Luka AD trade thread Part II

[Deivork]

haven't been this stunned by a trade since DeMarcus Cousins joined AD in New Orleans. For a moment it seemed it could really work.

[G R E Y]

I'm on page 66 in the first thread, haven't gotten to this one yet, so not sure if this has been covered.

So Cuban, ultra Luka fan, involved sitting courtside fanboying owner, sells the majority stake just after Luka leads the team to his first finals appearance? And to Vegas casino owners.

Before that, this was an interwoven issue:

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On anniversary of the Gasol trade, another lopsided one

AD, repped by Klutch, had no idea this was coming but waived his no trade clause for it.

LBJ, top Klutch food chain, also apparently had zero idea of it

LBJ wants to own / have stake in ownership of a Vegas NBA team.

I don't know how but there are some underlying unstated reasons, be it long term LBJ/Klutch in NBA ownership, be it pressure on Cuban, be it pressure from new Mavs ownership.

Nothing. NO reason given makes sense as to why not that Luka was traded but the covert manner in which it was done and the low return.

Not Luka fatness, not his poor D, not his maybe asking for a trade (he didn't), not his perhaps not re-signing with Mavs and potentially leaving in 2026, not the 'D wins championships' atatement when now pairing two 1B players together in AD and KI.

Nothing explains the absolute settling for such a low return, and with so many NBA executives not having a chance at a trade proposal - probably because so very many could have beaten the package accepted.

There has to be some price balancing of this somewhere, even long term.

And I happen to think, I don't know how, it ends up with LBJ getting a helping hand in eventual NBA ownership stake.

That's my conspiracy theory take.

AD didn’t have a ntc, he waived his kicker though.

There’s def more to it though you’re on to something

Yeah I meant trade kicker and somehow wrote ntc instead. Thanks I'll fix it.

[zshawn10]

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[JustBuzzin]

Nico and Rob Pelinka go way back.

Something fishy going on here.

[Upperclass]

Nico didn't sign off on the trade himself.. that's clear

[TeamTragic]

Rob took Nico on a coffee date and when their eyes meet Nico knew he was the one

[Duke4life831]

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This is wild. Who tf does Nico Harrison think he is? Can’t believe ownership gave him that much influence.


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Okay so how does this happen? A first time GM has the power to trade away the franchise player and lock to be future HOF who hasn’t even hit his prime yet. And he does this without the coach knowing as well.

That just seems like a flat out stupid way to run a NBA team.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

I mean I guess Nico can't lie and say he fielded other offers, because other teams would debunk that quickly.

But at the very least, don't tell people you were consulting the Lakers for 4 weeks.... say you just randomly pulled the trigger because it felt like an offer you couldn't refuse.

This is like going to a car dealership, and telling the salesman you know exactly what vehicle you want, and then only talking to the same salesman for a month without even letting him know you're looking at anything else. People are going to assume you are the dumbest **** alive, or that there was some sort of history there already.

[G R E Y]

Yo anyone check on Markus Cuban, he probably locked away in closet somewhere tied up with duck tape on his mouth

Yeah weirdly not a word from him about it on X where he is active.

[Doranku]

Not ruling out the conspiracy theory stuff, but I'm really starting to think Nico Harrison is just an egotistical moron in a position of too much power. He started buying into all the garbage Luka haters were spewing. His defense is irredeemable, always out of shape, doesn't take conditioning seriously.

Then Luka got hurt and the Mavs started out like 5-1 without him. Clowns were saying the team looked better without Luka, crediting defense and a more balanced attack on offense. Probably when Nico got this grandiose vision of AD on the team and made the initial call. The rest is history.

[JM00n69]

I'm still just completely shook over this trade. This can't be real life. Absolutely surreal.

NBA corruption just completely out in the open now.

It’s always been like this. In fact Stern was waaaay more open about it than Silver is. This is one of the reasons Lakers Championships should have asterisks. Or better yet, rolleyes.

I've always felt the Lakers stuff is overblown (the league did veto the Paul trade, and a lot of players do just flat out want to play in LA). But this one, this is just silly. It has the feel of, "the fans are tuning out anyways, let's just get it done and figure out how we'll explain it later".

CP3 trade was vetoed only because during that time the Hornets team was controlled by the NBA, aka Stern. Due to ownership issues the league had to step in and take control of managing the team to facilitate a smooth handover. Stern vetoed the trade because he was in charge of the Hornets at that time and a trade that big would've been a conflict of interests.

[Mavrelous]

Here are Luka's father comments

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Absolutely stunning, it came to them out of the blue...

[Tim_Hardawayy]

It’s always been like this. In fact Stern was waaaay more open about it than Silver is. This is one of the reasons Lakers Championships should have asterisks. Or better yet, rolleyes.

I've always felt the Lakers stuff is overblown (the league did veto the Paul trade, and a lot of players do just flat out want to play in LA). But this one, this is just silly. It has the feel of, "the fans are tuning out anyways, let's just get it done and figure out how we'll explain it later".

CP3 trade was vetoed only because during that time the Hornets team was controlled by the NBA, aka Stern. Due to ownership issues the league had to step in and take control of managing the team to facilitate a smooth handover. Stern vetoed the trade because he was in charge of the Hornets at that time and a trade that big would've been a conflict of interests.

I know the reasoning behind it, I'm just saying technically they didn't have to veto it, it just would have been more blatant favoritism. I don't see how this is that much better though, you have the Mavericks GM openly admitting not only that he didn't field other offers, but that he spent 4 weeks discussing this without fielding other offers? That's arguably just as blatant malpractice, even if it can't be proven the NBA itself had anything to do with it openly.

[BobbyPortisEyes]

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This is wild. Who tf does Nico Harrison think he is? Can’t believe ownership gave him that much influence.


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Absolute insanity. I really, really hate to be this guy.. but is there something going on with Nico and Pelinka? Nico talks about Rob like it might be something more than just a professional relationship.

[zshawn10]

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[Bulliever2020]

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The series meaning the FINALS that Luka literally dragged that crap team to?!?

Gimme a break man.

[10DayContract]

Nico must have a job lined up with the Lakers once he gets fired after seeing that press conference.

That dude has been promised something….

It’s a wild trade, for sure. But why are we blaming the GM? He doesn’t own the team. He’s simply doing what he’s told to do. This is what the owner’s wanted. It couldn’t have happened if they didn’t agree to it.

[TeamTragic]

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Yikes. The truth hurts.

[Duke4life831]

So Luka didn’t make it known that he wanted to be traded, or that he wanted to move on once his current deal is done.

Coach didn’t go to the front office saying he couldn’t coach the franchise player anymore.

A first time GM has a coffee date with another GM. During said coffee the idea of trading your franchise player and top 5 player in the league who is only 25.

You don’t open this up to the rest of the league to start a bidding war, or at minimum get a good sense of a baseline return you can get for him.

And you end up going through with it? All without telling your star player or your coach. Again this is a GM who has had this job for less than 5 years and never been a GM before.

2 questions.

1. How can someone get this job when he’s capable of this kind of mindset. Trading freaking Luka away without creating a bidding war and without him ever saying he wants out.

2. How can the owners of this team green light this? I’m sorry if I was the owner of Dallas and my GM comes up to me and says all of this is going on. I’m firing him on the spot. The fact the ownership was giving thumbs up for this entire time. Good luck going forward with that ownership group.

[BobbyPortisEyes]

Nico must have a job lined up with the Lakers once he gets fired after seeing that press conference.

That dude has been promised something….

It’s a wild trade, for sure. But why are we blaming the GM? He doesn’t own the team. He’s simply doing what he’s told to do. This is what the owner’s wanted. It couldn’t have happened if they didn’t agree to it.

The difference is that he was told to do it by Pelinka, not the owner. The owner just signed off on it, that's all.