Luka AD trade thread Part II

[Castle Black]

Papa bear ain’t happy. And I don’t blame him.

Read on Twitter

[cocktailswith_2short]

If the Lakers get vuc they could roll to the finals .

[An Unbiased Fan]

You’re right - one of these guys has had to be the anchor of the defense and offense for 99% of his pro career. One guy weighs 270 pounds and is a human traffic cone on defense.

Okay, AD is better than Luka. You win

Hyperbolic little meltdown from you per usual.

Assuming one cares about both sides of this court, then yes - AD leaves a bigger impact on the game of basketball. That’s a LOT to assume from you though. Stat sheet can’t tell you everything. You’ll have to watch the games.

LOL, no he doesn't. AD is soft and could never be the #1 option the Lakers needed. People acting like Luka wasn't in the FInals

[cocktailswith_2short]

Papa bear ain’t happy. And I don’t blame him.

Read on Twitter

Luka camp looks totally devastated. Lakers may be a draw but Luka didn't want this .

[Archx]

It's amazing the Lakers pull off these major moves and people act surprised every time. Like the Lakers haven't been doing this for decades.

It's a business folks and the Lakers have to get the best of the best. It makes the NBA a lot of money.

It's even more wild if you listened to Nico in press conference. He thanked Pelinka more than Luka. Basically Luka issued thank you letter to Dallas before organization lol. This was incredible under the table deal, it got everyone shocked and surprised. Kidd looked like a hostage sitting next to Nico.

[Dan Z]

The craziest thing to me is that the Mavs didn't shop Luka around the league and start a bidding war.

The Mavs are worth 4.7 billions. Imagine if they were another business (not sports) and they got rid of a guy who brings in 70% of the companies income, but didn't do their due diligence first...? That would get a long list of people fired.

There was no bidding war. This move was made behind the scenes. The NBA is a business and the ratings were down. How do you improve the ratings make a trade that nobody thought was possible and put him in the major market and probably the most popular franchise in the league in the Lakers.

Look at social media and the topics on this board. This move created headlines they literally just talked about this trade on World News. The NBA had to make a power move and Luka was that move.

You think there was no bidding war because the league conspired to make this happen...?

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. On paper Luka and LeBron aren't a good fit. Plus, LeBron is 40. When do the wheels fall off? To a degree they already have.

If Luka doesn't sign an extension does he eventually leave LA?

[Effigy]

Luka has big chip on his shoulders I’m sure he wants to prove mavs and world wrong

The only way he can prove the world wrong is to be terrible and lead the Lakers to the lottery, and leave the Lakers as a FA. The world doesn’t think the Mavs did an intelligent thing. Quite the opposite.

[Dan Z]

I made a thread saying I understood why Dallas made this trade, and from a pure basketball standpoint I don't think it's that bad at all, especially if he's really out of shape. AD is a legitimate top-10 player and there have been more lopsided trades for sure. What makes it really bad is the PR nightmare they've created. Trading the homegrown superstar and face of the franchise is just such a bad look, even if the concerns about his conditioning in the long run are valid. Luka is better than Tatum and Edwards, but I don't think Boston or Minny pulls the trigger on that trade, for that very same reason. Let's say something weird happens and Denver decides to trade Jokic. He's by far and away the best player in the league, but I guarantee you OKC doesn't trade Shai for him.

The Kyrie/AD duo is going to have to come out of the gate hard to mitigate some of this blowback.

I’ve spent the past few pages and threads stating I think this trade is fine from a Dallas perspective but I agree wholeheartedly with you in that fair trade or not, I wouldn’t have created this PR nightmare willingly. I’d have waited until the last possible moment, which I think is probably still a year away or this summer. I’d have done something similar to the Zion contract with weight and body fat restrictions. Let him lose some of that luster by refusing to show up in shape before demanding 350 million. Leaked some footage of him getting hung on the rim trying to dunk in practice.. SOMETHING! To appease my fanbase.

Luka would never sign a contract like that.

AD isn't a bad player, but at a minimum shouldn't Dallas have asked around the league first and started a bidding war before agreeing to anything...?

[Ballerhogger]

Read on Twitter

[JujitsuFlip]

How is Luka going to pass physicals?

They can waive them.

Both of them had a muscle strain now both being traded hmm

Yeahhhh. Allegedly they've been discussing this trade in private since January 7th.

[KyRo23]

Papa bear ain’t happy. And I don’t blame him.

Read on Twitter

Luka camp looks totally devastated. Lakers may be a draw but Luka didn't want this .

Of course they didn't. I'd be curious to know how much money he is losing because he won't be getting the super max.

Does anyone know what he would be eligible for? I guess anything can change among league norms when his contract is up, but if he lost 100 mil with this, I wouldn't be surprised

[Ballerhogger]

They can waive them.

Both of them had a muscle strain now both being traded hmm

Yeahhhh. Allegedly they've been discussing this trade in private since January 7th.

Maybe we don’t know for sure

[KyRo23]

Both of them had a muscle strain now both being traded hmm

Yeahhhh. Allegedly they've been discussing this trade in private since January 7th.

Maybe we don’t know for sure

I think it was literally said in the press conference.

Nico said it started with a coffee date and one of them said "would you ever do ____ for ____?" kind of as a joke and they have been discussing it for weeks

[JustBuzzin]

The craziest thing to me is that the Mavs didn't shop Luka around the league and start a bidding war.

The Mavs are worth 4.7 billions. Imagine if they were another business (not sports) and they got rid of a guy who brings in 70% of the companies income, but didn't do their due diligence first...? That would get a long list of people fired.

There was no bidding war. This move was made behind the scenes. The NBA is a business and the ratings were down. How do you improve the ratings make a trade that nobody thought was possible and put him in the major market and probably the most popular franchise in the league in the Lakers.

Look at social media and the topics on this board. This move created headlines they literally just talked about this trade on World News. The NBA had to make a power move and Luka was that move.

You think there was no bidding war because the league conspired to make this happen...?

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. On paper Luka and LeBron aren't a good fit. Plus, LeBron is 40. When do the wheels fall off? To a degree they already have.

If Luka doesn't sign an extension does he eventually leave LA?

That's exactly what happened.

Never trust a sports entertainment business. Literally shady stuff happens all the time. From bad calls from the refs to certain stars getting in foul trouble.

When you have this multi billion dollar business and the company is losing viewers which leads to loss of money it affects every NBA owner pockets. You had to make a power move to get the viewers back interested in the league. This was a power move.

No GM would seriously trade a superstar just entering his prime for a aging superstar at the end of his prime. This move was made from behind the scenes with all the owners voting on it.


Never trust these billionaire owners. They talk behind the scenes. Their product was losing viewers something major had to happen.

[G R E Y]

Read on Twitter

[ReddoverKobe]

I made a thread saying I understood why Dallas made this trade, and from a pure basketball standpoint I don't think it's that bad at all, especially if he's really out of shape. AD is a legitimate top-10 player and there have been more lopsided trades for sure. What makes it really bad is the PR nightmare they've created. Trading the homegrown superstar and face of the franchise is just such a bad look, even if the concerns about his conditioning in the long run are valid. Luka is better than Tatum and Edwards, but I don't think Boston or Minny pulls the trigger on that trade, for that very same reason. Let's say something weird happens and Denver decides to trade Jokic. He's by far and away the best player in the league, but I guarantee you OKC doesn't trade Shai for him.

The Kyrie/AD duo is going to have to come out of the gate hard to mitigate some of this blowback.

I’ve spent the past few pages and threads stating I think this trade is fine from a Dallas perspective but I agree wholeheartedly with you in that fair trade or not, I wouldn’t have created this PR nightmare willingly. I’d have waited until the last possible moment, which I think is probably still a year away or this summer. I’d have done something similar to the Zion contract with weight and body fat restrictions. Let him lose some of that luster by refusing to show up in shape before demanding 350 million. Leaked some footage of him getting hung on the rim trying to dunk in practice.. SOMETHING! To appease my fanbase.

Luka would never sign a contract like that.

AD isn't a bad player, but at a minimum shouldn't Dallas have asked around the league first and started a bidding war before agreeing to anything...?

I listened to Simmons today. And the best pont they made is what you said. How did they not leak this and tell everyone you now have 48 hours to give us your godfather offer for Luka, or else hes going to the lakers. There is no **** way this deal is the best one they could have got.

[Ballerhogger]

Yeahhhh. Allegedly they've been discussing this trade in private since January 7th.

Maybe we don’t know for sure

I think it was literally said in the press conference.

Nico said it started with a coffee date and one of them said "would you ever do ____ for ____?" kind of as a joke and they have been discussing it for weeks

as joke .. but not in confidence ?

[Jazz9]

Papa bear ain’t happy. And I don’t blame him.

Read on Twitter

Luka camp looks totally devastated. Lakers may be a draw but Luka didn't want this .

Of course they didn't. I'd be curious to know how much money he is losing because he won't be getting the super max.

Does anyone know what he would be eligible for? I guess anything can change among league norms when his contract is up, but if he lost 100 mil with this, I wouldn't be surprised

5y/345 from the Mavs
4y/229 (I think) from any other, including Lakers

Found the tweet

Read on Twitter

[zero rings]

There’s no need for all these grand conspiracy theories. The Mavs think AD is better than Luka and they won the trade. It’s really that simple.

This obviously goes against conventional thinking, but the Mavs think they know something we don’t. They’re essentially shorting Luka and betting on him never winning anything. They’re saying he’s OVERRATED.

This is like if Jeff Bezos sold all of his Amazon stock, all at once. If you’re an Amazon stockholder, aren’t you at least a little worried about your own shares?

We need to reevaluate Luka’s actual value.

[KyRo23]

Maybe we don’t know for sure

I think it was literally said in the press conference.

Nico said it started with a coffee date and one of them said "would you ever do ____ for ____?" kind of as a joke and they have been discussing it for weeks

as joke .. but not in confidence ?

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking, but it seemed like something you just throw out there out of curiosity and you can kind of take it back and say it's a joke. But if each person is interested, obviously it's more than a joke.

It's like saying "well how about this.... but I'm serious if you are" kind of thing.