Luka AD trade thread Part II

[Castle Black]

"Highway robbery."

Read on Twitter

[ITYSL]

Windhorst brought up the interesting possibility that Luka might not sign an extension with the Lakers. Since Luka wasn't told about the trade ahead of time, the Lakers received no guarantee that he will sign his extension. I'd be shocked if he doesn't, but who knows. He has a player option in 2 years, so it's possible he only spends a year and a half in LA.

[ConSarnit]

Because they just went from having a 5-10 year window with luka to at best 1-2?

Are they really gonna extend AD who'll be on the wrong side of 30 being injury prone?

They most def shortened their window by a whole lot.

Wouldn't be surprised if the Mavs are in the gutter in about 2 years.

I think clearly the concern with Luka’s fitness level and his ability to stay healthy came into play. Is it really a 5-10 year window?…I’d say 5 max unless Luka 100% changes his ways…which is possible sure, but signs don’t look good.
There are plenty of positives for the Mavs in the way of flexibility. Avoid a possible franchise breaking supermax as well.

dude im happy as hell we got lucky but there isn't a universe where this trade makes sense. Even if the window isn't 5-10 you still stay with the once in a generation player over a 32 year old big who's great make no mistake. But who's only going to get worse from here on. He's even shown signs of declining this season.

This whole thing feels like there's way more to it than just oooooh we didn't like how Luka maintained his fitness. Dude just brought you to the finals.

i do believe Mavs are gonna be really good still for at least one more season.

But this move killed their franchise.

But the argument the conspiracy theorists are making is "the Mavs made this move to kill interest in the franchise so they can try and move it"

You're telling me the Adelson's plan is to make the team worse in 3-4 years? Explain how that makes sense? If they want to move the franchise to Vegas their master plan is supposedly "be a good team for 2-3 more years, then be terrible for 2-3 years, then move the team to Vegas under the pretext of Dallas not being a good market"

Just one question: if at some point in their 4-6 year plan, WHAT HAPPENS IF THE LEAGUE AWARDS AN EXPANSION FRANCHISE TO VEGAS?

If the Mavs owners want to kill the team to move it to Vegas why are they creating a window where the league might award a Vegas franchise to someone else in the meantime? It makes no sense.

If the Mavs want to create disinterest in the team under the pretext of Dallas not being a good market why aren't they tearing the team down to the studs right now?

[th87]

lol, can't believe there's people still argue the reason Nico giving
please keep it, it's rare for being such pure in these era.

Maybe the Mavs just make the worst action for NBA franchise,
but this maybe the best business action they make for the owner if they finally can have their other business in Texas

For NBA, why against it when it can bring their golden team LA Lakers another golden boy and help the falling viewership for the next decade.

To think the owners wouldnt consider the implications and make the final decision is silly.

The new owners wanted and supported the Luka trade to get under the luxury tax. Its all about the money!

Blame Cuban for selling.
Blame the owner for not paying $70m/per

These are the true reason for the trade and no other teams having a player like AD.

No, the return sucks.

If I needed to sell a Lamborghini, I'm not doing so for $10000.

[LakersSoul]

lol, can't believe there's people still argue the reason Nico giving
please keep it, it's rare for being such pure in these era.

Maybe the Mavs just make the worst action for NBA franchise,
but this maybe the best business action they make for the owner if they finally can have their other business in Texas

For NBA, why against it when it can bring their golden team LA Lakers another golden boy and help the falling viewership for the next decade.

To think the owners wouldnt consider the implications and make the final decision is silly.

The new owners wanted and supported the Luka trade to get under the luxury tax. Its all about the money!

Blame Cuban for selling.
Blame the owner for not paying $70m/per

These are the true reason for the trade and no other teams having a player like AD.

No, the return sucks.

If I needed to sell a Lamborghini, I'm not doing so for $10000.

What would you do?

[th87]

To think the owners wouldnt consider the implications and make the final decision is silly.

The new owners wanted and supported the Luka trade to get under the luxury tax. Its all about the money!

Blame Cuban for selling.
Blame the owner for not paying $70m/per

These are the true reason for the trade and no other teams having a player like AD.

No, the return sucks.

If I needed to sell a Lamborghini, I'm not doing so for $10000.

What would you do?

Hold out for market value.

[LakersSoul]

No, the return sucks.

If I needed to sell a Lamborghini, I'm not doing so for $10000.

What would you do?

Hold out for market value.

No plan

[ConSarnit]

Yep, lol.

This supposedly out of shape, overweight, alcoholic, lazy bum managed to post numbers in his first 6 seasons on par with Lebron and Jordan while being a straight up killer in the playoffs, leading the Mavericks to a conference finals and finals with a weak supporting cast. Oh and he's been relatively healthy his whole career.

Imagine what he could do if he got in shape.

I would guess that Nico would argue that he is never going to get in shape (I'm sure the Mavs have tried everything over the past 7 years) and that if Luka actually has real food/alcohol problems those things don't exactly make you healthier as you approach your 30's.

We've all known people who drink too much in their early 20's and it's usually been fine. It doesn't begin to look so fine when they're 30. Now, of course Nico should have given it a couple of more years, milked Luka's talent before it really falls apart (if it does), and then traded him. Luka can obviously still carry a team on his shoulders at a level maybe only 3-4 guys can (Davis is not one of them).

If Luka really does have a problem I don't blame the Mavs for wanting to get ahead of it. They have more info than we do and if they think chronic injury + not taking care of yourself is a recipe for disaster sooner than later it makes sense to move him.

I can somewhat get on board with moving Luka if you don't trust him. The real crime is not soliciting other offers. That's just gross incompetence.

Lowry had weight issues which he solved when he was 29 years old.

And yes exactly - let's concede Luka has a real issue...why would Nico not consult other teams and get the best trade package possible? Most teams would jump on the chance to get a generational MVP level talent at just 25 years old. Why is Sam Presti hoarding a ton of draft picks...so he could use them when a guy of this caliber becomes available.

I think the contention would be that Luka's issues are not just food related but also alcohol related (no idea if this is true or not). Alcohol issues are more likely to rear their head down the road than weight issues (obviously the 2 would be intertwined), at least in terms of seriousness.

I can understand targeting AD as your key goal but Nico should have 100% used other teams as leverage to up the Lakers offer. If Nico wanted the Mavs to continue to be competitive he probably couldn't have done better than AD. Nico was somewhat hamstrung by the fact he had to trade Luka somewhere where he's actually re-sign. If you're OKC you'd have to adjust your offer based on the likelihood that Luka doesn't stick around after 2026.

Where he really failed was not using other teams to leverage the Lakers into giving up some combo of the '31 pick/Reaves/Knecht.

[ConSarnit]

What would you do?

Hold out for market value.

No plan

The plan should have been pretty simple:

1) get the Lakers offer

2) solicit offers from other teams. there would be many

3) go back to the Lakers and tell them they need to add more

[th87]

What would you do?

Hold out for market value.

No plan

What point do you think you're making

[srhcan]

Read on Twitter

[ConSarnit]

Windhorst brought up the interesting possibility that Luka might not sign an extension with the Lakers. Since Luka wasn't told about the trade ahead of time, the Lakers received no guarantee that he will sign his extension. I'd be shocked if he doesn't, but who knows. He has a player option in 2 years, so it's possible he only spends a year and a half in LA.

It will be interesting to see how the Lakers can build a team around Luka in time for him to want to re-sign. They aren't exactly asset rich. If they are going to do it will have to be in free agency. The Lakers are going to have to sign a bunch of guys in the '26 off-season to make this work. Their current under contract roster for '26/27 is Vando, Knecht and Shake Milton. Not exactly a championship core.

[srhcan]

Easily the worst owners; snakes who eat their own for money

[TheGeneral99]

Windhorst brought up the interesting possibility that Luka might not sign an extension with the Lakers. Since Luka wasn't told about the trade ahead of time, the Lakers received no guarantee that he will sign his extension. I'd be shocked if he doesn't, but who knows. He has a player option in 2 years, so it's possible he only spends a year and a half in LA.

It will be interesting to see how the Lakers can build a team around Luka in time for him to want to re-sign. They aren't exactly asset rich. If they are going to do it will have to be in free agency. The Lakers are going to have to sign a bunch of guys in the '26 off-season to make this work. Their current under contract roster for '26/27 is Vando, Knecht and Shake Milton. Not exactly a championship core.

The most optimal move would be to trade Lebron and try to get maximum value, although I'm not sure what teams would give for a 40 year old that maybe has 2 years left at most.

Lebron and Luka don't even make much sense together...both have very similar games, both are ball dominant players, and Lebron at this stage of his career isn't a good defender.

[Castle Black]

Windhorst brought up the interesting possibility that Luka might not sign an extension with the Lakers. Since Luka wasn't told about the trade ahead of time, the Lakers received no guarantee that he will sign his extension. I'd be shocked if he doesn't, but who knows. He has a player option in 2 years, so it's possible he only spends a year and a half in LA.

Zero chance he doesn't re-sign in LA imo. He can make more money there than anywhere else in the league and they're going to treat him like royalty to ensure he stays. Plus, it's LA so it's always going to be an attractive Free Agent destination. Guys will want to go there to play with Luka. He ain't going anywhere.

[LakersSoul]

Hold out for market value.

No plan

The plan should have been pretty simple:

1) get the Lakers offer

2) solicit offers from other teams. there would be many

3) go back to the Lakers and tell them they need to add more

Maybe but imagine the rift it would create between the Mavs org and Luka plus fans.

Not sure if the owners wanted to deal with it.

It was all about money and what the owners wanted.
Nico was just executing on their behalf.

[Castle Black]

Read on Twitter

[tribulations]

I have never criticised Luka's conditioning because on court output is the only metric that matters and that has never been in doubt.

I must admit though if you look at tape from about 4-5 years ago he looks whippet quick by comparison.

That extra weight let's him ragdol matchups. No one can guard him.

That's it right, being a bit thicker has it's own set of advantages. Folks from the Balkans are just built different.

[th87]

No plan

The plan should have been pretty simple:

1) get the Lakers offer

2) solicit offers from other teams. there would be many

3) go back to the Lakers and tell them they need to add more

Maybe but imagine the rift it would create between the Mavs org and Luka plus fans.

Not sure if the owners wanted to deal with it.

It was all about money and what the owners wanted.
Nico was just executing on their behalf.

Yeah they totally got out of it without causing a rift

[phanman]

Windhorst brought up the interesting possibility that Luka might not sign an extension with the Lakers. Since Luka wasn't told about the trade ahead of time, the Lakers received no guarantee that he will sign his extension. I'd be shocked if he doesn't, but who knows. He has a player option in 2 years, so it's possible he only spends a year and a half in LA.

He's already lost enough money losing out on the Supermax with the trade, I doubt he'd leave LA that soon. This is year 7 for him, so I would suspect he would stay long enough to have his next max contract come with the 10 year vet bump. Plus he gets to play with his favourite player in Bron and learn directly from a guy he molded his game after.

I would be surprised if this upcoming offseason doesn't have some vets willing to sacrifice to play with him in LA. I think this trade also extends LeBron's career a few years because who wouldn't want to play with a phenom like Luka? He's one of the few superstars that Bron has gushed and went out of his way to compliment in recent years.