Luka Dončić got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
I’m sorry but … WHAT!?!?!? How? Why?
We don’t have all the answers just yet, but as we absorb the news of the NBA’s blockbuster Lakers-Mavericks-Jazz three-way trade, we can look at the big picture and make some key takeaways. This is perhaps the most shocking trade in NBA annals, at least in my time circling the sun. Out of the blue, a 25-year-old superstar with time left to run on his contract has changed teams. I’m sure there’s more backstory we’re going to find out in the coming days, but right now, it looks like a massive risk for the Mavericks and an incredible stroke of fortune for the Lakers.
Per league sources, the terms are that Dončić, Markieff Morris and Maxi Kleber are going to the Lakers, and Anthony Davis and Max Christie are going to Dallas. Jalen Hood-Schifino goes to Utah along with a 2025 second-round pick from each team (the LA Clippers’ 2025 pick is being sent from the Lakers; a complicated swap is being sent from Dallas, but it will ultimately result in it being Dallas’ pick in 2025 unless the Washington Wizards win every game the rest of the season). Utah is sending back couch change (the minimum consideration of $110,000), split among Dallas and L.A., to legally complete the deal.
Let’s start with the lowest-hanging fruit. The easiest side to analyze is that of Los Angeles: This was absolutely a no-brainer for the Lakers. Like, “Get Dallas and the league’s lawyers on the phone right now before they change their mind,” territory.
Regardless of what you may think about Dončić’s injuries or conditioning or attitude or complaining to officials or whatever, the full-strength version of Luka is easily a top-five player in the league. In the postseason, in particular, he’s perhaps the best offensive player on the planet because of his ability to manipulate matchups in a half-court setting. He’s also just 25, allowing the Lakers to reset the clock on a roster that was simultaneously getting long in the tooth and suffering a diminishing ceiling.
I can’t emphasize this enough: Generational 25-year-olds don’t get traded. Usually players of this ilk aren’t moved until their third contract, if they move at all. And when they are moved, the receiving team usually has to give up everyyyyything to get him.
Not so much for L.A. To do this and only give up its 2029 first-round pick — keeping its first-round choice in 2031 — means that L.A. basically sets itself up for a five-year window where Dončić can carry the Lakers into the post-LeBron James era while also serving as the drawing card to perhaps lure in another star free agent.
Secondarily, can we talk about Davis’ position? His stated preference is to play power forward, but the problem is that, offensively, he’s not very good at it; he’s much more effective playing the center spot. However, that position is already the Mavericks’ second-biggest strength after the Luka-Kyrie Irving core; Daniel Gafford is having a monstrous season, as I noted mere hours ago, and Dereck Lively II is one of the best young big men in the league.
One can fairly wonder if the Mavs thought Davis and the 2029 unprotected first from the Lakers were the best return available in the moment, but that the combo of Davis and the pick also serves as a store of value from which to make future deals. Dallas has three years and some change with Davis as a result of his recent extension but could also pivot into another trade at some point. Similarly, that Lakers pick could combine with other money to acquire more help for their two aging stars.
The same can be said of the Mavericks’ other bigs; perhaps this deal positions them to sell high on Gafford and ride with Davis and Lively. That would let them satisfy Davis by starting him as the four but playing him at center in crunchtime.
As for attracting future talent to the Lakers, that’s easier with Dončić because the Lakers will actually have him at a discount. He is no longer eligible to sign a gargantuan supermax this summer and can only extend for 30 percent of the cap beginning in 2026-27. (He can sign this summer, but the first year of the new money comes in 2026-27.)
It seems likely that Dončić will sign a shorter extension this summer with a player option in 2028, which would allow him to re-sign after his 10th year of service, in the summer of 2028, for the full 35 percent of the cap. If so, that effectively gives the Lakers roughly $8 million in extra cap wiggle room in the summers of 2026 and 2027 relative to what they would have paid Davis … right as James is likely gliding off into retirement.
The only downside, perhaps, is that a Dončić-James tandem is a less-clean fit than a James-Davis tandem. But that only matters if you think the current version of these Lakers were title contenders as constructed. They’re not, but they can reach that point again quicker with Dončić in tow.
Now for the fun part. The construction of this trade is pretty technical because both teams were in the luxury tax at the time of the deal. The Mavericks set it up to get out of the tax, but the Lakers were constrained by being over the collective bargaining agreement’s first apron and capped at the second apron.
Those constraints all but forced L.A. to include Christie — whom I had been told earlier this year had been re-signed for four years, $32 million this past summer as much to be a trade piece as to be a keeper on the Lakers roster — with a salary dump of Hood-Schifino to Utah completing the circle. (Utah will need to waive a player, quite possibly the recently acquired P.J. Tucker, before taking Hood-Schifino into its room exception, a new quirk available in the most recent CBA.) Dallas then had to send out Morris because the Lakers could take him into a minimum exception.
As I mentioned, the deal was set up to get Dallas out of the luxury tax while still being cap-legal from L.A.’s end and just barely cleared both hurdles. That makes the Mavs the second of the 14 tax teams to wriggle out in a 24-hour span and drops Kleber’s $11 million obligation onto the Lakers next season.
Kleber has been a total zero on offense, but his presence helps even out the money in 2025-26, when Davis’ recent extension kicks in and gives him a bump to $54.7 million, which is more than $8 million over what Dončić will make.
All that said, I’m worried I’ve buried the lede here. The Mavs have made a lot of smart moves over the past two seasons since GM Nico Harrison arrived, culminating in last spring’s march to the NBA Finals. Perhaps they’re getting out in front of a potential problem and everything will make a lot more sense a year or two from now.
But … the disaster potential on this one seems really high. The Mavs are now both old and expensive, and they don’t control their first-round pick between the years 2027 and 2030, when their current roster is likely to bottom out. Irving turns 33 next month, and Davis turns 32; neither has been an ironman even in the best of times. One has to wonder what is the realistic shelf life for an Irving-Davis partnership to threaten the upper ranks of the cutthroat Western Conference.
