his health And his back And Nash goes on And wins consecutive MVPs And obviously some success And by the way, the Mavericks had a Western Conference Finals appearance With Nash and Dirk So they were a good team And that was shocking

Maybe, like, again, when you bring up the injury concerns, I know one's a trade, Luka better, even the Nash at that point and all that, but there's some similarities. Maybe. To the reasoning, I guess, at least. Cuban is still there. He's still part of the whole thing. He regrets the Nash move, I'm sure, but I suppose he was...

In these conversations, there had to have been these conversations. That's the crazy part. You see Dirk, the guy who was this team, tweet that red face, surprised, shocked that this is happening to his old team.

I guess he didn't know about it. That came out of nowhere for him. You're right. And Cuban has said he regrets the Nash thing. There was a, that's the quote graphic going around last night saying that with Cuban saying, if he had to choose between his wife and Luca, he's going to get a divorce. Oh, right. Yes. Well, like was Nico just freelancing.

Did anybody else know that he was calling around? It's just wild. I want to know if Nico was hanging out with Rob like last night on a Saturday night because this has the feelings of like they're just like drinking some wine, shooting the shit in the booth and like, you know, start spitballing a little bit here and, you know, Nico, maybe a couple too many pops in him says something like...

I shouldn't say this, but I don't think Luca wants to stay with us. And Robin's really interesting, actually. And they make a deal happen right there. And they go like, they start giggling, like, who's going to text Shams? Who wants to give it to Shams? Okay, you do it. You do it. We're going to shock the world. But I literally had to say, this is actually...

Yes! Yes! Oh my god, yeah. Trey did a hilarious little emergency shedcast. You were in your shed last night at like 1 o'clock. He's in his PJs reacting to this. I was dead to the world. It was like... Honestly...

As weird as this sounds, it's like... It's just the classic This League, man. It's just like... This League is so silly and so fun that you can only laugh. And you see all the texts, obviously, that were coming through while I was sleeping. Then I see your video. And it's like, okay, well, I guess we're working on a Sunday here. But it's just...

I was laughing and I'm like telling Nora and she's trying like, what, what is that? Why is this? What's this big deal? And I'm like, it is funny when you have to explain like, well, they didn't get any draft picks. Usually when a guy's 25 years old, one of the best players in the league, you're gonna get a lot of draft picks. Mikhail Bridges. He's not even an all-star. He got five draft picks. So yeah, my kids were like, what is a draft pick? I was like, all you need to know is that Luke is a Laker.

This episode is brought to you by Love Hurts. Kiwi Kwan has had quite a career, from childhood roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies to a recent Academy Award win for Everything Everywhere All at Once. But now, Ki finally stars as a leading man in the film Love Hurts. Love Hurts is the perfect date night movie with its mix of over-the-top action, comedy, and a ton of heart. Love Hurts, only at theaters February 7th.

You know what's smart? Enjoying a fresh gourmet meal at home that you didn't have to cook. Meet Factor, your loophole in the laws of mealtime. Chef-crafted meals delivered with a tap, ready in just two minutes. You know what's even smarter? Treating yourself without cheating your goals. Factor is dietician-approved, chef-prepared, and you-plated. Pretty smart, huh? Refresh your routine and eat smart with Factor. Learn more at factormeals.com.

What did you think when you obviously looked at your phone at some point in the morning? You were like, oh, wow, okay. Yeah, I didn't get it on my phone, thankfully. I got it straight on my computer. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it was really nice that this is real, that this is happening in the company Slack, that this isn't entirely fake, and we don't need to check the notes, those additional notes that are on X. People seriously wondered if this...

Sean's tweet was hacked. Oh, yeah. How could you not? How could you not at this time to trade Luka, who they're waiting for, we all thought, to come back and be healthy and go to the finals again in all their effort to go and get, yeah, AD, who ain't getting younger, and who's injured himself. I was just entirely shocked. I just had to absorb it. And, yeah, I take it to Danielle, and I tell her, and she said...

She was even surprised. And she's just not a basketball nerd like any of us. So she was shocked. You know it's a crazy trade when CNN is dropping the headline. Yeah. Whoa. Is this the most stunning...

Trade in NBA history? Shocking, however you want to call it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah? Is there any others that even... This is a mid-season trade. This is a mid-season trade. So, like, I'm trying to... Like, I think I said in the shed last night that this kind of a trade comes around once a decade. That's not even true. Because, like, I'm thinking back. The Harden trade from OKC to Houston was pretty surprising. But that happened in... It happened in the summer right before training camp started. The Thunder were coming off of...

their finals appearance we all thought okay the Thunder the next dynasty here so that was super shocking the guy was a sixth man though he was not yet an MVP candidate slash all NBA player and it was a big like they had to make a decision it felt like between Harden and Ibaka and it was like who are we really gonna like give the money to because well we can't have

Yeah, you can ask our buddy Grish. I was team Harden even back then. Right call even back then. Prior to that, I was like Kevin Garnett going from the Timberwolves to the Celtics. That was a humongous trade. It started with the Ray Allen deal on draft night. But KG had had a long time playing with the Minnesota Timberwolves at that point. And there were rumors that he was going to go to the Lakers or the Celtics. I think he was an early guy to have a list. So that one wasn't it to me. The only thing I could think of

in my brain Rolodex for a shocking moment like this, I hate to say it. RIP was when Kobe Bryant passed away. I was like,

This can't be real. Real. That it actually happened. And that's why to me, I was like, I had a visceral reaction. My stomach hurt. I'm not like a Lakers fan or a Mavs fan, but to see a deal this big was crazy, man. Like, I don't know. Maybe the old heads out there would be Kareem forcing a trade from the Bucs to, you guessed it, the Lakers way back then. Yeah. I'm trying to think like when Shaq was traded to the Heat and that deal, like Lamar Odom and Karam Butler and whatever, Brian Grant, you know, end of the...

End of the, obviously, Kobe sort of Shaq dynasty. There's the Pau Gasol one, but this isn't really even on that level. Then there's other just timing ones are weird. DeMarcus Cousins getting traded during the All-Star game. Again, not a name on Luka's level. Blake Griffin getting traded to the Pistons was weird because we were told he was going to be like his jersey was going up in the rafters before he was done playing with the Clips and suddenly he was dealt...

Those are the ones off the top of my head. But this one, to me, trumps them all, yeah. Yeah, it sure does. I'm trying to think what Nico Harrison is actually thinking, how it all works, and trying to think if, let's say, Luka Doncic can't play more than...

another three playoffs for some reason. He'll be done in three years. Would this be worth it? Or would you rather just sit on Luka, just sit on Luka rather than make any trade and just see him in the playoffs three times rather than have a first round pick and Anthony Davis for this? I do want to see Anthony Davis and Kyrie and the shooters of clay and PJ Washington around them with Derek Lively, who got them to the finals. Like I do think they have more three point shooting than you're saying they do.

Well, they're going to be playing two non-shooters most of the time. If Anthony Davis really wants to play with a five. Because he's a non-shooter now. He thinks he is. I mean, he can shoot the ball. He's 26% from three since the bubble. Yeah. And his mid-range is gone. And he wants to play four. Where you usually have to be a shooter, like the Mavs have had for the past, this season and last season. Yeah, he's going to end the game at the five. There's no doubt. There has to be. He has to play the five. But he'll play half the minutes at four, I assume.

Anyway, I'm just trying to... How does this make sense? Well, I think what you're saying, I think a lot of people even maybe agree with you. Like, the Dallas Mavericks, it is a good team, and we're going to see it. Like, this is all hypothetical. We've got to see the pieces together, how they all fit. Even the Luka LeBron part, I mean, you do got to see how it works. Those are ball-dominant guys. Will they make it work? Probably. But the point is, people might agree with you, like, the Mavs tomorrow or this season...

Yeah, they might be better. They like this roster might be better than what the Lakers currently have going on, having no center, having some holes to fill and all that. Yeah. But like, it's still super potentially super short sighted. Yeah. And it's like, unless these maybe Rob and Nico know, like, Hey man, the world's done.

It's over as we know it. That's in play. And besides that, I don't get the long-term plans. This isn't 35-year-old Luka. This is not at the end. No, no, no. That's why it doesn't make sense. This is not even prime, Luka. That's why it doesn't. So that part's weird.

That's why it doesn't make sense. You could get more. Yeah, yeah. Any other winners and losers from this blockbuster trade? Us. Well, living on the East Coast, definitely a loser. The West Coast people had it made last night.

at a nine o'clock, I guess what finding out around nine, nine 30, uh, TK, where you get, you said you were getting in bed. Is that true? Yeah. I watched, um, I watched the Royal rumble to see what happened. And that was John Cena afterwards. What? Then I watched the first half of Jackie Chan's drunken master. Oh, and then I was ready to go to bed. Yeah. I was like one last check of the phone. Scroll, scroll, scroll. This can't be real. This is real.

Are my boys awake? Oh, boy. My boys were asleep. Ash was awake for a little bit. He's a young man at heart, just like me. But it does make me think. One thing I was thinking this morning was like, is this why Mark Cuban sold the Mavericks last year? Did he know? It was weird that he would sell the Mavericks. The guy is known for being a Mavericks owner slash governor. And it was weird that he would just back out with Luka there. Yeah.

We were like, is Mark Cuban running for president? Yeah, you're like, well, something's going to come out. Was it this? Yeah, I was definitely wondering why he moved on. Now, he is still sort of part of the organization, but he's not part of the Department of Government Efficiency. I mean, he hasn't moved into an entirely new job yet.

But it was weird. Yeah, entirely. Do we know if he's commented on this trade? I haven't seen it. No, no, no. The first thing I did, actually, I forgot to mention, when I saw traded the Shed cast, I was wondering if Jamal Shed was traded. Was he dealt? What's going on here? What is going on here? There's so many questions.

Stunning moment in the NBA. Nobody really prepared for this. Nobody even, I mean, I guess, okay, I was going to say nobody even considered this a possibility, but people have been for years saying, you watch, Luka will get to the Lakers. You know, there's been either whispers or maybe that's just wishful thinking that because it's the Lakers, they always get a guy like Luka. So there were people that did call that. But man, this makes trade discussions about

Jimmy Butler, De'Aaron Fox, Cam Johnson seem pretty inconsequential. Yeah, I think so. If LeBron gets traded.

I don't think it'll happen this year. I think maybe a summer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, as you talk about the Cuban thing, I would love to know the infighting details of what Luka had going on with Dallas because there are more of those reports, you know, where he was, he wasn't appreciative of Bob Valgaris saying, stop telling me to calm down, that whole thing. And that whole thing was sort of overblown and Valgaris said that's,

bull pucky and that wasn't real but he did he was in some sort of infighting with the Mavericks and he just wanted a beer after going to the NBA finals Michael Finley just grabs it right from him

There has to be way more than we know, other than he was leaving, other than he wants to be a Los Angeles Laker, other than he was going to somewhere. I thought it would be to the East Coast, like a huge organization like the Knicks or something to be closer to Slovenia instead of being further from Slovenia or something. I mean, it had to be a big organization.

Don't worry, it was. He's the biggest organization. Yeah, the one of the one. Okay, who writes the crazy piece then with all of the intel and all of the actual behind the scenes, the infighting or the whatever they saw or knew about his knee or leg or whatever?

Who gets it? Is it a Tim McMahon? Because he's pretty plugged in. Mark Stein, obviously, in the Dallas sort of organization or has his tentacles in there. Ramona Shelburne always comes through with these. Sam Amick is locked in for sure. Exactly. Tim Cato's got some stories. I can't wait. Get to writing.

Get to writing. All right. Well, any other final thoughts here before we wrap this up and get ready for tomorrow's NBA weekend winners and losers? I think this is good for Jalen Hood-Chafino. Okay. People are seeing his name. They're like, oh, yeah. He might have a chance to play on the Jazz. Yeah. Yeah. And Jazz discussion. Literally, they're like, hey, a trade's happening? Throw us some picks. Why not? Yeah.

They had a trade earlier in the day, did they not? Yeah, PJ Tucker. Yeah, we'll talk about that on tomorrow. PJ Tucker and Jalen Horton-Tuccarino on one day? Damn. That's big. Top three winner of the trade deadline yesterday. I was thinking about Jalen Horton-Tuccarino. Is Horton-Tuccarino going to take all of Jalen Horton-Tuccarino's minutes? He's a bull. He's a bull now, but maybe he should go back to Utah. Maybe everybody's going to go back to Utah. I don't know. It was weird just going to the Lakers salaries now and seeing...

Luka Doncic there. And just the table now. And what JJ Redick is going to have to work with. That's the most interesting part to me is how he's going to get them involved. Because he was so enthusiastic about getting a team that revolved around moving and just constantly moving. And now it's, here's the ball. The opposite of that. Here's the ball, LeBron. And Austin Reeves, who will work well with those guys. But yeah, the JJ Redick...

Are they going to have one anymore ever? Him and LeBron, I guess they stopped doing that for a while. But that relationship is really interesting in how J.J. Redick will make it work. It really is a trade that was too good to be true for the Lakers when you think about it because it's not like the Lakers are hanging on to a playing spot or sub 500. Actually playing well, solid record, fifth currently in the West, right behind the Nuggets, home court advantage, all that. Right.

But you couldn't turn this down. Like, no matter what impact it has on the rest of your season, whether it hurts your chances in a playoff series or going to a conference finals or even a finals, and like one last hurrah for LeBron, like it doesn't matter. It's too good. It's so little going out the door for Luka, for your next guy that like, okay, we're just like, we stay in every headline imaginable.

And we are like a team that you have to watch. And we're on nationally televised games all the time. Not only because we're the Lakers, but now because we still have like a top five, top three guy in the league. The Lakers traded a first ballot guaranteed Hall of Famer, already a top 75 player and a first round pick. And everybody thinks they're the winner in the trade. Yeah. That's how easy of a decision this was for LA. The reason they've turned their season around a little bit here is because of the defense. And Anthony Davis is obviously the biggest part of that. But...

That's going to be changing. I do like that Luka and Dorian Finney-Smith have a good relationship from their time in Dallas, so he knows him. Obviously, JJ and Luka played together in Dallas. LeBron and JJ had the podcast. These guys are going to be...

doing everything they can to make it work they've got three good ball handlers the offenses look better with austin reeves handling it more so than lebron so i wonder like lebron is a decent off-ball player now good catch and shoot three-point shooter because luca will be the number one guy he'll be the guy handling the ball most of the time but there will be a little bit of an adjustment period uh for figuring out how reeves and lebron fit around him because that guy takes up

Such a huge portion of possessions. LeBron has never played with a guy like Luka Doncic who deserves the ball more than LeBron does. That's never happened. Wild. Man. You got any final thoughts?

No, no final thoughts. I mean, we will be doing another podcast on Monday. I'm sure it's going to be all this, really. Well, yeah, we'll see how much more we learn. It's got to be something. What else trickles out behind the scenes. Can't wait. We will be here Monday regardless, doing our NBA weekend winners and losers and probably talking a lot more about this. Let's hear from you, though. Obviously, sounding off right now in the stream team on YouTube. Oh.

Get in the comments your thoughts on the trade, who you think wins this. Do the Mavs deserve an F that I saw Pelton drop on them too? Which you don't see, you're right, very often from them, especially that guy. What do you think? And where do we go from here? What's the next domino to fall as we get ready for the trade deadline, which is by the way on Thursday.

my god what a setup what a setup for I don't know if this is gonna make it the most exciting trade deadline of all time or like no way now it's like sort of like you don't count this as part of the trade deadline no I do I do but yes but the most exciting ever the impact it has on the other big name the other names yeah yeah and also the most exciting all-star game

in a long, long time just because of the fact that everybody's got to trade teams and move on and this is what they'll be talking about. Yeah, I wish Luka was an all-star this year though. Yeah. That sucks because we could have seen like had a little test run with LeBron and Luka getting drafted to the same team and yeah, some whatever. They'll still be talking about it. I'm glad that the trade deadline happens before the all-star game because it used to be the flip. Mm-hmm.

It wasn't as good. I like it. This is a juicy all-star game. All right. We're back on Monday. Until then, everybody, have a great Sunday. Clipper Bros? You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, our man Zach Harper at The Athletic gave the Mavs a C. Oh. C. They passed. F, C, maybe. C's get degrees. That's right. Brace your Sunday, people.

Hey, sports podcast fans. Did you know Discover is accepted in 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide? That's right, 99%. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. That could mean earnings rewards when you buy those last-minute tickets, those overpriced concessions, and that takeout you ate at home after you bailed on meeting your buddies at the bar.

Well, wherever you spend game day, remember, it pays to Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.

It's the final week of the transfer window, and that sound you can hear is David Ornstein's phone blowing up. I'm Ayo Akinwalerit, and you can join me, David, and our esteemed reporters every day on the Athletic FC podcast as we leave no stone unturned on picking every major deal. You know, this is a major development, and let's see how it goes forward. Don't miss a beat with the Athletic FC podcast. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.