The Luka trade makes sense now. The sale was the final piece.

[Catchall]

The Lakers would be sold successfully regardless, but having Luka and some momentum might help in securing a historic $10Bn valuation.

[GiannisAnte34]

You're saying random things, but what does that have to do with helping your claim? I'm not saying 14 isn't a big amount to lose by, I said it's not a super large deficit as if they lost by 20 or 30 and played like they didn't care.

The Mavs lost because Memphis destroyed them in the first quarter, both teams played even the rest of the game. They had it down to 7 half way through the 3rd, but just couldn't overcome a better team.

You're arguing that they weren't trying to win when everything that actually happened argues for the exact opposite.

You’re arguing that it was close when it wasn’t. You’re arguing that it’s somehow unbelievable that the Mavs could finesse a loss in that single elimination game if they were let’s say having a hot shooting night. You’re just completely wrong.

Please show me where I said it was "close". Is 14 a super large deficit in a game?

You're arguing some theoretical thing about finessing a loss, but the game actually happened and none of what you said was present, so what exactly are you trying to argue then?

And Dallas winning their game against Memphis is also theoretical so what are we doing here

[MrTribbiani]

Nico is just a dumbass GM. It baffles me the extent to which some folks are willing to make excuses for dumbass front offices.

Even Nico is not idiot enough to trade a top3 talent in the world for a broken down AD, especially without taking offers from every team. You know it, he knows it, everyone knows it. He was forced to make this exact trade.

Where's the proof that he was "forced?"

[madmaxmedia]

I'm willing to entertain the overall conspiracy theory, but not hand wave crucial details away to support it. Like, at least let's have a good faith discussion about it.

Kyrie Irving tore his ACL after the trade, and they still made the 10th spot play-in, and they even won their first play-in game.

All that is not to say the trade couldn't have been engineered, but there's no way they could have guaranteed the Mavs the number 1 pick for going along with it. At most they could have promised it if they were in lottery...would that have been enough for the Mavs to do it willingly?

how farfetched is it that Day To Davis is on the injury report at a convenient time? how farfetched is it to take a dive in an elimination play-in game? it's really not that difficult to secure lottery positioning if you're going into it planning to get the #1 pick

It would have been convenient to hold him out for the rest of the season, but they brought him back in game 72 and they went 5-3 in the games he played. It would have been convenient and no one would have batted an eye to say he's on injury management right before the play-in and easily guarantee you don't win. Instead he played both play-in games, they won the first one, and he had 40 points in the second one, playing 35 and 37 minutes. So I'm trying to get myself in the lottery because I know this secret plan, but then I do everything to prevent it from happening.

The conspiracy proponents generally don’t discuss in good faith, and hand wave everything away.

Like I’m genuinely willing to talk about it, I’m not bringing stuff up to deny some sort of arrangement. But cherry picking certain things and hand waving the rest away is not helping that cause at all.

[knicksfan974]

Nico is just a dumbass GM. It baffles me the extent to which some folks are willing to make excuses for dumbass front offices.

Even Nico is not idiot enough to trade a top3 talent in the world for a broken down AD, especially without taking offers from every team. You know it, he knows it, everyone knows it. He was forced to make this exact trade.

Where's the proof that he was "forced?"

Do you think he made the trade really thinking it would benefit the Mavericks?

[queridiculo]

Conspiracy nuts, the bane of our times.