How do you explain the inexplicable? Are the Dallas Mavericks’ new casino magnate owners exploding the team to strong-arm the Texas state legislature into approving the finest resort-casino that the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has ever seen? Are they angling for a move to Las Vegas? Is it that, as they imply, Luka Doncic can’t stop eating and/or drinking? Or maybe it’s the “ultimate ego-trip” of “power hungry” Mavericks’ general manager Nico Harrison?
Despite the schizoid rush to attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence, the Mavs’ still-incomprehensible decision to send Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis (and other sundries) represents a return to the NBA’s historical equilibrium. Even as the new luxury tax aprons have upended the league, the Lakers are demonstrating the same ruthless institutional ambition that they’ve had for 70 years. They traded for Doncic for the same reason that they landed Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Shaquille O’Neal and Pau Gasol: because they could. The thing about Lakers Exceptionalism is that they really are exceptional.
In Doncic, the franchise most defined by its stars has its next franchise-defining star. At just 25 years old, Doncic already has a Hall of Fame career. His five All-NBA first team appearances exceed Bill Russell’s total; he averages the third most points per game of all time. On a purely statistical level, nobody this young has ever had a Basketball Reference page this good.
Fittingly, Doncic is the spiritual successor to LeBron James, his once idol and now teammate. Like James, Doncic is unguardable because he can press on the faultlines of any plan that his defense has to guard him, dominating on-ball defenders with his shot-making and out-foxing help defenders with his court vision.
Although Doncic is, at worst, the third best basketball player alive, this deal nudges the Lakers’ roster a little off-center: he duplicates a lot of the playmaking genius that James already provides, but none of the necessary interior scoring or defensive ballast that Davis did. More, the real genius of the move isn’t that it sets the Lakers up to make a title push during the waning embers of James’ career (although, in conjunction with their trade for Mark Williams, it absolutely does), but that it guarantees extended contendership for as long as Doncic is on the team.
By trading for Doncic, the Lakers have once again demonstrated their signature competitive advantage: they’re free to be cynical, unblinkered by idealism. Whereas the other 29 teams scrimp and scrounge to find the right alchemy of talent and luck, the Lakers can simply go grab the best players. Dating back to their days in Minneapolis, they’ve had at least one Hall of Famer on their team for 71 of their 77 seasons. Other teams have loans; the Lakers have a trust fund. They don’t have to be clever or innovative; they just have to be the Lakers.
Whereas the Lakers’ inevitable jackpot is proof of how the league works, the Mavs are foolishly clinging to a fantasy about how it should be. To hear Harrison describe it, trading Doncic is a purely ideological move, a claw-back of there’s no I in team revanchism. For all his dazzling basketball, Doncic isn’t especially devoted to the mechanics or processes of being a professional basketball player. He’s an indifferent defender, who doesn’t count calories in the offseason. Spooked by the prospect of eventually having to pay Doncic the highest annual salary in the history of American sports, the Mavs didn’t want to be so reliant on a player they’ve judged to be unreliable.
As such, Davis pushes the Mavs towards a more conventional form of goodness. An elite defender and efficient, low-emission scorer, he tidily slots into a Mavs team that should still be one of the West’s top teams for the next few years. Crucially, Davis is one of the NBA’s most adaptable stars, capable of slotting anywhere along the front line. Having grown tired of having to adjust the roster to Doncic’s peculiars, Dallas finally has a star who will adjust for them.
This, in theory, makes sense. It should matter that an athlete takes care of his body and defense is important. Hoosiers isn’t about guys deleting some Michelob Ultras with their friends the night before a big game. It’s about heart. These ideals—hard work, sacrifice—are foundational aspects of the mythology of sports.
Harrison is elevating the aesthetics of winning over actually winning. After the trade, the Mavs have a better defense and a more well-balanced roster. They have a pair of superstars in their prime and a deep, versatile collection of role players who can be arranged around them. They’ve replenished their depleted coffers of draft picks and young players, having snagged Max Christie and the Lakers’ 2029 first rounder. They have the flexibility to trade for another big name without running afoul of the punitive luxury tax aprons. They’ve built their team the right way with all the intangibles that turn a high-end roster into a high-end team. And because they don’t have Luka Doncic, it doesn’t mean a damn thing.