Luka AD trade thread Part II

[th87]

I'm thinking of a trade equivalent to the Doncic-AD.

It's like the Denver GM propose to the Philadelphia GM a Jokic for Paul George + 1 pick.

"That fat big man Jokic doesn't play defense... to win we need someone like PG13... the fans and Malone will understand".

Denver would get burned.

You would need to add "Nuggets GM also fired Jokic's personal trainer before season started, a guy who got him in best shape in years"

Then you would fully understand how absurd this entire thing was. And on the way out you also had the balls to call him fat. Then people would finally fully understand the level of disrespect. Because that actually happened here.

The dragging makes this so much worse, especially from a nobody like Nico.

Every former season ticket holder should protest in front of the arena for every game they would've gone to.

They can’t get away with this.

[Castle Black]

This tweet is from a Mavs reporter lol. Crazy.

Read on Twitter

[th87]

I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, sometimes owners/GM's make bad trades for stupid reasons, but I can't wrap my head around this one. It benefits the league far too much. The talk for the past few months about the NBA has been declining ratings. "No one is talking about the NBA right now" or there's no buzz around the regular season. Then boom, this happens. Suddenly a player who in any logical sense would either be a complete untouchable or would be traded for a king's ransom just happens to be moved for a 32 year old injury plagued star and to the 2nd biggest market in the US months after Adam Silver came out and blamed the World Series for the early season viewership decline (a World Series that included.....Los Angeles and New York). Nico makes this trade without even shopping Luka to other teams to get the best package, and apparently he's friends with Pelinka, so it's a complete conflict of interest on top of being a bad basketball trade. The entire sports world is now talking about the NBA just days before the SuperBowl.

Like I said, maybe it's just a bad trade by a bad exec, and unfortunately for Mavs fans they are the ones who suffer for it, but all of this is just all too convenient.

Not singling you out, but I'm not sure why so many people say the caveat in your first sentence. If a conspiracy is sufficiently beneficial, possible to execute, there are no consequences, and the official story makes no sense, then it probably happened. Like why wouldn't it?

Organized crime has operated in this way since crime has existed.

I think people tend to lump all conspiracies together, which then means no conspiracies could ever happen.

And notice how the Lakers (and other marquee teams) always benefit from these suspicious dealings.

[th87]

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.

Explain the money angle.

The Mavs could have dodged the tax this year and next by trading Kleber.

They could have stayed under the tax in 2027 by paying Luka the max and cutting costs around the margins, likely losing one of PJ, Gafford or Grimes.

There were clear paths for the Mavs to stay under the tax for the next 2.5 years. It would have cost them some depth but their core would have remained in place (Luka, Kyrie, Klay, Lively).

No one can provide an adequate reason why this trade was done to "save money"

https://youtu.be/MkGgi3P8lG0?feature=shared

Jalen Rose agrees with me.
Owners "didnt want to pay him"

Case in point. Jalen Rose is employed by the NBA/ESPN.

This is like getting Baghdad Bob's opinion back in the day.

[Exp0sed]

I'm thinking of a trade equivalent to the Doncic-AD.

It's like the Denver GM propose to the Philadelphia GM a Jokic for Paul George + 1 pick.

"That fat big man Jokic doesn't play defense... to win we need someone like PG13... the fans and Malone will understand".

Denver would get burned.

You would need to add "Nuggets GM also fired Jokic's personal trainer before season started, a guy who got him in best shape in years"

Then you would fully understand how absurd this entire thing was. And on the way out you also had the balls to call him fat. Then people would finally fully understand the level of disrespect. Because that actually happened here.

The dragging makes this so much worse, especially from a nobody like Nico.

Every former season ticket holder should protest in front of the arena for every game they would've gone to.

They can’t get away with this.

sad but..they already did

[th87]

You would need to add "Nuggets GM also fired Jokic's personal trainer before season started, a guy who got him in best shape in years"

Then you would fully understand how absurd this entire thing was. And on the way out you also had the balls to call him fat. Then people would finally fully understand the level of disrespect. Because that actually happened here.

The dragging makes this so much worse, especially from a nobody like Nico.

Every former season ticket holder should protest in front of the arena for every game they would've gone to.

They can’t get away with this.

sad but..they already did

Nah repercussions are still possible. Daily protests and the entire world takes notice.

Makes Silver's corrupt league look corrupt, and then as a home run outcome, maybe he has to step down.

[HardenGoat]

Even if they paid him they would then get more back in a trade. The deal was cut now in order to save a team money and depth. That team being the Lakers.

[bledredwine]

Luka is one of 2-3 players in this league who gives your team a chance every single year in the playoffs. You only find players like this once a decade.

It's that 3-4 year window to watch for. Manchurian Candidate GM doesn't care about 10 years from now. He knows he won't be around. He said himself it's this window he's targeting. We'll see what happens with the team then. Shady AF.

Well holy ****. Would you look at that...

Read on Twitter

Holy ****

That's wild.

[Shock Defeat]

Nico Harrison already has a job lined up in the Lakers organization whenever he wants it.

[Dirk2Doncic]

It's that 3-4 year window to watch for. Manchurian Candidate GM doesn't care about 10 years from now. He knows he won't be around. He said himself it's this window he's targeting. We'll see what happens with the team then. Shady AF.

Well holy ****. Would you look at that...

Read on Twitter

Holy ****

That's wild.

People need to stop defending this corporate NIke VP of Operations in over his head egomaniac tone deaf scumbag.

Mark Cuban is the one who ran off his legit basketball GM Donnie Nelson (Donnie brought Luka here, and Dirk) and hired a Nike executive for the SOLE REASON that Nico Harrison had relationships with NBA players. It wasn't for basketball expertise. It was for connections with players around the league. Including Anthony Davis who NIco has known since Davis was in high school. I said at the time Mark Cuban was an idiot for doing this and now we see why.

This was a trade masterminded and made by a tone deaf corporate hack in over his head. Noone else. Except the newby ownership who didn't know what they were doing and signed off on it.

[TeamTragic]

Nico Harrison already has a job lined up in the Lakers organization whenever he wants it.

Well either that or back to Nike to bore NBA players with PP presentations that make them choose a competitor.

[AdagioPace]

Nico Harrison already has a job lined up in the Lakers organization whenever he wants it.

they should place a statue of Nico Harrison in front of the Crypto Arena

[Shock Defeat]

Well holy ****. Would you look at that...

Read on Twitter

Holy ****

That's wild.

People need to stop defending this corporate NIke VP of Operations in over his head egomaniac tone deaf scumbag.

Mark Cuban is the one who ran off his legit basketball GM Donnie Nelson (Donnie brought Luka here, and Dirk) and hired a Nike executive for the SOLE REASON that Nico Harrison had relationships with NBA players. It wasn't for basketball expertise. It was for connections with players around the league. Including Anthony Davis who NIco has known since Davis was in high school. I said at the time Mark Cuban was an idiot for doing this and now we see why.

This was a trade masterminded and made by a tone deaf corporate hack in over his head. Noone else. Except the newby ownership who didn't know what they were doing and signed off on it.

Except Rob Pelinka was also a guy who seemed to be hired solely because he had connections with NBA players.

[Exp0sed]

The dragging makes this so much worse, especially from a nobody like Nico.

Every former season ticket holder should protest in front of the arena for every game they would've gone to.

They can’t get away with this.

sad but..they already did

Nah repercussions are still possible. Daily protests and the entire world takes notice.

Makes Silver's corrupt league look corrupt, and then as a home run outcome, maybe he has to step down.

some protestors with signs outside the stadium aren't gonna change anything. media will report about it for a couple of days and move on and without media coverage, the protests die out too

idk why you're pinning this on Silver, what's he supposed to do?
you do realize that the NBA commish isn't some highly powerful position, he's basically the puppet and mouthpiece of the owners and their owners association which we call: the NBA

i don't hear any owners complaining about the trade and that's because the NBA is basically a cartel. owners don't want a precedent wherein the league "steps in", because they don't want that to happen to them, in the future. they want the max amount of control and influence as they can garner, on the league and on the game.

believe me, if owners would have been outraged and demanded action - Silver would have taken action

he's just the dude that does the owners bidding basically

[G R E Y]

Well holy ****. Would you look at that...

Read on Twitter

Holy ****

That's wild.

People need to stop defending this corporate NIke VP of Operations in over his head egomaniac tone deaf scumbag.

Mark Cuban is the one who ran off his legit basketball GM Donnie Nelson (Donnie brought Luka here, and Dirk) and hired a Nike executive for the SOLE REASON that Nico Harrison had relationships with NBA players. It wasn't for basketball expertise. It was for connections with players around the league. Including Anthony Davis who NIco has known since Davis was in high school. I said at the time Mark Cuban was an idiot for doing this and now we see why.

This was a trade masterminded and made by a tone deaf corporate hack in over his head. Noone else. Except the newby ownership who didn't know what they were doing and signed off on it.

I'm puzzled by Cuban's silence unless it's contractually binding. He's not known for holding back opinions.

I thought at the time this was a puzzling move. I've read how NH had pushed out those close to Luka ie/firing his trainer, etc. Was that under Cuban's watch? If so, why did Cuban allow it as he was so hands on.

Then when Cuban sold the team right after the finals I wondered whether this was the league parachuting him out after all the allegations that came to light.

Mavs might have replaced a snake with a viper in ownership. Cuban making NH GM was weird then, worse now. How it's all connected, like to what end, I guess we'll see in that 3-4year window.

[sp6r=underrated]

I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, sometimes owners/GM's make bad trades for stupid reasons, but I can't wrap my head around this one. It benefits the league far too much. The talk for the past few months about the NBA has been declining ratings. "No one is talking about the NBA right now" or there's no buzz around the regular season. Then boom, this happens. Suddenly a player who in any logical sense would either be a complete untouchable or would be traded for a king's ransom just happens to be moved for a 32 year old injury plagued star and to the 2nd biggest market in the US months after Adam Silver came out and blamed the World Series for the early season viewership decline (a World Series that included.....Los Angeles and New York). Nico makes this trade without even shopping Luka to other teams to get the best package, and apparently he's friends with Pelinka, so it's a complete conflict of interest on top of being a bad basketball trade. The entire sports world is now talking about the NBA just days before the SuperBowl.

Like I said, maybe it's just a bad trade by a bad exec, and unfortunately for Mavs fans they are the ones who suffer for it, but all of this is just all too convenient.

Not singling you out, but I'm not sure why so many people say the caveat in your first sentence. If a conspiracy is sufficiently beneficial, possible to execute, there are no consequences, and the official story makes no sense, then it probably happened. Like why wouldn't it?

Organized crime has operated in this way since crime has existed.

I think people tend to lump all conspiracies together, which then means no conspiracies could ever happen.

And notice how the Lakers (and other marquee teams) always benefit from these suspicious dealings.

From 2002 to 2020, 19 seasons, the New York Knicks had a 39.0% winning percentage. The 2nd worse team, Charlotte, was 40.6%. Their MOV was -3.14 while the 2nd worse, Charlotte was -2.89. Both teams tied for 7 wins in the playoffs.

If there was a shadowy conspiracy behind the NBA, why didn't they try to make the Knicks contenders or at the very least competent?

The San Antonio Spurs play in one of the NBA's smallest markets. They landed 3 # 1 picks, all years in which a top miss HOF prospect existed. If there really is a shadowy conspiracy behind the NBA, why do they keep handing elite players to a team with no national fan appeal?

[Mr.Raptorsingh]

Anthonio Davis seems happy

[Quattro]

I can forgive the guy deciding to trade Doncic if he had concerns about him being the guy long term (not that I agree with that position) but the way in which he went about trading him is unforgivable. How many guys in this league would have gotten a bigger return than Doncic if you made it known that he was on the market? It's absolute insanity that he settled for what he got and nobody else had the chance to step up with a better offer. One of the dumbest things I've seen in my lifetime of watching sports.

[bledredwine]

Mavs fans, I feel so bad about this. We went through similar heartbreak with the Rose injury. Feels so bad.

[Duke4life831]

Okay so both press conferences just make this whole thing that much more confusing.

Watching Kidd just sit there essentially in shock and disbelief yesterday.

To today seeing Pelinka essentially giddy and talking about how it’s such a gift to have a 25 year old who is already a top 3 player in the world and how these things just don’t come around too often. To thanking Nico for this entire thing.

And on Luka shutting down any idea of him not wanting you be a Mavs.

I just don’t understand this. How does a GM decide to do this with a player like Luka who wants to stay with the franchise? Then on top of that, not start a bidding war for Luka. I almost feel like Nico believes AD was THE major piece in this entire thing and he probably feels like he won this because he didn’t give up extra draft capital to get this done.

And on top of all that idiocy. How does the owners sign off on this? It’s one thing to have a GM come up with one of the dumbest ideas in NBA history. But to actually go along with it, instead of firing your GM for even talking about doing this makes no sense.

How do both things happen? I still can’t wrap my head around this.