Explaining the Unexplainable: The Trade

Let me play contrarian for a moment.

What if Dallas Mavericks GM, Nico Harrison did the right thing? Currently, many fans and analysts are questioning his surprise decision to trade Luke Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package centered around Anthony Davis. I’d like to at least try and understand his rationale.

Sometimes, I think that people view basketball, and sports wrong. We probably think entirely too much about the stars and not enough about the other 10 or 11 guys on the team. 

Sure, It is hard to find elite talent like Luka, but it’s also hard to construct a full roster of players that can work to compliment a star. How many times have we said “this guy needs more help”.  In the NBA, those “help” players do the unheralded work of rebounding, defening, and making tough finishes at the rim. They secure the perimeter and hit open jumpers. There’s also usually a secondary ball handler that can credibly run the offense when the star is off-ball or just off the court.

The Mavericks have these things, and just like a star, they too can be hard to obtain. At least in the last 2 years, Anthony Davis’ 118 games played, dwarfs Luka’s 92. AD doesn’t have the best health history, but Nico seems to be betting that the next few years of AD will work better with a supporting cast that is ready to win now. I respect this bet.

In my mind, if Nico traded Luka like this, he may know more than we realize about the Slovenian star. Perhaps the chronic calf injuries are worse than we think. Maybe the conditioning rumors are actually true. It’s also possible that building everything around a heliocentric defensive liability has proven too difficult.

Windows of contention open and shut quickly. Who is to say that the Mavericks window would remain open in the time it takes Luka to heal his calf, improve his conditioning, and become the reliable leader this team needs. If that process takes another year or more, this supporting cast could age out and by then Luka would have begun the supermax that would pay him roughly $70 million per season (previously set to be available to him Summer 2025).

This move may be untraditional, unconventional, and unprecedented, but if you look close enough, it’s also understandable.