Holy Mother of... Luka to Lakers, AD to Dallas

[xAIRNESSx]

Nico is just the fall guy and has probably gotten assurances of job security, other opportunities or money under the table.

No doubt the owners went to him and told him to trade Luka. Most GMs would've resigned if they were forced into that position.

[Fairview4Life]

Nico is just the fall guy and has probably gotten assurances of job security, other opportunities or money under the table.

No doubt the owners went to him and told him to trade Luka. Most GMs would've resigned if they were forced into that position.

Nico and Kidd were both onboard with the trade.

[mdenny]

Nico is just the fall guy and has probably gotten assurances of job security, other opportunities or money under the table.

No doubt the owners went to him and told him to trade Luka. Most GMs would've resigned if they were forced into that position.

Nico and Kidd were both onboard with the trade.

Why do you say Kidd was on board?

[maternal85]

Nico is just the fall guy and has probably gotten assurances of job security, other opportunities or money under the table.

No doubt the owners went to him and told him to trade Luka. Most GMs would've resigned if they were forced into that position.

The owner must have given him a lot of money under the table. Because this is career suicide.

[DreamTeam09]

Nico is just the fall guy and has probably gotten assurances of job security, other opportunities or money under the table.

No doubt the owners went to him and told him to trade Luka. Most GMs would've resigned if they were forced into that position.

Nico and Kidd were both onboard with the trade.

Why do you say Kidd was on board?

Kidd wasn't on board with the timing, he doesn't mind trading of Luka, he's pissed they did it in the middle of the szn & ultimately screwed over his run.

[Los_29]

No one happier than Nico right now. lol.

[ontnut]

No one happier than Nico right now. lol.

Lakers should've had game 5. Up 10 going into the 4th, and JJ didn't give the starters any rest.

[Shakril]

No one happier than Nico right now. lol.

Lakers should've had game 5. Up 10 going into the 4th, and JJ didn't give the starters any rest.

Concur. These were close games all around. So its not unimagineable they win the next 3.

[MiamiSPX]

Prior to the injury and the trade I mused on how much Luka must be eating/drinking to actually gain that much weight during the season. I commented on it last season too. It's astonishing how much weight he gains given that he's on a court 5-6 times a week. It's the "reverse Lowry", where Luka has shown up in shape quite a few times and then plays himself out of shape throughout the season lol. I've never seen anything like it.

Still a horrendous trade though.

[Tripod]

Imagine if Luka decided "naw, LA is not for me" and just left them for nothing.

[WuTang_CMB]

Prior to the injury and the trade I mused on how much Luka must be eating/drinking to actually gain that much weight during the season. I commented on it last season too. It's astonishing how much weight he gains given that he's on a court 5-6 times a week. It's the "reverse Lowry", where Luka has shown up in shape quite a few times and then plays himself out of shape throughout the season lol. I've never seen anything like it.

Still a horrendous trade though.

he's got the fat genes

when he eats carbs and sugar he just explodes

[ill-Will03]

Luka getting destroyed by Jaden freaking McDaniels is kinda insane

[mdenny]

Imagine if Luka decided "naw, LA is not for me" and just left them for nothing.

If he doesn't sign this summer....it will be a huge media story for the entirety of next season. Also notable that jokic will be free agent at the same time. Which unfortunately means LA might sign jokic in 2027.

Or it could mean they sign somewhere together.

I don't think it's a sure thing that Doncic reups. I've I wre him....i might say "LA knew that I was gonna lose 100 million dollars by making that trade and they've arranged things where they get away with signing me at a HUGE discount".

There could be some resentment there, conceivably. But I'm probably grasping at straws.

[Raps in 4]

Imagine if Luka decided "naw, LA is not for me" and just left them for nothing.

If he doesn't sign this summer....it will be a huge media story for the entirety of next season. Also notable that jokic will be free agent at the same time. Which unfortunately means LA might sign jokic in 2027.

Or it could mean they sign somewhere together.

I don't think it's a sure thing that Doncic reups. I've I wre him....i might say "LA knew that I was gonna lose 100 million dollars by making that trade and they've arranged things where they get away with signing me at a HUGE discount".

There could be some resentment there, conceivably. But I'm probably grasping at straws.

They'll both come to Toronto to play with Giannis.

[Raps in 4]

Prior to the injury and the trade I mused on how much Luka must be eating/drinking to actually gain that much weight during the season. I commented on it last season too. It's astonishing how much weight he gains given that he's on a court 5-6 times a week. It's the "reverse Lowry", where Luka has shown up in shape quite a few times and then plays himself out of shape throughout the season lol. I've never seen anything like it.

Still a horrendous trade though.

he's got the fat genes

when he eats carbs and sugar he just explodes

You can be fat and have a good career (see Harden, Jokic, even Lowry). Some guys are just chubby naturally.

People blaming Luka's fatness for his pylon defence are missing the mark. He can't play defense because he has zero athleticism (which is a function of genetics, not weight). Him being skinny wouldn't help him much on that side of the ball (it would only hurt his offence, since he uses his size there).

[TakeYourHeart]

I think over time the reaction to this trade will be a lot more muted.

Staring down the barrel of paying Luka 345 million dollars, they determined they could not build a championship team around him. Right or wrong will continue to be debated but importantly it was not without its merits, namely Luka's defense and conditioning. And make no mistake about it, Luka was a generational cone in their finals run. Each series every year you're gambling that your opponent cannot exploit this.



They still wanted to be competitive, so a haul of young players and picks was not desirable. They wanted the best player they could get. Well let's go down the list. Jokic was unavailable, SGA was unavailable, Embiid's knees were cooked, Giannis was unavailable (at the time?), Ant was unavailable. It's not too long that you end up on Anthony Davis.

The Lakers themselves were pretty asset-strapped, but still, they should have gotten more from the Lakers. And that's about it.

[Ari_Emanuel]

Nico just needs to survive the first round. When Lakers are swept or lose 4-1, the narrative could quickly change after LA realizes they're left holding the Luka bag and will never win a chip with him.

[mihaic]

I think over time the reaction to this trade will be a lot more muted.

Staring down the barrel of paying Luka 345 million dollars, they determined they could not build a championship team around him. Right or wrong will continue to be debated but importantly it was not without its merits, namely Luka's defense and conditioning. And make no mistake about it, Luka was a generational cone in their finals run. Each series every year you're gambling that your opponent cannot exploit this.



They still wanted to be competitive, so a haul of young players and picks was not desirable. They wanted the best player they could get. Well let's go down the list. Jokic was unavailable, SGA was unavailable, Embiid's knees were cooked, Giannis was unavailable (at the time?), Ant was unavailable. It's not too long that you end up on Anthony Davis.

The Lakers themselves were pretty asset-strapped, but still, they should have gotten more from the Lakers. And that's about it.

They should have had a bid open to more teams if they wanted the best player they could get. AD is injured too often.

[CPT]

Nothing that happens with Luka in the future (and certainly not the playoffs this year) will change the fact that this was one of the worst trades of all time. There’s no scenario where Dallas wins this trade.

He could sign for $500 million and they could lose in the first round every year.

His value was what it was, and they didn’t come anywhere close to receiving fair value.

There’s also a chance he wins MVP in one of the next few years and maybe even a chip.

What this loss actually shows is that Pelinka isn’t very good and just fell ass backwards into this deal. Mark Williams doesn’t win this series for them, but there should have been something done to balance the roster.

[Westside Gunn]

Prior to the injury and the trade I mused on how much Luka must be eating/drinking to actually gain that much weight during the season. I commented on it last season too. It's astonishing how much weight he gains given that he's on a court 5-6 times a week. It's the "reverse Lowry", where Luka has shown up in shape quite a few times and then plays himself out of shape throughout the season lol. I've never seen anything like it.

Still a horrendous trade though.

he's got the fat genes

when he eats carbs and sugar he just explodes

Im no medical expert but with the medical monitoring these guys receive as players, wouldn't their bloodwork show the results of gaining that weight and unhealthy diets?