Luka?? To LA????

[doclinkin]

I do think this is an ego thing. Two GMs that are friendly with each other got irked by players who are primadonnas or publicly playing GM and they chose to swap them for each other. To put them in their place, like.

Nico Harrison has gotten rid of Lukas friends and entourage one by one since he’s been there. When he says he wants a culture change he means he doesn’t want a player with more power than the GM. Now that Cuban no longer has veto power he can act unchecked. Unibrow wants centers? Dallas has two. He’ll love it here. Send him my way.

Meanwhile Pelinka looks forward to a post LeBJ era when his own star players won’t try to do his job for him through the media. Can’t trade Bron. But got the next best thing for now.

They both did it on the hush hush since if it leaked the players would probably kill it on twitter and tank their value. Luka loses his super max. Brow can’t play with his Klutch buddy.

[DCZards]

I honestly don’t know what to think about this trade or the reasons behind it. But at the end of the day the Dallas owner signed off on it which says to me it’s less about the egos of the GMs or the desire to send a message to players and their agents…and more about Luka.

You don’t trade a massive talent like Luka who hasn’t even reached his prime unless he’s a major problem for the franchise—and you think he’ll continue to be one.

Looks to me like an awful trade on Dallas’ part—but then again I have no idea what was happening behind the scenes with the Mavs and Luka.

[Rafael122]

More podcasts I listen to, the more I have come to this conclusion: I wouldn't have done the trade, but there is a timeline where this actually doesn't work out for the Lakers.

[pancakes3]

More podcasts I listen to, the more I have come to this conclusion: I wouldn't have done the trade, but there is a timeline where this actually doesn't work out for the Lakers.

Same. 2 videos specifically:

1) The video where Michael Finley took the beer away from Luka after winning the WCF last year
2) The video of a random gamer matched with Luka on Overwatch, and then resulting revelation that Luka's ranked in the top 500 in that game.

Obviously nothing wrong with having a beer after the game, but if Michael Finely, as VP of Player Personnel and Assistant GM is doing that, at best it's bc of a culture issue, and at worst, Luka quietly has a booze problem that the Mavs have done a good job keeping under wraps.

Obviously nothing wrong with playing some video games but the number of hours it takes to get into the top 500 (Overwatch averages 20 million + players/month) is astronomical. And this isn't game lying like Elon with Diablo, Luka was on the mic playing with people, and he's moving and shooting in the game like an actual pro. Bigger deal than Kyler Murray.

[closg00]

Dang

Read on Twitter

[Benjammin]

^^^Losing a $100 million dollars more from a super max contract plus paying California state taxes instead of no state taxes in Texas are likely bigger factors.

[Kanyewest]

More podcasts I listen to, the more I have come to this conclusion: I wouldn't have done the trade, but there is a timeline where this actually doesn't work out for the Lakers.

Same. 2 videos specifically:

1) The video where Michael Finley took the beer away from Luka after winning the WCF last year
2) The video of a random gamer matched with Luka on Overwatch, and then resulting revelation that Luka's ranked in the top 500 in that game.

Obviously nothing wrong with having a beer after the game, but if Michael Finely, as VP of Player Personnel and Assistant GM is doing that, at best it's bc of a culture issue, and at worst, Luka quietly has a booze problem that the Mavs have done a good job keeping under wraps.

Obviously nothing wrong with playing some video games but the number of hours it takes to get into the top 500 (Overwatch averages 20 million + players/month) is astronomical. And this isn't game lying like Elon with Diablo, Luka was on the mic playing with people, and he's moving and shooting in the game like an actual pro. Bigger deal than Kyler Murray.

The Celtics players were celebrating their conference finals by spraying/shotgunning beer as well.

One month after Luka was said to be top 500 in Overwatch his team made it to the NBA Finals.

Anthony Davis is also a big video gamer, he's playing Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Sports games, and became pc gamer during the Bubble. He also has streamed on Twitch- one time streaming 3 hours. Davis also said that Max Christie is a good Warzone player.

Anthony Davis also has said that LeBron is now top 1000 in the world in Madden.

Gilbert Arenas was also a big gamer during the Agent Zero hey day - people praised him for not going out and playing video games.

[AFM]

The video game thing I don’t think matters. I always thought Luka had a drinking problem. It’s just speculation on my part but it runs in my family and I had a bad problem in my 20s. The rapid weight gain, bloated face, redness/flushed face. All signs. I’m a big fan of his so hopefully I’m wrong, it’s a hell of a thing to have to deal with. Was that why they traded him? I don’t think so. I genuinely think Nico just thinks AD is better than Luka and that he’s smarter than everyone else. It’s why he had to do this deal in secrecy. He knows everyone else disagrees with that assessment so the deal couldn’t leak or the entire NBA fandom would lose their minds.

[Rafael122]

The video game thing I don’t think matters. I always thought Luka had a drinking problem. It’s just speculation on my part but it runs in my family and I had a bad problem in my 20s. The rapid weight gain, bloated face, redness/flushed face. All signs. I’m a big fan of his so hopefully I’m wrong, it’s a hell of a thing to have to deal with. Was that why they traded him? I don’t think so. I genuinely think Nico just thinks AD is better than Luka and that he’s smarter than everyone else. It’s why he had to do this deal in secrecy. He knows everyone else disagrees with that assessment so the deal couldn’t leak or the entire NBA fandom would lose their minds.

He's a hookah and beer guy.

[9 and 20]

Don't really understand the trade at all. Very much a Webber/Richmond vibe - totally agree. Also, several years ago Dallas had a couple dudes who enjoyed themselves but managed to do OK on the court too -

[Kanyewest]

Nico is a great GM. He traded Porzingis and a 2nd rounder for Spencer Dinwiddie and the super in shape Davis Bertans. He ended up letting Brunson walk instead of extending him for $50 million, wise move (one time I saw Brunson who was really drunk when Villanova won the national championship and Nico was right to worry about his drinking habits).